Italian language - Wikipedia

Italian language - Wikipedia
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Romance language
This article is about the Italian language. For the regional varieties of standard Italian, see
Regional Italian
"Italiano" redirects here. For other uses, see
Italiano (disambiguation)
Italian
Standard Italian
italiano
lingua italiana
Pronunciation
[itaˈljaːno]
Native to
Italy
San Marino
Vatican City
Switzerland
Slovenia
Slovene Istria
),
Croatia
Istria
Region
Italian peninsula
Ethnicity
Italians
Speakers
L1
: 65 million (2022)
L2
: 3.1-21 million
Total: 85 million
Language family
Indo-European
Italic
Latino-Faliscan
Latin
Romance
Italo-Western
Italo-Dalmatian
Italo-Romance
Tuscan
Northern Tuscan dialects
Florentine dialect
Italian
Early forms
Old Latin
Vulgar Latin
Tuscan
Florentine
Dialects
Maltese Italian
Swiss Italian
Various forms of
regional Italian
Writing system
Latin script
Italian alphabet
Italian Braille
Signed forms
Italiano segnato
"(Signed Italian)"
italiano segnato esatto
"(Signed Exact Italian)"
Official status
Official language in
4 countries
Italy
San Marino
Switzerland
Vatican City
2 regions
Slovene Istria
Slovenia
Istria County
Croatia
Various organisations and orders
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
European Union
FAO
Holy See
OSCE
IDLO
IIHL
Mediterranean Universities Union
UNICRI
UNIDROIT
and others
Recognised minority
language in
6 countries
Argentina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
6 municipalities
Croatia
Romania
Slovenia
Regulated by
Accademia della Crusca
de facto
Language codes
ISO 639-1
it
ISO 639-2
ita
ISO 639-3
ita
Glottolog
ital1282
Linguasphere
51-AAA-q
Geographical distribution of the Italian language in the world:
Areas where it is the majority language
Areas where it is a minority language or where it was a former colonial language
Areas where notable Italian-speaking communities are present
This article contains
IPA
phonetic symbols.
Without proper
rendering support
, you may see
question marks, boxes, or other symbols
instead of
Unicode
characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see
Help:IPA
This article is part of
the series
on the
Italian language
Italo-Dalmatian languages
Tuscan
Florentine
Regional Italian
Accademia della Crusca
Enciclopedia Treccani
History
Veronese Riddle
Placiti Cassinesi
Sicilian School
Dolce Stil Novo
The Divine Comedy
Pontifical Academy of Arcadia
Italian Purism
The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis
The Betrothed
Literature
and other
Culture
Literature
Music
Philosophy
Poetry
Comics
Italophilia
Grammar
Verb conjugation
Alphabet
Orthography
Braille
Phonology
Syntactic gemination
Tuscan gorgia
Italian
italiano
pronounced
[itaˈljaːno]
, or
lingua italiana
pronounced
[ˈliŋɡwa
itaˈljaːna]
) is a
Romance language
of the
Indo-European language family
. It evolved from the
Vulgar Latin
of the
Roman Empire
and,
together with
Sardinian
, is the least differentiated language from Latin.
Current estimates indicate that between 68 and 85 million people speak Italian, including approximately 64 million native speakers as of 2024.
Italian is an
official language
in
Italy
San Marino
Switzerland
Ticino
and part of the
Grisons
), and
Vatican City
, and it has official
minority status
in
Croatia
Slovenia
Istria
),
Romania
Bosnia and Herzegovina
and in
6 municipalities of Brazil
10
11
It is also spoken in other European and non-EU countries, most notably in
Malta
(by 66% of the population),
12
Albania
(upwards of 70%),
13
and
Monaco
as well as by large
immigrant and expatriate communities
in the
Americas
Australia
, and on other continents.
Italian is a major
language in Europe
, being one of the official languages of the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
and one of the working languages of the
Council of Europe
. It is the third-most-widely spoken native
language in the European Union
(13% of the EU population) and it is spoken as a second language by 13 million EU citizens (3%).
14
15
16
Italian is the main working language of the
Holy See
, serving as the
lingua franca
in the
Roman Catholic hierarchy
and the official language of the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
. Italian influence led to the development of
derivated languages and dialects
worldwide. It is also widespread in various sectors and markets, with
its loanwords
used in arts, luxury goods, fashion, sports and cuisine; it has a significant use in
musical terminology
and
opera
, with numerous Italian words referring to music that have become international terms taken into various languages worldwide, including
in English
17
Italian is considered a conservative Romance language in phonology, lexicon, and morphology. Almost all native Italian words end with
vowels
, and the language has a 7-vowel
sound system
("e" and "o" have mid-low and mid-high sounds).
18
Italian has contrast between short and
long consonants
and
gemination
(doubling) of consonants.
History
edit
"History of Italian" redirects here. For the history of the Italian people, see
Italians
. For the history of the Italian culture, see
culture of Italy
Origins
edit
The
Veronese Riddle
c.
8th or early 9th century), a riddle reflecting either a form of Medieval Latin or the earliest extant example of Romance vernacular in Italy
The Italian language has developed through a long and slow process, which began after the
Western Roman Empire's fall
and the onset of the
Middle Ages
in the 5th century.
19
Latin, the predominant language of the western Roman Empire, remained the established written language in Europe during the Middle Ages, although most people were illiterate. Over centuries, the
Vulgar Latin
popularly spoken in various areas of Europe—including the
Italian peninsula
—evolved into local varieties, or dialects, unaffected by formal standards and teachings. These varieties are not in any sense "dialects" of standard Italian, which itself started off as one of these local tongues, but
sister languages
of Italian.
20
21
The Latin-speaking class referred to the collective Romance vernaculars of Europe as
Romanz
Romance
, or, in Italy,
Romanzo
or
Volgare
22
The linguistic and historical demarcations between late Vulgar Latin and early Romance varieties in Italy are imprecise. The earliest surviving texts that can definitely be called vernacular (as distinct from its predecessor Vulgar Latin) are legal formulae known as the
Placiti Cassinesi
from the
province of Benevento
that date from 960 to 963, although the
Veronese Riddle
, probably from the 8th or early 9th century, contains a late form of Vulgar Latin that can be seen as a very early sample of a vernacular dialect of Italy.
23
The
Commodilla catacomb inscription
likewise probably dates to the early 9th century and appears to reflect a language somewhere between late Vulgar Latin and early vernacular.
