Home > Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken by about 70 million people, most of whom live in Italy. Standard Italian is based on Tuscan dialects and is somewhat intermediate between the languages of Southern Italy and the Gallo-Romance languages of the North. The long-established Tuscan standard has, over the last few decades, been slightly eroded by the variety of Italian spoken in Milan, the economic capital of Italy. Italian has double (or long) consonants, like Latin (but unlike most modern Romance languages, e.g., French and Spanish). As in most Romance languages (with the notable exception of French), stress is distinctive.
| Italian (Italiano)
|
| Spoken in:
| Italy and 29 other countries
|
| Region:
| Southern Europe
|
| Total speakers:
| 70 million
|
| Ranking:
| 21
|
Genetic
classification:
| Indo-European
Italic
Romance
Italo-Western
Italo-Dalmatian
Italian
|
| Official status
|
| Official language of:
| Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Slovenia, Vatican CityThe State of the City of the Vatican (commonly known also as Vatican City) is the smallest independent country in the world (both in area and in population), a landlocked enclave surrounded by the city of Rome in Italy. The Vatican is the home of the Pope, Istria countyIstria county Istarska zupanija / Regione istriana is the westernmost county of Croatia which includes the biggest part of Istria peninsula (2820 out of 3160 kmē; Istra in Croatian and Slovenian). Its administrative center is Pazin/Pisino. Geography Its c ( CroatiaThe Republic of Croatia is a country in Europe bordering the Mediterranean, Central Europe and the Balkans. Its capital is Zagreb. In recent history, it was a republic of Yugoslavia. History Main article: History of Croatia The Croats are a largely Slavic)
|
| Regulated by:
| Accademia della CruscaAccademia della Crusca is an Italian cultural association born in Florence in 1583. It published the first Italian dictionary in 1612. External link (in Italian) Language regulators.
|
| Language codes
|
| ISO 639-1:
| it
|
| ISO 639-2:
| ita
|
| SIL:
| ITN
|
1 History
The history of the Italian language is quite complex but the modern standard of the language was largely shaped by relatively recent events. Italian was first formalized through the works of Dante Alighieri, who mixed southern Italian dialects, especially Sicilian with his native Tuscan (supposedly derived from Etruscan and Oscan).
In contrast to the dialects of northern Italy, these older Italian dialects were largely untouched by the Franco- Occitan influences introduced to Italy, mainly by bards from France, during the middle ages.
Of the major Latin language-derived Romance languages Italian is the closest to Latin, although there are several isolated minority languages spoken in Italy which are even closer to Latin, for example Sardo logudorese language.
Italians generally beleive that the best spoken Italian is lingua toscana in bocca romana - 'the Tuscan tongue, in a Roman mouth' (Tuscan dialects spoken with Roman inflection). The formative event behind the rise of Tuscan as the elite/preferred dialect in Italy is generally beleived to have been Dante's Commedia, to which Boccaccio affixed the title Divina in the 14th century.
The economic might and relative advanced development of Tuscany at the time (late middle ages), gave its dialect weight, though Venetian remained widespread in medeival Italian commercial life. Also, the increasing cultural relevance of Florence during the periods of ' Umanesimo ' and Rinascimento(Renaissance) made its vulgare (dialect) a standard in the arts.
