Italian ( italiano (help·info), or lingua italiana) is a Romance language extinct: Anatolian · Paleo-Balkans (Dacian, spoken as a native language by about 62 million people in Italy Italy (pronounced /ˈɪtəli/ ; Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a country located partly on the European Continent and partly on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine, San Marino San Marino, officially the Most Serene Republic of San Marino (pronounced /ˌsæn məˈriːnoʊ/ SAN-mə-REE-noh; Italian: Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino), is a country situated on the eastern side of the Apennine Mountains. It is a landlocked enclave, completely surrounded by Italy. Its size is just over 61 km2 (24 sq mi) with an estimated and parts of Switzerland Switzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation (Confœderatio Helvetica in Latin, hence its ISO country codes CH and CHE), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe[note 4] where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to, Croatia Croatia (pronounced /kroʊˈeɪʃə/ , kroe-AY-shə; Croatian: Hrvatska pronounced [xř̩ʋaːtskaː]), officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska listen (help·info)), is a country in Central Europe and Southeastern Europe at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Adriatic Sea. Its capital and largest, Slovenia Slovenia /sloʊˈviːniə/ sloh-VEE-nee-ə, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Republika Slovenija, [reˈpublika sloˈveːnija] (help·info)), is a country in Central Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy on the west, the Adriatic Sea on the southwest, Croatia on the south and east, Hungary on and France France (pronounced /ˈfrænts/ frantss or /ˈfrɑːnts/ frahnts; French pronunciation (help·info): [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a state in Western Europe with several of its overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian,.[1] It is spoken as a first language by many Italian citizens and immigrants abroad, for a total of approximately 70 million native speakers. In addition, it is spoken by an additional 120 to 150 million people as a non-native language.[2] Most native speakers are native bilinguals of both standardised Italian and regional varieties Italian dialects refer to the various Romance languages other than Italian that are spoken in Italy. [improper synthesis?] Ethnologue, the registrar of the ISO 639-3 recognizes them as languages of Italy.[improper synthesis?].[3]

In Switzerland Switzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation (Confœderatio Helvetica in Latin, hence its ISO country codes CH and CHE), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe[note 4] where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to, Italian is one of four official languages The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Only three of these languages, however, maintain equal status as official languages at the national level within the Federal Administration of the Swiss Confederation: German, French, and Italian, spoken mainly in the Swiss cantons of Grigioni Graubünden or Grisons (German: Graubünden, [ɡʁaʊˈbʏndən] ; Italian: Grigioni [ɡɾiˈdʒoni]; Romansh: Grischun [ɡɾiˈʒun]; see also other names) is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland. The canton shares international borders with Italy (Trentino-Alto Adige/South Tyrol and Lombardy), Austria (Vorarlberg) and Liechtenstein and Ticino Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language. Ticino borders the Canton of Uri to the north, Valais to the west (through the Novena Pass), Graubünden to the northeast, Italy's regions of Piedmont and Lombardy to the south and. It is also the official language of San Marino San Marino, officially the Most Serene Republic of San Marino (pronounced /ˌsæn məˈriːnoʊ/ SAN-mə-REE-noh; Italian: Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino), is a country situated on the eastern side of the Apennine Mountains. It is a landlocked enclave, completely surrounded by Italy. Its size is just over 61 km2 (24 sq mi) with an estimated, as well as the primary language of Vatican City Vatican City /ˈvætɪkən ˈsɪti/ or Vatican City State, officially Stato della Città del Vaticano (pronounced [ˈsta(ː)to delːa tʃiˈtːa del vatiˈka(ː)no]), which translates literally as "State of the City of the Vatican", is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome,.[4] The Italian language adopted by the state after the unification of Italy Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century. Despite a lack of consensus on the exact dates for the beginning and end of this period, many scholars agree that the process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and the end is based on the Tuscan The Tuscan language , or the Tuscan dialect (dialetto toscano) is an Italian dialect spoken in Tuscany, Italy dialect, which beforehand was only available to upper class In sociology an upper class is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area, but only to the extent that the power of the state can intervene in free exchange or distort investment. This expression of class refers to Florentine society.[5] Its development was also influenced by other Italian dialects Italian dialects refer to the various Romance languages other than Italian that are spoken in Italy. [improper synthesis?] Ethnologue, the registrar of the ISO 639-3 recognizes them as languages of Italy.[improper synthesis?] and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman invaders The Migration period, also called the Barbarian Invasions or German: Völkerwanderung , was a period of human migration that occurred roughly between the years 300 to 700 CE in Europe, marking the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. These movements were catalyzed by profound changes within both the Roman Empire and the so-.