Dante Alighieri
, whose works helped establish modern Italian language, is considered one of the greatest poets of the
Middle Ages
. His epic poem
Divine Comedy
ranks among the finest works of
world literature
24
The language that came to be thought of as Italian developed in central Tuscany and was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer
Dante Alighieri
, written in his native
Florentine
. Dante's
epic poems
, known collectively as the
Commedia
, to which another Tuscan poet
Giovanni Boccaccio
later affixed the title
Divina
, were read throughout the Italian peninsula. His written vernacular became the touchstone for elaborating a "canonical standard" that all educated Italians could understand. The poetry of
Petrarch
was also widely admired and influential in the development of the literary language, and would be identified as a model for vernacular writing by
Pietro Bembo
in the 16th century.
In addition to the widespread exposure gained through literature, Florentine also gained prestige due to the political and cultural significance of Florence at the time and the fact that it was linguistically a middle way between the northern and the southern Italian dialects.
Italian was progressively made an official language of most of the Italian states predating unification, slowly replacing Latin, even when ruled by foreign powers (such as Spain in the
Kingdom of Naples
, or Austria in the
Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia
), although the masses kept speaking primarily their local vernaculars. Italian was also one of the many recognised languages in the
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Italy has always had a distinctive vernacular for each city because the cities, until recently, were thought of as
city-states
. Those local languages have considerable
variety
, and 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
Italian and
Milanese
Italian are
syntactic gemination
of initial
consonants
in some contexts and the pronunciation of stressed "e", and of "s" between vowels in many words: e.g.
va bene
'all right' is pronounced
[vabˈbɛːne]
by a Roman (and by any standard Italian speaker),
[vaˈbeːne]
by a Milanese (and by any speaker whose native dialect lies to the north of the
La Spezia–Rimini Line
);
a casa
'at home' is
[akˈkaːsa]
for Roman,
[akˈkaːsa]
or
[akˈkaːza]
for standard,
[aˈkaːza]
for Milanese and generally northern.
25
In contrast to the
Gallo-Italic linguistic panorama
of northern Italy, the
Italo-Dalmatian
Neapolitan
and its related dialects were largely unaffected by the Franco-
Occitan
influences introduced to Italy mainly by
bards
from France 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 languages, however, scholars are careful not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages.
The economic might and relatively advanced development of Tuscany at the time (
Late Middle Ages
) gave its language weight, although
Venetian
remained widespread in medieval Italian commercial life, and
Ligurian (or Genoese)
remained in use in maritime trade alongside the Mediterranean. The increasing political and cultural relevance of Florence during the periods of the rise of the
Medici Bank
humanism
, and the
Renaissance
made its dialect, or rather a refined version of it, a standard in the arts.
Renaissance
edit
The
Renaissance
era, known as
il Rinascimento
in Italian, was seen as a time of rebirth, which is the literal meaning of both
renaissance
(from French) and
rinascimento
(Italian). Among its many manifestations, the Renaissance saw a reinvigorated interest in both classical antiquity and vernacular literature.
26
Advancements in technology played a crucial role in the diffusion of the Italian language. The
printing press
was invented in the 15th century, and spread rapidly. By the year 1500, there were 56 printing presses in Italy, more than anywhere else in Europe. The printing press enabled the production of literature and documents in higher volumes and at lower cost, further accelerating the spread of Italian.
27
Italian became the language used in the courts of every state in the
Italian peninsula
, and the
prestige variety
used on the island of
Corsica
28
(but not in the neighbouring
Sardinia
, which on the contrary underwent
Italianization
well into the late 18th century, under
Savoyard
sway: the island's linguistic composition, roofed by the prestige of Spanish among the
Sardinians
, would therein make for a rather slow process of
assimilation
to the Italian cultural sphere
29
30
). The rediscovery 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. This discussion, known as
questione della lingua
(i.e., the
problem of the language
), ran through the Italian culture until the end of the 19th century, often linked to the political debate on achieving a united Italian state. Renaissance scholars divided into three main factions:
The
purists
, headed by Venetian
Pietro Bembo
(who, in his
Gli Asolani
, claimed the language might be based only on the great literary classics, such as
Petrarch
and some part of Boccaccio). The purists thought the
Divine Comedy
was not dignified enough because it used elements from non-lyric registers of the language.
Niccolò Machiavelli
and other
Florentines
preferred the version spoken by ordinary people in their own times.
The
courtiers
, such as
Baldassare Castiglione
and
Gian Giorgio Trissino
, insisted that each local vernacular contribute to the new standard.
A fourth faction claimed that the best Italian was the one that the papal court adopted, which was a mixture of the
Tuscan
and
Roman
dialects.
31
Eventually, Bembo's ideas prevailed, and the foundation of the
Accademia della Crusca
in Florence (1582–1583), the official legislative body of the Italian language, led to the publication of
Agnolo Monosini
's Latin tome
Floris italicae linguae libri novem
in 1604 followed by the first Italian dictionary in 1612.
Modern era
edit
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needs additional citations for
verification
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An important event that helped the diffusion of Italian was the conquest and occupation of Italy by
Napoleon
(himself of Italian-Corsican descent) in the early 19th century. This conquest propelled the
unification of Italy
some decades after and pushed the Italian language into the status of a
lingua franca
, used not only among clerks, nobility, and functionaries in the Italian courts, but also by the
bourgeoisie
Today Italy has reached linguistic unity and an overwhelming majority of its 56 million citizens speak Italian. Many dialects are still alive, especially by the older generations. Today, Italian is one of the most studied foreign languages in the world.
32
Contemporary times
edit
Alessandro Manzoni
is famous for the novel
The Betrothed
(1827), ranked among the masterpieces of world literature.
33
He contributed to the nationwide use of the Italian language.
34
The publication of Italian literature's first modern novel,
I promessi sposi
The Betrothed
) by
Alessandro Manzoni
, both reflected and furthered the growing trend towards Italian as a national standard language. Manzoni, a Milanesian, chose to write the book in the Florentine dialect, describing this choice, in the preface to his 1840 edition, as "rinsing" his Milanese "in the waters of the
Arno
" (
Florence
's river). The novel is commonly described as "the most widely read work in the Italian language".
35
It became a model for subsequent Italian literary fiction,
35
helping to galvanize national linguistic unity around the Florentine dialect.
This growth was initially relative; linguistic diversity continued during the unification of Italy (1848–1871). The Italian linguist
Tullio De Mauro
estimated that only 2.5% of Italy's population could speak the Italian standardized language properly in 1861,
36
while Arrigo Castellani estimated the same value as 10%.
37
38
Classification
edit
Italian is a
Romance language
, a descendant of
Vulgar Latin
(colloquial spoken Latin). Standard Italian is based on
Tuscan
, especially its
Florentine dialect
, and is, therefore, an
Italo-Dalmatian language
, a classification that includes most other central and southern Italian languages and the extinct
Dalmatian
. As in most Romance languages,
stress
is distinctive in Italian.
