Why is it “le alici” and not “l’alici”? Is the vowel not contracted in the plural?
Don’t listen to others replies! This is the truth:
Ciao! Che dici?
Le sarde mangiano le alici!
It is a way to answer when someone asks you “What’s up? How are you?”
If everything is fine, you have no news, nothing important to report, you answer like that because it makes rhyme with “che dici”
And you can only reply like this if a person asks you “Che dici?”
Is that clear? 
Thank you!!
Can you explain the grammar to me?
Why is it “le alici” and not “l’alici”?
L’alice is singular
Le alici is plural
So as there are many alici you cannot say l’
I see. I thought the rule was that articles became l’ before a vowel. But apparently that’s only in the singular. Thanks!
Yeah, only in singular.
Other examples are : l’amica/ le amiche
L’amante/ le amanti
L’ancora / le ancore
Thank you. I have been searching for years for this phrase and explanation when asked the question, how are you doing? I grew up in a mixed neighborhood and my family business had quite a few “older” Italians with great expressions. This seems to be one of them. We were not Italian but always enjoyed hearing these. It seems that the newer Italy has lost many of these delightful phrases.