Italian derives diachronically from Latin and is the closest national language to Latin. Unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latin's contrast between short and long consonants In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. As in most Romance languages extinct: Anatolian · Paleo-Balkans (Dacian, , stress In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense is distinctive. In particular, among the Romance languages, Italian is the closest to Latin Latin or sometimes Roman is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Although often considered a dead language, in view of the fact that it has no native, fluent speakers, Latin continues to be taught in schools and has been, and currently is, used in the process of new word production in modern languages from many in terms of vocabulary A person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.[6] Lexical similarity In linguistics, lexical similarity is a measure of the degree to which the word sets of two given languages are similar. A lexical similarity of 1 would mean a total overlap between vocabularies, whereas 0 means there are no common words is 89% with French French is a Romance language spoken as a first language by about 136 million people worldwide. Around 190 million people speak French as a second language, and an additional 200 million speak it as an acquired foreign language. French speaking communities are present in 57 countries and territories. Most native speakers of the language live in, 87% with Catalan Catalan is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencià (Valencian), as well as in the city of Alghero on the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken in the, 85% with Sardinian Sardinian is the collective name of the vernacular linguistic varieties spoken in most of the island of Sardinia, Italy. It is considered the most conservative of the Romance languages in terms of phonology and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum, 82% with Spanish Countries where Spanish has official status. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 25% or more of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 10-20% of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 5-9.9% of the population, 78% with Rhaeto-Romance Rhaeto-Romance languages are a Romance language sub-family which includes multiple languages spoken in North and North-Eastern Italy, and Switzerland. The name "Rhaeto-Romance" refers to the province of Rhaetia once in the Roman Empire and 77% with Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română [ˈlimba roˈmɨnə] ("the Romanian language") or româneşte (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova. It has official status in Romania,.[1][7]

Contents

History

The Italian language has a long history, but the modern standard of the language was largely shaped by relatively recent events. The earliest surviving texts that can definitely be called Italian (or more accurately, vernacular, as distinct from its predecessor Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin was the nonstandard form of the Latin language; because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography, and only Classical Latin was used in writing. It is sometimes called colloquial Latin) are legal formulae from the region of Benevento that date from 960-963.[8] What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the first years of the 14th century through the works of Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri , commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. He was born in Florence. He died and is buried in Ravenna. The name Dante is, according to the words of Jacopo Alighieri, a hypocorism for Durante. In contemporary documents it is followed by the patronymic Alagherii or de Alagheriis; it was Boccaccio who, who mixed southern Italian languages, especially Sicilian Sicilian is a Romance language. Its dialects make up the Italiano Meridionale-estremo language group, which are spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands; in southern and central Calabria (where it is called Southern Calabro); in the southern parts of Apulia, the Salento (where it is known as Salentino); and Campania, on the Italian, with his native florentine in his epic poems known collectively as the Commedia The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife is a culmination of the medieval world-view as it, to which Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (Italian pronunciation: [bokˈkattʃo]) was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular. Boccaccio is particularly notable for his later affixed the title Divina. Dante's much-loved works were read throughout Italy and his written dialect became the "canonical standard" that all educated Italians could understand. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language and, thus, the dialect of Florence Florence (Italian: Firenze listen , pronounced [fiˈrɛntse]; alternative obsolete spelling: Fiorenza, Latin: Florentia) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 367,569 inhabitants (1,500,000 in the metropolitan area) became the basis for what would become the official language of Italy.

Italian was often an official language of the various Italian states pre-dating unification, slowly usurping Latin, even when ruled by foreign powers (such as the Spanish in the Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of Naples to distinguish it from the island-based polity, or the Austrians in the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia was a kingdom in northern Italy, and part of the Austrian Empire. It was established after the defeat of Napoleon, according to the decisions of the Congress of Vienna, on 9 June 1815. The Kingdom ceased to exist when the remaining portion of it was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1866), even though the masses spoke primarily vernacular languages and dialects. Italian was also one of the many recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and described as the Dual Monarchy or the k.u.k. Monarchy, was a monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in Central Europe. The union was a result of the Ausgleich or Compromise of 1867, under which the Austrian.

Italy has always had a distinctive dialect for each city since the cities were, until recently, thought of as city-states Whereas nation-states rely on a common heritage, be it linguistic, historical, economic, etc., the city-state relies on the common interest in the function of the urban center. The urban center and its activity supplies the livelihoods of all urbanites inhabiting the city-state. Those dialects now have considerable variety In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a form of a language used by speakers of that language. This may include dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard language variety itself. "Variety" avoids the terms language, which many people associate only with the standard, however. As Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. The most characteristic differences, for instance, between Roman Rome (English pronunciation: /ˈroʊm/; Italian: Roma listen , pronounced [ˈroːma]; Latin: Rōma) is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality (central area), with over 2.7 million residents in 1,285.3 km2 (496.3 sq mi). While the population of the urban area was estimated by Eurostat to have been 3.46 Italian and Milanese Milan (Italian: Milano, listen Italian pronunciation: [miˈla(ː)no]; Western Lombard: Milan, listen (help·info)) is a city in Italy and the capital of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1,300,000, while the urban area is the first in Italy and the fifth largest in the European Union Italian are the gemination In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant of initial consonants and the pronunciation of stressed "e", and of "s" in some cases (e.g. va bene "all right": is pronounced [va ˈbːɛne] by a Roman (and by any standard-speaker, like a Florentine), [va ˈbene] by a Milanese (and by any speaker whose native dialect lies to the north of La Spezia-Rimini Line The La Spezia-Rimini Line , in the linguistics of the Romance languages, is a line that demarcates a number of important isoglosses that distinguish Romance languages south and east of the line from Romance languages north and west of it. Romance languages on the eastern half of it include Italian and the Vlach languages (Romanian, Aromanian,); a casa "at home": Roman and standard [a ˈkːasa], Milanese and generally northern [a ˈkaza]). (See Raddoppiamento fonosintattico).