39
According to
Ethnologue
lexical similarity
is 89% with French, 87% with
Catalan
, 85% with
Sardinian
, 82% with Spanish, 82% with
Portuguese
, 78% with
Ladin
, 77% with
Romanian
Estimates may differ according to sources.
40
A 1949 study by the linguist
Mario Pei
concluded that out of seven Romance languages, Italian's stressed vowel phonology was the second-closest to that of Classical Latin (after
Logudorese Sardinian
).
41
The study emphasized, however, that it represented only "a very elementary, incomplete and tentative demonstration" of how statistical methods could measure linguistic change, assigned "frankly arbitrary" point values to various types of change, and did not compare languages in the sample with respect to any characteristics or forms of divergence other than stressed vowels, among other caveats.
42
43
Geographic distribution
edit
Main article:
Geographical distribution of Italian speakers
See also:
Italian language in Argentina
Italian language in Brazil
Italian language in Canada
Italian language in Croatia
Maltese Italian
Italian language in Slovenia
Swiss Italian
Italian language in the United States
, and
Italian language in Venezuela
Italian language in Switzerland
Italian is the official language of Italy and
San Marino
and is spoken fluently by the majority of the countries' populations. Italian is the third most spoken language in
Switzerland
(after German and French; see
Swiss Italian
). It is official both on the national level and on regional level in two
cantons
Ticino
and Grisons. Ticino, which includes
Lugano
, the largest Italian-speaking city outside Italy, is the only canton where Italian is predominant.
44
Italian is also used in administration and official documents in
Vatican City
45
Italian is also spoken by a minority in
Monaco
and France, especially in the southeastern part of the country.
46
Italian was the official language in
Savoy
and in
Nice
until 1860, when they were both annexed by France under the
Treaty of Turin
, a development that triggered the "
Niçard exodus
", or the emigration of a quarter of the
Niçard Italians
to Italy,
47
and the
Niçard Vespers
Giuseppe Garibaldi
complained about the referendum that allowed France to annex Savoy and Nice, and a group of his followers (among the
Italian Savoyards
) took refuge in Italy in the following years.
Corsica
passed from the
Republic of Genoa
to France in 1769 after the
Treaty of Versailles
. Italian was the official language of
Corsica
until 1859.
48
Giuseppe Garibaldi called for the inclusion of the "
Corsican Italians
" within Italy when
Rome was annexed
to the
Kingdom of Italy
, but King
Victor Emmanuel II
did not agree to it. Italian is generally understood in Corsica by the population resident therein who speak
Corsican
, which is an Italo-Romance language similar to Tuscan.
49
Francization
occurred in Nice case, and caused a near-disappearance of the Italian language as many of the Italian speakers in these areas migrated to Italy.
50
51
In Corsica, on the other hand, almost everyone still speaks the
Corsican language
, which, due to its linguistic proximity to the Italian standard language, appears both linguistically as an Italian dialect and therefore as a carrier of Italian culture, despite the French government's decades-long efforts to cut Corsica off from the Italian motherland. Italian was the official language in
Monaco
until 1860, when it was replaced by the French.
52
This was due to the annexation of the surrounding
County of Nice
to France following the
Treaty of Turin (1860)
52
Percent of inhabitants with Italian native tongue in
Croatia
's and
Slovenia
's
Istria
It formerly had official status in
Montenegro
(because of the
Venetian Albania
), parts of
Slovenia
and
Croatia
(because of the
Venetian Istria
and
Venetian Dalmatia
), parts of
Greece
(because of the
Venetian rule in the Ionian Islands
and by the
Kingdom of Italy in the Dodecanese
). Italian is widely spoken in
Malta
, where nearly two-thirds of the population can speak it fluently (see
Maltese Italian
).
53
Italian served as Malta's official language until 1934, when it was abolished by the British colonial administration amid strong local opposition.
54
Italian language in Slovenia
is an officially recognised
minority language
in the country.
55
The official census, carried out in 2002, reported 2,258 ethnic Italians (
Istrian Italians
) in
Slovenia
(0.11% of the total population).
56
Italian language in Croatia
is an official minority language in the country, with many schools and public announcements published in both languages.
55
The 2001 census in
Croatia
reported 19,636 ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and
Dalmatian Italians
) in the country (some 0.42% of the total population).
57
Their numbers dropped dramatically after
World War II
following the
Istrian–Dalmatian exodus
, which caused the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians.
58
59
Italian was the official language of the
Republic of Ragusa
from 1492 to 1807.
60
Italy and
its colonial possessions
in 1940
It formerly had official status in
Albania
due to the
annexation of the country to the Kingdom of Italy
(1939–1943). Albania has a large population of non-native speakers, with over half of the population having some knowledge of the Italian language.
13
The Albanian government has pushed to make Italian a compulsory second language in schools.
61
The Italian language is well-known and studied in Albania,
62
due to its historical ties and geographical proximity to Italy and to the diffusion of Italian television in the country.
63
Due to heavy Italian influence during the
Italian colonial period
, Italian is still understood by some in former colonies such as Libya.
Although it was the primary language in
Libya
since
colonial rule
, Italian greatly declined under the
rule of Muammar Gaddafi
, who expelled the
Italian Libyan
population and made
Arabic
the sole official language of the country.
64
A few hundred Italian settlers returned to Libya in the 2000s.
Italian was the official language of
Eritrea
during
Italian colonisation
. Italian is today used in commerce, and it is still spoken especially among elders; besides that, Italian words are incorporated as loan words in the main language spoken in the country (Tigrinya). The capital city of Eritrea,
Asmara
, still has several Italian schools, established during the colonial period. In the early 19th century, Eritrea was the country with the highest number of Italians abroad, and the
Italian Eritreans
grew from 4,000 during World War I to nearly 100,000 at the beginning of World War II.
65
In Asmara there are two Italian schools, the
Istituto Italiano Statale Omnicomprensivo di Asmara
(Italian primary school with a
Montessori
department) and the
Liceo Sperimentale "G. Marconi"
(Italian international senior high school).
Italian was also introduced to
Somalia
through colonialism and was the sole official language of administration and education during the
colonial period
but fell out of use after government, educational and economic infrastructure were destroyed in the
Somali Civil War
Italian language in the United States
Italian is also spoken by large
immigrant and expatriate communities
in the Americas and Australia.
Although over 17 million
Americans are of Italian descent
, only a little over one million people in the United States speak Italian at home.
66
new archival link needed
Nevertheless, an Italian language media market does exist in the country.
