ciaula

Sicilian

Alternative forms

  • ciàvula (dieretic)
  • ciàula (redundant diacritic)

Etymology

Unknown. Compare Neapolitan ciàula, Tarantino ciola, Friulian çore, Romanian cioară, Albanian sorrë.

Pasqualino suggests cià, onomatopoeia imitating the bird's sound, +‎ -ula (diminutive suffix), and compares it to the similarly formed Latin grāculus (jackdaw).[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈʃaw.la/, [ˈʃaw.la], [ˈʃa.ʊ.la], [ˈʃa.vʊ.la]
  • Hyphenation: ciàu‧la

Noun

ciaula f (plural ciauli)

  1. Various black cawing birds:
    1. crow (Corvus corone)
    2. magpie (Pica pica)
      Synonym: carcarazza
    3. jackdaw (Coloeus monedula)
  2. (figuratively) chatterbox (talkative person)

Descendants

  • Maltese: ċawl

References

  1. ^ Pasqualino (c. 1790) “ciaula”, in Vocabolario siciliano etimologico, italiano e latino (in Italian), volume 1, page 315