In contrast to the Northern Italian language, southern Italian Southern Italian is a group of Italo-Western Romance dialects spoken in Southern Lazio, Southern Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Basilicata, Apulia, and Northern Calabria. Part of a language continuum, they are all mutually intelligible and are often referred to as Neapolitan languages (based on Naples' historic role as capital of the region) dialects and languages were largely untouched by the Franco-Occitan Occitan is a Romance language spoken in Occitania, that is, Southern France, the Occitan Valleys of Italy, Monaco and in the Aran Valley of Spain. It is also spoken in the linguistic enclave of Guardia Piemontese . It is a co-official language in Catalonia, Spain (known as Aranese in Aran Valley). Modern Occitan is the closest relative of Catalan influences introduced to Italy, mainly by bards In medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities from France France (pronounced /ˈfrænts/ frantss or /ˈfrɑːnts/ frahnts; French pronunciation (help·info): [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a state in Western Europe with several of its overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian,, during the Middle Ages but, after the Norman conquest of southern Italy, Sicily became the first Italian land to adopt Occitan lyric moods (and words) in poetry. Even in the case of Northern Italian language, however, scholars are careful not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages. (See La Spezia-Rimini Line).

The economic might and relatively advanced development of Tuscany at the time (Late Middle Ages), gave its dialect weight, though Venetian language remained widespread in medieval Italian commercial life, as well as Ligurian (or Genoese) remained in use in maritime trade alongside the Mediterranean. Also, the increasing political and cultural relevance of Florence during the periods of the rise of Medici's bank, Humanism and the Renaissance made its dialect, or rather a refined version of it, a standard in the arts.

Middle Ages

The re-discovery of Dante's De vulgari eloquentia and a renewed interest in linguistics in the 16th century sparked a debate that raged throughout Italy concerning the criteria that should govern the establishment of a modern Italian literary and spoken language. Scholars divided into three factions:

A fourth faction claimed the best Italian was the one the papal court adopted. Eventually, Bembo's ideas prevailed, and led to publication of the first Italian dictionary in 1612 and the foundation of the Accademia della Crusca in Florence (1582-3), the official legislative body of the Italian language.

Modern era

Two notable defining moments in the history of the Italian language came between 1500 and 1850. Both events were invasions. The rulers of Spain invaded and occupied Italy down to Rome and the Vatican in the mid-16th century (see the aftermath of the Italian Wars). This occupation left a lasting influence upon the formerly irregular Italian grammar, simplifying it to conform more with the dominant Spanish language. The second was the conquest and occupation of Italy by Napoleon in the early 19th century (who was himself of Italian-Corsican descent). This conquest propelled the unification of Italy, and pushed the Italian language into a lingua franca. The increased unity among people on the Italian peninsula weakened many regional languages.

Contemporary times

Italian literature's first modern novel, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed), by Alessandro Manzoni further defined the standard by "rinsing" his Milanese "in the waters of the Arno" (Florence's river), as he states in the Preface to his 1840 edition.

After unification a huge number of civil servants and soldiers recruited from all over the country introduced many more words and idioms from their home languages ("ciao" is Venetian, "panettone" is in the Milanese dialect of the Lombard language etc.). Only 2.5% of Italy’s population could speak Italian language when the nation unified in 1861.[9]

Classification

Italian is most closely related to the other two Italo-Dalmatian languages, Sicilian and the extinct Dalmatian. The three are part of the Italo-Western grouping of the Romance languages, which are a subgroup of the Italic branch of Indo-European.