67
In Canada, Italian is the second most spoken non-official language when
varieties of Chinese
are not grouped together, with 375,645 claiming Italian as their
mother tongue
in 2016.
68
Italian immigrants to South America have also brought a presence of the language to that continent. According to some sources, Italian is the second most spoken language in
Argentina
69
after the official language of Spanish, although its number of speakers, mainly of the older generation, is decreasing. Italian bilingual speakers can be found scattered across the southeast of Brazil and in the south.
In
Venezuela
, Italian is the most spoken language after Spanish and Portuguese, with around 200,000 speakers.
70
In
Uruguay
, people who speak Italian as their home language are 1.1% of the total population of the country.
71
In Australia, Italian is the second most spoken foreign language after Chinese, with 1.4% of the population speaking it as their home language.
72
The main Italian-language newspapers published outside Italy are the
L'Osservatore Romano
Vatican City
), the
L'Informazione di San Marino
San Marino
), the
Corriere del Ticino
and the
laRegione Ticino
Switzerland
), the
La Voce del Popolo
Croatia
), the
Corriere d'Italia
(Germany), the
L'italoeuropeo
(United Kingdom), the
Passaparola
Luxembourg
), the
America Oggi
(United States), the
Corriere Canadese
and the
Corriere Italiano
(Canada), the
Il punto d'incontro
(Mexico), the
L'Italia del Popolo
Argentina
), the
Fanfulla
(Brazil), the
Gente d'Italia
Uruguay
), the
La Voce d'Italia
Venezuela
), the
Il Globo
(Australia) and the
La gazzetta del Sud Africa
(South Africa).
73
74
75
Education
edit
Italian Secondary School in Rijeka/Fiume
Croatia
Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world. In the 21st century, technology also allows for the continual spread of the Italian language, as people have new ways to learn how to speak, read, and write languages at their own pace and at any given time. For example, the free website and application
Duolingo
has 4.94 million English speakers learning the Italian language.
76
According to the
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
, every year there are more than 200,000 foreign students who study the Italian language; they are distributed among the 90
Institutes of Italian Culture
that are located around the world, in the 179 Italian schools located abroad, or in the 111 Italian lecturer sections belonging to foreign schools where Italian is taught as a language of culture.
77
As of 2022, Australia had the highest number of students learning Italian in the world. This occurred because of support by the Italian community in Australia and the Italian Government and also because of successful educational reform efforts led by local governments in Australia.
78
Influence and derived languages
edit
Main article:
Italian diaspora
See also:
Chipilo Venetian dialect
Cocoliche
Italian Eritrean
Italo-Australian dialect
Simplified Italian of Somalia
Itanglese
Lunfardo
Macarrônico
, and
Talian dialect
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does not
cite
any
sources
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Municipalities where
Talian
is co-official in
Rio Grande do Sul
, Brazil
Trilingual sign in
San Francisco, Argentina
, in Spanish, Italian, and
Piedmontese
From the late 19th to the mid-20th century, millions of Italians settled in Argentina, Uruguay, southern Brazil, and Venezuela, and in Canada and the United States, where they formed a physical and cultural presence.
In some cases, colonies were established where variants of regional
languages of Italy
were used, and some continue to use this regional language. Examples are
Rio Grande do Sul
, Brazil, where
Talian
is used, and the town of
Chipilo
near Puebla, Mexico; each continues to use a derived form of
Venetian
dating back to the 19th century. Other examples are
Cocoliche
, an Italian–Spanish
pidgin
once spoken in
Argentina
and especially in
Buenos Aires
, and
Lunfardo
. The
Rioplatense Spanish
dialect of Argentina and Uruguay today has thus been heavily influenced by both standard Italian and Italian regional languages as a result.
Lingua franca
edit
See also:
Mediterranean Lingua Franca
Starting in late
medieval
times in much of Europe and the Mediterranean, Latin was replaced as the primary commercial language by languages of Italy, especially Tuscan and Venetian. These varieties were consolidated during the
Renaissance
with the strength of Italy and the rise of
humanism
and
the arts
Italy came to enjoy increasing artistic prestige within Europe. A mark of the educated gentlemen was to make the
Grand Tour
, visiting Italy to see its great historical monuments and works of art. It was expected that the visitor would learn at least some Italian, understood as language based on Florentine. In England, while the classical languages
Latin
and
Greek
were the first to be learned, Italian became the second most common modern language after French, a position it held until the late 18th century when it tended to be replaced by German.
John Milton
, for instance, wrote some of his early poetry in Italian.
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.
Italian
loanwords
continue to be used in most languages in matters of art and music (especially classical music including opera), in the design and fashion industries, in some sports such as
football
79
and especially in culinary terms.
Languages and dialects
edit
See also:
Languages of Italy
and
Regional Italian
Linguistic map of Italy according to Clemente Merlo and Carlo Tagliavini (1937)
Italy's ethno-linguistic minorities
80
In Italy, almost all the
other languages spoken as the vernacular
—other than standard Italian and some languages spoken among immigrant communities—are often called "
Italian dialects
", a label that can be very misleading if it is understood to mean "dialects of Italian". The Romance dialects of Italy are local evolutions of spoken Latin that pre-date the establishment of Italian, and as such are
sister languages
to the Tuscan that was the historical source of Italian. They can be quite different from Italian and from each other, with some belonging to different linguistic branches of Romance. The only exceptions to this are twelve groups considered "
historical language minorities
", which are officially recognised as distinct
minority languages
by the law. On the other hand,
Corsican
(a language spoken on the French island of
Corsica
) is closely related to medieval
Tuscan
, from which standard Italian derives and evolved.
The differences in the evolution of Latin in the different regions of Italy can be attributed to the natural
changes
that all languages in regular use are subject to, and to some extent to the presence of three other types of languages:
substrata, superstrata, and adstrata
. The most prevalent were substrata (the language of the original inhabitants), as the Italian dialects were most probably simply Latin as spoken by native cultural groups. Superstrata and adstrata were both less important. Foreign conquerors of Italy that dominated different regions at different times left behind little to no influence on the dialects. Foreign cultures with which Italy engaged in peaceful relations with, such as trade, had no significant influence either.
20
: 19–20
Throughout Italy, regional varieties of standard Italian, called
Regional Italian
, are spoken. Regional differences can be recognised by various factors: the openness of vowels, the length of the consonants, and influence of the local language (for example, in informal situations
andà
annà
and
nare
replace the standard Italian
andare
in the area of Tuscany, Rome and Venice respectively for the infinitive 'to go').
