Northern coast. I was born in Barcellona (40km from Messina). Father's family is from Barcellona but Mother's family is from Tusa, (90Km from Palermo), but still in Messina Province. I can speak both the Messinisi (used in urban areas) and a variant that I call "U Tusanu" but actually is a mix of Messinisi and Palemmitanu. This blend is typical from Cefalù to S. Agata.
This is just another case (of countless cases) where the common Sicilian usage has been absolutely swamped by Italian. For most young Sicilians, it would be a complete anathema to even contemplate that "palora" is acceptable in any way, shape or form. I'm not saying I agree with that, but that is the reality we face in modern Sicily.
Further to the above, I now recall someone pointing out that the Spanish word for "word" is palabra, that is, the Spanish too have witnessed the swapping of posiitons of the "r" and "l". I mention that because most modern Italian speakers would view the Sicilian word palora as representive of what they view as a "bastardised" form of Italian, when in fact it's merely a sound shift, as happened in Spanish, and as happens to hundreds of languages all over the world (including in Italian itself in terms of different shifts). If nothing else, to hold firm on the true Sicilian form of palora is also hold firm on this basic tenet that we have had many sound shifts over the centuries, like all langauges, and that's what makes Sicilian a unique language, and partly why it is distinct from Italian. Modern-day educated Sicilians can often feel embarassment at such sound shifts, I'm sure we've all come across this sort of thing at one point or another, but rather than shy away from them, the correct course is to educate those who are ignorant of our language (and that can include many modern-day Sicilians). I'd like my final word on this to be a direct quote from Giuseppe Pitrè's Grammatica Siciliana where he talks about the letter R (referring to sound shifts from the Latin or Greek source): ...ovvero la l e la r mutano le loro posizioni: cazzalora (tosc. casseruola, ted. Kastrol, dall'a. t. chezi, kezi, ted. Kessel)...galofaru (tosc, garofanu, χαρυοφυλλον)...palora (parabola)...puntaloru (tosc. punteruolo), ecc.