Geographic distribution

Knowledge of Italian in Europe The geographic distribution of the Italian language in the world: large Italian-speaking communities are shown in green; light blue indicates areas where Italian language was used as official during the italian colonial period

The list below shows the geographical distribution of the Italian language around the world. The total number of native speakers of Italian are between 65 and 75 million people.[10][11] Those who speak Italian as a second or cultural language are estimated to be between 120 and 150 million people.[11]

Official:

Historical Significance in:

Historically official:

Used by some immigrant communities in:

Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino, and one of the official languages of Switzerland, spoken mainly in the cantons of Ticino and part of Graubünden (Grigioni in Italian), which together are a region referred to as Italian Switzerland. It is also the official language with Croatian and Slovenian in some areas of Istria, where an Italian minority exists. In the cities of Santa Teresa and Vila Velha it enjoys official status alongside Portuguese, being "knighted" as an ethnic language. It is the primary language of the Vatican City and is widely used and taught in Monaco and Malta. It served as Malta's official language until the Maltese language was enshrined in the 1934 Constitution. It is also spoken to a significant extent in France, with over 1,000,000 speakers [21] (especially in Corsica and the County of Nice, areas that historically spoke Italian dialects before annexation to France), and it is understood by large parts of the populations of Albania and coastal Montenegro, reached by many Italian TV channels.

Italian is also spoken by some in former Italian colonies in Africa (Libya and Eritrea). However, its use has sharply dropped off since the colonial period. In Eritrea, Italian is widely understood.[22] In fact, for 50 years, during the colonial period, Italian was the language of education, but as of 1997[update], there is only one Italian-language school remaining, with 470 pupils. The name of the only Italian-language school in Eritrea is Scuola Italiana di Asmara,[23] which was also the only Italian-language school in Ethiopia, when Eritrea was a province of Ethiopia.[24] The number of Italian speakers may increase a little when the number of students at that school increases and because it is still spoken in commerce,[25] and Eritrea will be the only African nation where Italian is widely spoken and understood. In Libya, Italian has been wiped out by the Libyan Revolution's Arabization programs in education and media. In Egypt and Tunisia, it is mostly spoken by Italian Egyptians and Italian Tunisians and some professionals of non-Italian descent. In all of the above former Italian African colonies, most of the fluent Italian speakers are people who grew up in officially Italian-speaking nations, most especially Italy, and returned to Africa.

Italian and Italian dialects are widely used by Italian immigrants and many of their descendants (see Italians) living throughout Western Europe (especially France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Luxembourg), the United States, Canada, Australia, and Latin America (especially Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela).

In the United States, Italian speakers are most commonly found in five cities: Boston (7,000),[26] Chicago (12,000),[27] the Miami region (27,000),[28] New York City (140,000),[29] and Philadelphia (15,000).[30] According to the United States Census in 2000, over 1 million Italian Americans spoke Italian at home, with the largest concentrations -- and nearly half of the total -- found in the states of New York (294,271) and New Jersey (116,365).[31] In Canada, Italian is the fourth most commonly spoken language, with 661,000 speakers (or about 2.1% of the population) according to the 2006 Census. Particularly large Italian-speaking communities are found in Montreal (c. 179,000) and Toronto (c. 262,000).[15] Italian is also strongly visible in the Hamilton area. Italian is the second most commonly spoken language in Australia, where 353,605 Italian Australians, or 1.9% of the population, reported speaking Italian at home in the 2001 Census.[32] In 2001 there were 130,000 Italian speakers in Melbourne,[33] and 90,000 in Sydney.[34]

Italian language education

Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world, but rarely as the first foreign language; in fact, Italian generally is the fourth or fifth most taught foreign language in the world.[35]

In the United States, Italian is the fifth most taught foreign language after Spanish, French, German, and American Sign Language, respectively.[36] Throughout the world, Italian is the fifth most taught foreign language, after English, Spanish, French, and German.[37]

In the European Union, Italian is spoken as a mother tongue by 13% of the population or 65 million people,[38] mainly in Italy. In all of the EU, it is spoken as a second language by 3% of the population or by 14 million people. In addition, among EU states, the Italian language is most likely to be learned as a second language in Malta by 61% of the population, as well as in Croatia by 14% of the population, Slovenia by 12% of the population, Austria by 11% of the population, Romania by 8% of the population, and by France and Greece by 6% of the population.[38] Italian is also one of the national languages of Switzerland, which is not a part of the European Union.[39] Italian language is also well know and studied in Albania, another non=EU member, due to the historical and geographical proximity between the two countries.

Influence and derived languages

See also: Italians

From the late 19th to the mid 20th century, thousands of Italians settled in Argentina, Uruguay, southern Brazil, and Venezuela, where they formed a very strong physical and cultural presence (see the Italian diaspora).

In some cases, colonies were established where variants of Italian dialects were used, and some continue to use a derived dialect. An example is Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, where Talian is used, and in the town of Chipilo near Puebla, Mexico; each continuing to use a derived form of Venetian dating back to the 19th century. Another example is Cocoliche, an Italian-Spanish pidgin once spoken in Argentina and especially in Buenos Aires, and Lunfardo.

Rioplatense Spanish, and particularly the speech of the city of Buenos Aires, has intonation patterns that resemble those of Italian dialects,[40] due to the fact that Argentina has had a continuous large influx of Italian settlers since the second half of the 19th century; initially primarily from Northern Italy; then, since the beginning of the twentieth century, mostly from Southern Italy.