There is no definitive date when the various Italian variants of Latin—including varieties that contributed to modern standard Italian—began to be distinct enough from Latin to be considered separate languages. One criterion for determining that two language variants are to be considered separate languages rather than variants of a single language is that they have evolved so that they are no longer
mutually intelligible
; this diagnostic is effective if mutual intelligibility is minimal or absent (e.g. in Romance, Romanian and Portuguese), but it fails in cases such as Spanish-Portuguese or Spanish-Italian, as educated native speakers of either pairing (particularly Spanish-Portuguese) can understand each other well if they choose to do so; however, the level of intelligibility is markedly lower between Italian-Spanish, and considerably higher between the Iberian sister languages of Portuguese-Spanish. Speakers of this latter pair can communicate with one another with remarkable ease, each speaking to the other in his own native language, without slang/jargon.
Nevertheless, on the basis of accumulated differences in morphology, syntax, phonology, and to some extent lexicon, it is not difficult to identify that for the Romance varieties of Italy, the first extant written evidence of languages that can no longer be considered Latin comes from the 9th and 10th centuries CE. These written sources demonstrate certain vernacular characteristics and sometimes explicitly mention the use of the vernacular in Italy.
Full literary manifestations of the vernacular began to surface around the 13th century in the form of various religious texts and poetry.
20
: 21
Although these are the first written records of Italian varieties separate from Latin, the spoken language had probably diverged long before the first written records appeared since those who were literate generally wrote in Latin even if they spoke other Romance varieties in person.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the use of standard Italian became increasingly widespread and was mirrored by a decline in the use of the dialects. An increase in literacy was one of the main driving factors (one can assume that only literates were capable of learning standard Italian, whereas those who were illiterate had access only to their native dialect). The percentage of literates rose from 25% in 1861 to 60% in 1911, and then on to 78.1% in 1951.
Tullio De Mauro
, an Italian linguist, has asserted that in 1861, only 2.5% of the population of Italy could speak standard Italian. He reports that in 1951, that percentage had risen to 87%. The ability to speak Italian did not necessarily mean that it was in everyday use, and most people (63.5%) still usually spoke their native dialects. In addition, other factors such as mass emigration, industrialization, and urbanization, and internal migrations after
World War II
, contributed to the proliferation of standard Italian. The Italians who emigrated during the
Italian diaspora
beginning in 1861 were often of the uneducated lower class, and thus the emigration had the effect of increasing the percentage of literates, who often knew and understood the importance of standard Italian back home in Italy. A large percentage of those who had emigrated also eventually returned to Italy, often more educated than when they had left.
20
: 35
Although use of the Italian dialects has declined in the
modern era
, as Italy unified under standard Italian and continues to do so aided by mass media from newspapers to radio to television,
diglossia
is still frequently encountered in Italy and
triglossia
is not uncommon in emigrant communities among older speakers. Both situations normally involve some degree of
code-switching
and
code-mixing
81
Phonology
edit
Main article:
Italian phonology
Luke 2
, 1–7 of the Bible being read by a speaker of Italian from
Milan
This section is an excerpt from
Italian phonology § Consonants
edit
Consonant phonemes
Labial
Dental
alveolar
Post-
alveolar
palatal
Velar
Nasal
Stop
Affricate
t͡s
d͡z
t͡ʃ
d͡ʒ
Fricative
Approximant
Lateral
Trill
Notes:
Between two vowels, or between a vowel and an approximant (
/j,
w/
) or a liquid (
/l,
r/
), consonants can be both singleton or
geminate
. Geminate consonants shorten the preceding vowel (or block phonetic lengthening) and the first element of the geminate is
unreleased
. For example, compare
/fato/
[ˈfaːto]
('fate') with
/fatto/
[ˈfat̚to]
('fact' or 'did'/'done').
82
83
However,
/ɲ/
/ʃ/
/ʎ/
/d͡z/
/t͡s/
are always geminate intervocalically, including across word boundaries.
84
Similarly, nasals, liquids, and sibilants are pronounced slightly longer in medial consonant clusters.
85
/j/
/w/
, and
/z/
are the only consonants that cannot be geminated.
/t,
d/
are
laminal
denti-alveolar
t̪
d̪
86
87
84
commonly called "dental" for simplicity.
/k,
ɡ/
are pre-velar before
/i,
e,
ɛ,
j/
87
/t͡s,
d͡z,
s,
z/
have two variants:
Dentalized laminal
alveolar
t̪͡s̪
d̪͡z̪
s̪
z̪
86
88
(commonly called "dental" for simplicity), pronounced with the blade of the tongue very close to the upper front teeth, with the tip of the tongue resting behind lower front teeth.
88
Non-retracted
apical
alveolar
t͡s̺
d͡z̺
s̺
z̺
88
The stop component of the "apical" affricates is actually laminal denti-alveolar.
88
/n,
l,
r/
are apical alveolar
n̺
l̺
r̺
in most environments.
86
84
89
/n,
l/
are laminal denti-alveolar
n̪
l̪
before
/t,
d,
t͡s,
d͡z,
s,
z/
84
90
91
and
palatalized
laminal
postalveolar
[n̠ʲ,
l̠ʲ]
before
/t͡ʃ,
d͡ʒ,
ʃ/
92
93
dubious
discuss
/n/
is velar
before
/k,
ɡ/
94
95
/m/
and
/n/
do not contrast before
/p,
b/
and
/f,
v/
, where they are pronounced
and
, respectively.
94
96
/ɲ/
and
/ʎ/
are
alveolo-palatal
97
In a large number of accents,
/ʎ/
is a fricative
ʎ̝
98
Intervocalically, single
/r/
is realised as a trill with one or two contacts.
99
Some literature treats the single-contact trill as a
tap
100
101
Single-contact trills can also occur elsewhere, particularly in unstressed syllables.
102
Geminate
/rr/
manifests as a trill with three to seven contacts.
99
The phonemic distinction between
/s/
and
/z/
is neutralized before consonants and at the beginning of words: the former is used before voiceless consonants and before vowels at the beginning of words; the latter is used before voiced consonants. The two can contrast only between vowels within a word, e.g.
fuso
/ˈfuzo/
'melted' versus
fuso
/ˈfuso/
'spindle'. According to Canepari,
101
although, the
traditional
standard has been replaced by a modern
neutral pronunciation
which always prefers
/z/
when intervocalic, except when the intervocalic
is the initial sound of a word, if the compound is still felt as such: for example,
presento
/preˈsɛnto/
103
('I foresee', with
pre-
meaning 'before' and
sento
meaning 'I perceive') vs
presento
/preˈzɛnto/
104
('I present'). There are many words for which dictionaries now indicate that both pronunciations, either
[z]
or
[s]
, are acceptable. Word-internally between vowels, the two phonemes have merged in many regional varieties of Italian, as either
/z/
(northern-central) or
/s/
(southern-central).