Italian as a lingua franca

See also: Mediterranean Lingua Franca

Starting in late medieval times, Italian language variants replaced Latin to become the primary commercial language in much of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea (especially the Tuscan and Venetian variants). This was consolidated during the Renaissance with the strength of Italian and the rise of humanism in the arts.

During the Renaissance, Italy held artistic sway over the rest of Europe. All educated European gentlemen were expected to make the Grand Tour, visiting Italy to see its great historical monuments and works of art. It thus became expected that educated Europeans would learn at least some Italian; the English poet John Milton, for instance, wrote some of his early poetry in Italian. In England, Italian became the second most common modern language to be learned, after French (though the classical languages, Latin and Greek, came first). However, by the late 18th century, Italian tended to be replaced by German as the second modern language in the curriculum. Yet Italian loanwords continue to be used in most other European languages in matters of art and music. Within the Catholic church, Italian is known by a large part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and is used in substitution for Latin in some official documents. The presence of Italian as the primary language in the Vatican City indicates use, not only within the Holy See, but also throughout the world where an episcopal seat is present.[citation needed] It continues to be used in music and opera. Other examples where Italian is sometimes used as a means of communication is in some sports (sometimes in football[citation needed] and motorsports) and in the design and fashion industries.

Dialects

Main article: Italian dialects Italian dialects

In Italy, all Romance languages spoken as the vernacular, other than standard Italian and other unrelated, non-Italian languages, are termed "Italian dialects".

Many Italian dialects may be considered as historical languages in their own right.[41] These include recognized language groups such as Friulian, Neapolitan, Sardinian, Sicilian, Ligurian, Piedmontese, Venetian, and others, and regional variants of these languages such as Calabrian. The distinction between dialect and language has been made by scholars (such as Francesco Bruni): on the one hand are the languages that made up the Italian koine; and on the other, those that had little or no part in it, such as Albanian, Greek, German, Ladin, and Occitan, which some minorities still speak.

Regional differences can be recognized by various factors: the openness of vowels, the length of the consonants, and influence of the local dialect (for example, in informal situations the contraction annà replaces andare in the area of Rome for the infinitive "to go" and "nare" is what Venetians say for the infinitive "to go").

Writing system

Main article: Italian alphabet

Italian is written in the latter. The letters J, K, W, X and Y are not considered part of the Italian alphabet, but appear in loanwords (such as jeans, whisky, taxi). X has become a commonly used letter in genuine Italian words with the prefix extra-. J in Italian is an old-fashioned orthographic variant of I, appearing in the first name "Jacopo" as well as in some Italian place names, e.g., the towns of Bajardo, Bojano, Joppolo, Jesolo, Jesi, Ajaccio, among numerous others, and in the alternative spelling Mar Jonio (also spelled Mar Ionio) for the Ionian Sea. J may also appear in many words from different dialects, but its use is discouraged in contemporary Italian, and it is not part of the standard 21-letter contemporary Italian alphabet. Each of these foreign letters has an Italian equivalent spelling: gi or i for j, c or ch for k (including chilometro for kilometer in prose), u or v for w (depending on what sound it makes), s, ss, or cs for x, and i for y. (In informal Internet usage and texts, it goes back the other way; for example, ch is replaced with k.)

Common variations

Some variations in the usage of the writing system may be present in practical use. These are scorned by educated people, but they are so common in certain contexts that knowledge of them may be useful.

Sounds

Main article: Italian phonology
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Vowels

Italian has seven vowel phonemes: /a/, /e/, /ɛ/, /i/, /o/, /ɔ/, /u/, represented by five letters: "a, e, i, o, u". The pairs /e/-/ɛ/, and /o/-/ɔ/ are seldom distinguished in writing and often confused, even though most varieties of Italian employ both phonemes consistently. Compare, for example standard "perché" [perˈke] (why, because) and "senti" [ˈsɛnti] (you hear), as pronounced by most central and southern speakers, with [perˈkɛ] and [ˈsenti], employed by most northern speakers. As a result, the usage is strongly indicative of a person's origin. The standard (Tuscan) usage of these vowels is listed in vocabularies, and employed outside Tuscany mainly by specialists, especially actors and very few (television) journalists. These are truly different phonemes, however: compare /ˈpeska/ (fishing) and /ˈpɛska/ (peach), both spelled pesca ( listen (help·info)). Similarly /ˈbotte/ ('barrel') and /ˈbɔtte/ ('beatings'), both spelled botte, discriminate /o/ and /ɔ/ ( listen (help·info)).

In general, vowel combinations usually pronounce each vowel separately. Diphthongs exist (e.g. uo, iu, ie, ai), but are limited to an unstressed u or i before or after a stressed vowel.

The unstressed u in a diphthong approximates the English semivowel w, and the unstressed i approximates the semivowel y. E.g.: buono [ˈbwɔːno], ieri [ˈjɛːri].

Triphthongs exist in Italian as well, like "continuiamo" ("we continue"). Three vowel combinations exist only in the form semiconsonant (/j/ or /w/), followed by a vowel, followed by a desinence vowel (usually /i/), as in miei, suoi, or two semiconsonants followed by a vowel, as the group -uia- exemplified above, or -iuo- in the word aiuola.[44]

Mobile diphthongs

Many Latin words with a short e or o have Italian counterparts with a mobile diphthong (ie and uo respectively). When the vowel sound is stressed, it is pronounced and written as a diphthong; when not stressed, it is pronounced and written as a single vowel.

So Latin focus gave rise to Italian fuoco (meaning both "fire" and "optical focus"): when unstressed, as in focale ("focal") the "o" remains alone. Latin pes (more precisely its accusative form pedem) is the source of Italian piede (foot): but unstressed "e" was left unchanged in pedone (pedestrian) and pedale (pedal). From Latin jocus comes Italian giuoco ("play", "game"), though in this case gioco is more common: giocare means "to play (a game)". From Latin homo comes Italian uomo (man), but also umano (human) and ominide (hominid). From Latin ovum comes Italian uovo (egg) and ovaie (ovaries). (The same phenomenon occurs in Spanish: juego (play, game) and jugar (to play), nieve (snow) and nevar (to snow)).

Consonants

Two symbols in a table cell denote the voiceless and voiced consonant, respectively.

Consonants of Italian[45]
Bilabial Labio- dental Alveolar Post- alveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal m n ɲ
Plosive p, b t̪, d̪ k, ɡ
Affricate t̪s̪, d̪z̪ tʃ, dʒ
Fricative f, v s, z ʃ, (ʒ)
Trill r
Lateral l ʎ
Approximant j w

Nasals undergo assimilation when followed by a consonant, e.g., when preceding a velar (/k/ or /ɡ/) only [ŋ] appears, etc.

Italian has geminate, or double, consonants, which are distinguished by length. Length is distinctive for all consonants except for /ʃ/, /ts/, /dz/, /ʎ/ /ɲ/, which are always geminate, and /z/, which is always single. Geminate plosives and affricates are realised as lengthened closures. Geminate fricatives, nasals, and /l/ are realized as lengthened continuants. The flap consonant /ɾ/ is typically dialectal. The correct standard pronunciation is [r].

Of special interest to the linguistic study of Italian is the gorgia toscana, or "Tuscan Throat", the weakening or lenition of certain intervocalic consonants in Tuscan dialects. See also Syntactic doubling.

The voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/ is only present in loanwords. For example, garage [ɡaˈraːʒ].

Assimilation

Italian has few diphthongs, so most unfamiliar diphthongs that are heard in foreign words (in particular, those beginning with vowel "a", "e", or "o") will be assimilated as the corresponding diaeresis (i.e., the vowel sounds will be pronounced separately). Italian phonotactics do not usually permit verbs and polysyllabic nouns to end with consonants, excepting poetry and song, so foreign words may receive extra terminal vowel sounds.

Examples

Look up Category:Italian language in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Conversation