Italian has a seven-vowel system, consisting of
/a,
ɛ,
e,
i,
ɔ,
o,
u/
, and 23 consonants. Compared with most other Romance languages, Italian phonology is conservative, preserving many words nearly unchanged from
Vulgar Latin
. Some examples:
Italian
quattordici
'fourteen' < Latin
quattuordecim
(cf. Spanish
catorce
, French
quatorze
/katɔʁz/
Catalan
and
Portuguese
catorze
Italian
settimana
'week' < Latin
septimāna
(cf. Romanian
săptămână
, Spanish and Portuguese
semana
, French
semaine
/səmɛn/
Catalan
setmana
Italian
medesimo
'same' < Vulgar Latin *
medi(p)simum
(cf. Spanish
mismo
Portuguese
mesmo
, French
même
/mɛm/
Catalan
mateix
; Italian usually prefers the shorter
stesso
Italian
guadagnare
'to win, earn, gain' < Vulgar Latin *
guadaniāre
Germanic
/waidanjan/
(cf. Spanish
ganar
, Portuguese
ganhar
, French
gagner
/ɡaɲe/
Catalan
guanyar
).
The conservative nature of Italian phonology is partly explained by its origin. Italian stems from a literary language that is derived from the 13th-century speech of the city of
Florence
in the region of
Tuscany
, and has changed little in the last 700 years or so. Furthermore, the Tuscan dialect is the most conservative of all
Italian dialects
, radically different from the
Gallo-Italian languages
less than 160 kilometres (100 mi) to the north (across the
La Spezia–Rimini Line
).
The following are some of the conservative phonological features of Italian, as compared with the common
Western Romance
languages (French, Spanish,
Portuguese
Galician
Catalan
). Some of these features are also present in
Romanian
Little or no
phonemic
lenition
of consonants between vowels, e.g.
vīta
vita
'life' (cf. Romanian
viață
, Spanish
vida
[ˈbiða]
, French
vie
),
pedem
piede
'foot' (cf. Spanish
pie
, French
pied
/pje/
).
Words that are an exception to this rule exist, such as:
scvtella
scodella
'bowl',
recipere
ricevere
'receive',
lacvs
lago
'lake',
acvs
ago
'needle', (only in the
Tuscan
accent and historical standard Italian)
vīsus
viso
/vizo/
'face'.
105
Preservation of geminate consonants, e.g.
annum
/ˈanːo/
anno
'year' (cf. Spanish
año
/ˈaɲo/
, French
an
/ɑ̃/
, Romanian
an
, Portuguese
ano
/ˈɐnu/
).
Preservation of all
Proto-Romance
final vowels, e.g.
pacem
pace
'peace' (cf. Romanian
pace
, Spanish
paz
, French
paix
/pɛ/
),
octō
otto
'eight' (cf. Romanian
opt
, Spanish
ocho
, French
huit
/ɥi(t)/
),
fēcī
feci
'I did' (cf. Romanian dialectal
feci
, Spanish
hice
, French
fis
/fi/
).
Preservation of most intertonic vowels (those between the stressed syllable and either the beginning or ending syllable). This accounts for some of the most noticeable differences, as in the forms
quattordici
and
settimana
given above.
Slower consonant development, e.g.
folia
> Italo-Western
/fɔʎʎa/
foglia
/ˈfɔʎʎa/
'leaf' (cf. Romanian
foaie
/ˈfo̯aje/
, Spanish
hoja
/ˈoxa/
, French
feuille
/fœj/
; but note Portuguese
folha
/ˈfoʎɐ/
).
Compared with most other Romance languages, Italian has many inconsistent outcomes, where the same underlying sound produces different results in different words, e.g.
laxāre
lasciare
and
lassare
captiāre
cacciare
and
cazzare
(ex)dēroteolāre
sdrucciolare
druzzolare
and
ruzzolare
rēgīna
regina
and
reina
. Although in all these examples the second form has fallen out of usage, the dimorphism is thought to reflect the several-hundred-year period during which Italian developed as a literary language divorced from any native-speaking population, with an origin in 12th/13th-century Tuscan but with many words borrowed from
languages
farther to the north, with different sound outcomes. (The
La Spezia–Rimini Line
, the most important
isogloss
in the entire Romance-language area, passes only about 30 kilometres or 20 miles north of Florence.) Dual outcomes of Latin
/p
k/
between vowels, such as
lŏcvm
luogo
but
fŏcvm
fuoco
, was once thought to be due to borrowing of northern voiced forms, but is now generally viewed as the result of early phonetic variation within Tuscany.
Some other features that distinguish Italian from the Western Romance languages:
Latin
ce-,ci-
becomes
/tʃe,
tʃi/
rather than
/(t)se,
(t)si/
Latin
-ct-
becomes
/tt/
rather than
/jt/
or
/tʃ/
octō
otto
'eight' (cf. Spanish
ocho
, French
huit,
Portuguese
oito
).
Vulgar Latin
-cl-
becomes
cchi
/kkj/
rather than
/ʎ/
oclum
occhio
'eye' (cf. Portuguese
olho
/ˈoʎu/
, French
œil
/œj/
/œʎ/
); but Romanian
ochi
/okʲ/
Final
/s/
is not preserved, and vowel changes rather than
/s/
are used to mark the plural:
amico
amici
'male friend(s)',
amica
amiche
'female friend(s)' (cf. Romanian
amic
amici
and
amică
amice
; Spanish
amigo(s)
'male friend(s)',
amiga(s)
'female friend(s)');
trēs, sex
tre, sei
'three, six' (cf. Romanian
trei
șase
; Spanish
tres
seis
).
Standard Italian also differs in some respects from most nearby Italian languages:
Perhaps most noticeable is the total lack of
metaphony
, although metaphony is a feature characterizing nearly every other
Italian language
No simplification of original
/nd/
/mb/
(which often became
/nn/,
/mm/
elsewhere).
Assimilation
edit
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Italian
phonotactics
do not usually permit verbs and polysyllabic nouns to end with consonants, except in poetry and song, so foreign words may receive
extra terminal vowel sounds
Writing system
edit
Main article:
Italian orthography
An Italian handwriting script, taught in primary school
Italian has a
shallow orthography
, meaning very regular spelling with an almost one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds. In linguistic terms, the writing system is close to being a
phonemic orthography
106
The most important of the few exceptions are the following (see below for more details):
The letter c represents the sound
/k/
at the end of words and before the letters a, o, and u but represents the sound
tʃ
(as the first sound in the English word
chair
) before the letters e and i.