English (inglese) Italian (italiano) Pronunciation
Yes Sì (listen) /si/
No No (listen) /nɔ/
Of course! Certo! / Certamente! / Naturalmente!
Hello! Ciao! (informal) / Salve! (general) (listen) /ˈtʃao/
Cheers! Salute! /saˈlute/
How are you? Come stai? (informal) / Come sta? (formal) / Come state? (plural) / Come va? (general) /ˈkomeˈstai/ ; /ˈkomeˈsta/
Good morning! Buon giorno! (= Good day!) /bwɔnˈdʒorno/
Good evening! Buona sera! /bwɔnaˈsera/
Good night! Buona notte! (for a good night sleeping) / Buona serata! (for a good night awake)
Have a nice day! Buona giornata! (formal)
Enjoy the meal! Buon appetito! /ˌbwɔn appeˈtito/
Goodbye! Arrivederci (general) / Arrivederla (formal) / Ciao! (informal) (listen) /arriveˈdertʃi/
Good luck! - Thank you! Buona fortuna! - Grazie! (general) / In bocca al lupo! - Crepi [il lupo]! (to wish someone to overcome a difficulty, similar to "Break a leg!"; literally: "Into the mouth of the wolf!" - "May the wolf die!"
I love you Ti amo (between lovers only) / Ti voglio bene (in the sense of "I am fond of you", between lovers, friends, relatives etc.) /ti ˈvɔʎʎo ˈbɛne/ ; /ti ˈamo/
Welcome [to...] Benvenuto/-i (for male/males or mixed) / Benvenuta/-e (for female/females) [a / in...]
Please Per piacere / Per favore / Per cortesia (listen)
Thank you! Grazie! (general) / Ti ringrazio! (informal) / La ringrazio! (formal) / Vi ringrazio! (plural) (listen) /ˈɡrattsje/
You are welcome! Prego! /ˈprɛɡo/
Excuse me / I am sorry Mi dispiace (only "I am sorry") / Scusa(mi) (informal) / Mi scusi (formal) / Scusatemi (plural) / Sono desolato ("I am sorry", if male) / Sono desolata ("I am sorry", if female) (listen) /ˈskuzi/ ; /ˈskuza/ ; /mi disˈpjatʃe/
Who? Chi?
What? Che cosa? / Cosa? / Che?
When? Quando? /ˈkwando/
Where? Dove? /ˈdove/
How? Come? /ˈkome/
Why / Because perché /perˈke/
Again di nuovo / ancora /di ˈnwɔvo/; /aŋˈkora/
How much? / How many? Quanto? / Quanta? / Quanti? / Quante?
What is your name? Come ti chiami? (informal) / Come si chiama? (formal)
My name is ... Mi chiamo ...
This is ... Questo è ... (masculine) / Questa è ... (feminine)
Yes, I understand. Sì, capisco. / Ho capito.
I do not understand. Non capisco. / Non ho capito. (listen)
Do you speak English? Parli inglese? (informal) / Parla inglese? (formal) / Parlate inglese? (plural) (listen) /parˈlate.iŋˈɡlese/
I do not understand Italian. Non capisco l'italiano. /noŋkaˈpiskolitaˈljano/
Help me! Aiutami! (informal) / Mi aiuti! (formal) / Aiutatemi! (plural) / Aiuto! (general)
You are right/wrong! (Tu) hai ragione/torto! (informal) / (Lei) ha ragione/torto! (formal) / (Voi) avete ragione/torto! (plural)
What time is it? Che ora è? / Che ore sono?
Where is the bathroom? Dov'è il bagno? (listen)
How much is it? Quanto costa? /ˈkwanto ˈkɔsta/
The bill, please. Il conto, per favore.
The study of Italian sharpens the mind. Lo studio dell'italiano aguzza l'ingegno.

Numbers

English Italian IPA
One uno /ˈuno/
Two due /ˈdue/
Three tre /tre/
Four quattro /ˈkwattro/
Five cinque /ˈtʃiŋkwe/
Six sei /ˈsɛi/
Seven sette /ˈsɛtte/
Eight otto /ˈɔtto/
Nine nove /ˈnɔve/
Ten dieci /ˈdjɛtʃi/
English Italian IPA
Eleven undici /ˈunditʃi/
Twelve dodici /ˈdoditʃi/
Thirteen tredici /ˈtreditʃi/
Fourteen quattordici /kwatˈtorditʃi/
Fifteen quindici /ˈkwinditʃi/
Sixteen sedici /ˈseditʃi/
Seventeen diciassette /ditʃasˈsɛtte/
Eighteen diciotto /diˈtʃɔtto/
Nineteen diciannove /ditʃanˈnɔve/
Twenty venti /ˈventi/
English Italian IPA
Twenty-one ventuno /ventˈuno/
Twenty-two ventidue /ventiˈdue/
Twenty-three ventitre /ventiˈtre/
Twenty-four ventiquattro /ventiˈkwattro/
Twenty-five venticinque /ventiˈtʃiŋkwe/
Twenty-six ventisei /ventiˈsɛi/
Twenty-seven ventisette /ventiˈsɛtte/
Twenty-eight ventotto /ventˈɔtto/
Twenty-nine ventinove /ventiˈnɔve/
Thirty trenta /ˈtrenta/

Days of the week

English Italian IPA
Monday lunedì /luneˈdi/
Tuesday martedì /marteˈdi/
Wednesday mercoledì /merkoleˈdi/
Thursday giovedì /dʒoveˈdi/
Friday venerdì /venerˈdi/
Saturday sabato /ˈsabato/
Sunday domenica /doˈmenika/

Sample texts

There is a recording of Dante's Divine Comedy read by Lino Pertile available at http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/

See also

Italy portal
Switzerland portal
Languages portal
Look up Italian in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Italian language edition of Wiktionary, the free dictionary/thesaurus
Italian language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