The letter g represents the sound
/ɡ/
at the end of words and before the letters a, o, and u but represents the sound
dʒ
(as the first sound in the English word
gem
) before the letters e and i.
The letter n represents the phoneme
/n/
, which is pronounced
[ŋ]
(as in the English word
sing
) before the letters c and g when these represent velar plosives
/k/
or
/ɡ/
, as in
banco
[ˈbaŋko]
fungo
[ˈfuŋɡo]
. The letter q represents
/k/
pronounced [k], thus n also represents
[ŋ]
in the position preceding it:
cinque
[ˈt͡ʃiŋkwe]
. Elsewhere the letter n represents
/n/
pronounced
[n]
, including before the
affricates
/tʃ/
or
/dʒ/
spelt with c or g before the letters i and e :
mancia
[ˈmant͡ʃa]
mangia
[ˈmand͡ʒa]
The letter
is always silent:
hotel
/oˈtɛl/
hanno
'they have' and
anno
'year' both represent
/ˈanno/
. It is used to form a
digraph
with
or
to represent
/k/
or
/ɡ/
before
or
chi
/ki/
'who',
che
/ke/
'what';
aghi
/ˈaɡi/
'needles',
ghetto
/ˈɡetto/
The spellings
ci
and
gi
before another vowel represent only
/tʃ/
or
/dʒ/
with no /i/ sound (
ciuccio
/ˈtʃuttʃo/
'pacifier',
Giorgio
/ˈdʒordʒo/
) unless
or
precede stressed
/i/
farmacia
/farmaˈtʃi.a/
'pharmacy',
biologia
/bioloˈdʒi.a/
'biology'). Elsewhere
ci
and
gi
represent
/tʃ/
and
/dʒ/
followed by
/i/
cibo
/ˈtʃibo/
'food',
baci
/ˈbatʃi/
'kisses';
gita
/ˈdʒita/
'trip',
Tamigi
/taˈmidʒi/
'Thames'.*
The Italian alphabet is typically considered to consist of 21 letters. The letters j, k, w, x, y are traditionally excluded, although they appear in loanwords such as
jeans
whisky
taxi
, and
xilofono
. The letter
⟨x⟩
has become common in standard Italian with the prefix
extra-
, although
(e)stra-
is traditionally used; it is also common to use the Latin particle
ex(-)
to mean 'former(ly)' as in
la mia ex
('my ex-girlfriend'), "Ex-Jugoslavia" ('Former Yugoslavia'). The letter
⟨j⟩
appears in the first name
Jacopo
and in some Italian place-names, such as
Bajardo
Bojano
Joppolo
Jerzu
Jesolo
Jesi
Ajaccio
, among others, and in
Mar Jonio
, an alternative spelling of
Mar Ionio
(the
Ionian Sea
). The letter
⟨j⟩
may appear in dialectal words, but its use is discouraged in contemporary standard Italian.
107
Letters used in foreign words can be replaced with
phonetically
equivalent native Italian letters and
digraphs
⟨gi⟩
⟨ge⟩
, or
⟨i⟩
for
⟨j⟩
⟨c⟩
or
⟨ch⟩
for
⟨k⟩
(including in the standard prefix
kilo-
);
⟨o⟩
⟨u⟩
or
⟨v⟩
for
⟨w⟩
⟨s⟩
⟨ss⟩
⟨z⟩
⟨zz⟩
or
⟨cs⟩
for
⟨x⟩
; and
⟨e⟩
or
⟨i⟩
for
⟨y⟩
The
acute accent
is used over word-final
⟨e⟩
to indicate a stressed
front close-mid vowel
, as in
perché
'why, because'. In dictionaries, it is also used over
⟨o⟩
to indicate a stressed
back close-mid vowel
azióne
). The
grave accent
is used over word-final
⟨e⟩
and
⟨o⟩
to indicate a
front open-mid vowel
and a
back open-mid vowel
respectively, as in
tè
'tea', and
può
'(he) can'. The grave accent is used over any vowel to indicate word-final stress, as in
gioventù
'youth'. Unlike
⟨é⟩
, which is a
close
-mid vowel, a stressed final
⟨o⟩
is almost always a
back open-mid vowel
andrò
), with a few exceptions, such as
metró
, with a stressed final
back close-mid vowel
, making
⟨ó⟩
for the most part unnecessary outside of dictionaries. Most of the time, the penultimate syllable is stressed. But if the stressed vowel is the final letter of the word, the accent is mandatory, otherwise, it is virtually always omitted. Exceptions are typically either in dictionaries, where all or most stressed vowels are commonly marked. Accents can optionally be used to disambiguate words that differ only by stress, as for
prìncipi
'princes' and
princìpi
'principles', or
àncora
'anchor' and
ancóra
'still
yet'. For monosyllabic words, the rule is different: when two orthographically identical monosyllabic words with different meanings exist, one is accented and the other is not (example:
'is',
'and').
The letter
⟨h⟩
distinguishes
ho
hai
ha
hanno
(present indicative of
avere
'to have') from
('or'),
ai
('to the'),
('to'),
anno
('year'). In the spoken language, the letter is always silent. The
⟨h⟩
in
ho
additionally marks the contrasting open pronunciation of the
⟨o⟩
. The letter
⟨h⟩
is also used in combinations with other letters. No
phoneme
/h/
exists in Italian. In nativized foreign words, the
⟨h⟩
is silent. For example,
hotel
and
hovercraft
are pronounced
/oˈtɛl/
and
/ˈɔverkraft/
respectively. (Where
⟨h⟩
existed in Latin, it either disappeared or, in a few cases before a back vowel, changed to
[ɡ]
traggo
'I pull' ← Lat.
trahō
.)
The letters
⟨s⟩
and
⟨z⟩
can symbolize
voiced
or
voiceless
consonants.
⟨z⟩
symbolizes
/dz/
or
/ts/
depending on context, with few minimal pairs. For example:
zanzara
/dzanˈdzara/
'mosquito' and
nazione
/natˈtsjone/
'nation'.
⟨s⟩
symbolizes
/s/
word-initially before a vowel, when clustered with a voiceless consonant (
⟨p, f, c, ch⟩
), and when doubled; it symbolizes
/z/
when between vowels and when clustered with voiced consonants. Intervocalic
⟨s⟩
varies regionally between
/s/
and
/z/
, with
/z/
being more dominant in northern Italy and
/s/
in the south.