References and notes

  1. ^ a b Ethnologue report for language code:ita (Italy) - Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version
  2. ^ Italian Language: Geographic Distribution Discovery Media Retrieved 2010-05-16
  3. ^ http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=IT Ethnologue
  4. ^ Legge sulle fonti del diritto of 7 June 1929, laws and regulations are published in the Italian-language Supplemento per le leggi e disposizioni dello Stato della Città del Vaticano attached to the Acta Apostolicae Sedis. See also Languages of the Vatican City
  5. ^ Modern Italian The Italian Language Retrieved 2010-05-16
  6. ^ Grimes, Barbara F. (October 1996). Barbara F. Grimes. ed. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Consulting Editors: Richard S. Pittman & Joseph E. Grimes (thirteenth ed.). Dallas, Texas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Academic Pub. ISBN 1-55671-026-7.
  7. ^ Brincat (2005)
  8. ^ "History of the Italian language.". http://www.italian-language.biz/italian/history.asp. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
  9. ^ "Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition". Ethnologue.com. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ita. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  10. ^ "Languages Spoken by More Than 10 Million People". Languages Spoken by More Than 10 Million People. Microsoft Encarta 2006. http://encarta.msn.com/media_701500404/Languages_Spoken_by_More_Than_10_Million_People.html. Retrieved 2007-02-18.
  11. ^ a b Microsoft Word - Frontespizio.doc
  12. ^ "1,500,000 mother tongue Italian speakers in Brazil". Ethnologue.com. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=BR. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  13. ^ "1,500,000 mother tongue Italian speakers in Argentina". Ethnologue.com. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=AR. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  14. ^ American FactFinder, United States Census Bureau. "over 1 million Americans speak Italian at home". Factfinder.census.gov. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/IPTable?_bm=y&-reg=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201:543;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR:543;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T:543;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR:543&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR&-ds_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_&-TABLE_NAMEX=&-ci_type=A&-redoLog=false&-charIterations=031&-geo_id=01000US&-format=&-_lang=en. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  15. ^ a b "Statistics Canada 2006". 2.statcan.ca. 2010-04-08. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/topics/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?ALEVEL=3&APATH=3&CATNO=&DETAIL=0&DIM=&DS=99&FL=0&FREE=0&GAL=0&GC=99&GK=NA&GRP=1&IPS=&METH=0&ORDER=1&PID=89189&PTYPE=88971&RL=0&S=1&ShowAll=No&StartRow=1&SUB=705&Temporal=2006&Theme=70&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=&GID=837928. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  16. ^ "548,000 mother tongue Italian speakers in Germany". Ethnologue.com. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=DE. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  17. ^ Vannini, Marisa. Italia y los Italianos en la Historia y en la Cultura de Venezuela. Oficina Central de Información (Ministerio del Interior). Caracas, 1966
  18. ^ "353,605 mother tongue Italian speakers in Australia". Ethnologue.com. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=AU. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  19. ^ "200,000 mother tongue Italian speakers in the UK". Ethnologue.com. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=GB. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  20. ^ "72,400 mother tongue Italian speakers in Egypt". Ethnologue.com. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=EG. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  21. ^ "Ethnologue report for France". Ethnologue.com. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=FR. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  22. ^ Languages of Eritrea - Tigrinya
  23. ^ "Scuola Italiana di Asmara (in Italian)". Scuoleasmara.it. http://www.scuoleasmara.it. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  24. ^ Tekle M. Woldemikael, "Language, Education, and Public Policy in Eritrea," in African Studies Review, Vol. 46, No. 1. (Apr., 2003), pp. 117–136.
  25. ^ "Eritrea" (PDF). http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Eritrea.pdf. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  26. ^ Boston, Massachusetts, MLA Data Center
  27. ^ Chicago, Illinois, MLA Data Center
  28. ^ http://www.mla.org/cgi-shl/docstudio/docs.pl?map_data_results
  29. ^ New York, New York, MLA Data Center
  30. ^ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, MLA Data Center
  31. ^ "Table 5. Detailed List of Languages Spoken at Home for the Population 5 Years and Over by State: 2000" (PDF). http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t20/tab05.pdf. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  32. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2005, "Language other than English" (spreadsheet of figures from 2001 Census)
  33. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2002, "A Snapshot of Melbourne"
  34. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2002, "A Snapshot of Sydney"
  35. ^ "9". Iic-colonia.de. http://www.iic-colonia.de/italiano-2000/09.12%20Analisi%20generale%20dei%20dati.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  36. ^ Language-learning trends in the United States VistaWide Retrieved 2010-05-16
  37. ^ "www.iic-colonia.de". www.iic-colonia.de. http://www.iic-colonia.de/italiano-2000/Indice.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  38. ^ a b Eurobarometer – Europeans and their languagesPDF (485 KB), February 2006
  39. ^ A language of Italy Ethnologue Retrieved 2010-06-05
  40. ^ Unidad en la diversidad – Portal informativo sobre la lengua castellana
  41. ^ "Ethnologue web reference for Italian". Ethnologue.com. http://www.ethnologue.com/14/show_language.asp?code=ITN. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  42. ^ (Italian) Dizionario d'ortografia e di pronunzia
  43. ^ E. Paulescu et al., Dyslexia - cultural diversity and biological unity, "Science", vol. 291, pp. 2165–2167.
  44. ^ Serianni, Luca; Castelvecchi, Alberto (1997). Italiano. Garzanti. p. 15.
  45. ^ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004:117)

Bibliography

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Italian
Italian Wikisource has original text related to this article: Pagina principale
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