The letters
⟨c⟩
and
⟨g⟩
vary in pronunciation between
plosives
and
affricates
depending on following vowels. The letter
⟨c⟩
symbolizes
/k/
when word-final and before the back vowels
⟨a, o, u⟩
. It symbolizes
tʃ
as in
chair
before the front vowels
⟨e, i⟩
. The letter
⟨g⟩
symbolizes
/ɡ/
when word-final and before the back vowels
⟨a, o, u⟩
. It symbolizes
dʒ
as in
gem
before the front vowels
⟨e, i⟩
. Other Romance languages and, to an extent, English have similar variations for
⟨c, g⟩
. Compare
hard and soft C
hard and soft G
. (See also
palatalization
.)
The
digraphs
⟨ch⟩
and
⟨gh⟩
indicate (
/k/
and
/ɡ/
) before
⟨i, e⟩
. The digraphs
⟨ci⟩
and
⟨gi⟩
indicate 'softness' (
/tʃ/
and
/dʒ/
, the
affricate consonants
of English
church
and
judge
) before
⟨a, o, u⟩
. For example:
Before back vowel (A, O, U)
Before front vowel (I, E)
Plosive
caramella
/karaˈmɛlla/
candy
CH
china
/ˈkina/
India ink
gallo
/ˈɡallo/
rooster
GH
ghiro
/ˈɡiro/
edible dormouse
Affricate
CI
ciambella
/tʃamˈbɛlla/
donut
Cina
/ˈtʃina/
China
GI
giallo
/ˈdʒallo/
yellow
giro
/ˈdʒiro/
round
tour
Note:
⟨h⟩
is
silent
in the digraphs
⟨ch⟩
⟨gh⟩
; and
⟨i⟩
is silent in the digraphs
⟨ci⟩
and
⟨gi⟩
before
⟨a, o, u⟩
unless the
⟨i⟩
is stressed. For example, it is silent in
ciao
/ˈtʃa.o/
and cielo
/ˈtʃɛ.lo/
, but it is pronounced in
farmacia
/ˌfar.maˈtʃi.a/
and
farmacie
/ˌfar.maˈtʃi.e/
25
Italian has geminate, or double, consonants, which are distinguished by
length
and intensity. Length is distinctive for all consonants except for
/ʃ/
/dz/
/ts/
/ʎ/
/ɲ/
, which are always geminate when between vowels, and
/z/
, which is always single.
Geminate plosives and affricates are realized as lengthened closures. Geminate fricatives, nasals, and
/l/
are realized as lengthened
continuants
. There is only one vibrant phoneme
/r/
but the actual pronunciation depends on the context and regional accent. Generally one can find a flap consonant
[ɾ]
in an unstressed position whereas
[r]
is more common in stressed syllables, but there may be exceptions. Especially people from the northern part of Italy (
Parma
, Aosta Valley,
South Tyrol
) may pronounce
/r/
as
[ʀ]
[ʁ]
, or
[ʋ]
108
Of special interest to the linguistic study of
Regional Italian
is the
gorgia toscana
, or "Tuscan throat", the weakening or
lenition
of
intervocalic
/p/
/t/
, and
/k/
in the
Tuscan language
The
voiced postalveolar fricative
/ʒ/
is present as a phoneme only in loanwords: for example,
garage
[ɡaˈraːʒ]
. Phonetic
[ʒ]
is common in central and southern Italy as an intervocalic allophone of
/dʒ/
gente
[ˈdʒɛnte]
'people' but
la gente
[laˈʒɛnte]
'the people',
ragione
[raˈʒoːne]
'reason'.
Grammar
edit
Main article:
Italian grammar
See also:
Italian verbs
Italian
grammar
is typical of the grammar of
Romance languages
in general.
Cases
exist for personal pronouns (
nominative
oblique
accusative
dative
), but not for nouns.
There are two basic classes of nouns in Italian, referred to as
genders
, masculine and feminine. Gender may be
natural
ragazzo
'boy',
ragazza
'girl') or simply grammatical with no possible reference to biological gender (masculine
costo
'cost', feminine
costa
'coast'). Masculine nouns typically end in
-o
ragazzo
'boy'), with plural marked by
-i
ragazzi
'boys'), and feminine nouns typically end in
-a
, with plural marked by
-e
ragazza
'girl',
ragazze
'girls'). For a group composed of boys and girls,
ragazzi
is the plural, suggesting that
-i
is a general neutral plural. A third category of nouns is
unmarked
for gender, ending in
-e
in the singular and
-i
in the plural:
legge
'law, f. sg.',
leggi
'laws, f. pl.';
fiume
'river, m. sg.',
fiumi
'rivers, m. pl.', thus assignment of gender is arbitrary in terms of form, enough so that terms may be identical but of distinct genders:
fine
meaning 'aim', 'purpose' is masculine, while
fine
meaning 'end, ending' (e.g. of a movie) is feminine, and both are
fini
in the plural, a clear instance of
-i
as a non-gendered default plural marker. These nouns often, but not always, denote
inanimates
. There are a number of nouns that have a masculine singular and a feminine plural, most commonly of the pattern m. sg.
-o
, f. pl.
-a
miglio
'mile, m. sg.',
miglia
'miles, f. pl.';
paio
'pair, m. sg.',
paia
'pairs, f. pl.'), and thus are sometimes considered neuter (these are usually derived from
neuter
Latin nouns). An instance of neuter gender also exists in pronouns of the third person singular.
109
Examples:
110
Definition
Gender
Singular Form
Plural Form
Son
Masculine
Figlio
Figli
House
Feminine
Casa
Case
Love
Masculine
Amore
Amori
Art
Feminine
Arte
Arti
Nouns, adjectives, and articles
inflect
for gender and number (singular and plural).
Like in English, common nouns are capitalized when occurring at the beginning of a sentence. Unlike English, nouns referring to languages (e.g. Italian) and adjectives pertaining to ethnicity are never capitalized, while speakers of languages, or inhabitants of an area (e.g. Italians) used to always be capitalized, but, starting from the 19th century, this convention has been subject to various changes.
111
112
There are three types of
adjectives
: descriptive, invariable and form-changing. Descriptive adjectives are the most common, and their endings change to match the number and gender of the noun they modify. Invariable adjectives are adjectives whose endings do not change. The form-changing adjectives
buono
'good',
bello
'beautiful',
grande
'big', and
santo
'saint/holy' change in form when placed before different types of nouns. Italian has three degrees for comparison of adjectives: positive, comparative, and superlative.
112
The order of words in the phrase is relatively free compared to most European languages.
107
The position of the verb in the phrase is highly mobile. Word order often has a lesser grammatical function in Italian than in English. Adjectives are sometimes placed before their noun and sometimes after. Subject nouns generally come before the verb. Italian is a
null-subject language
, so nominative pronouns are usually absent, with subject indicated by verbal
inflections
(e.g.
amo
'I love',
ama
'(s)he loves',
amano
'they love'). Noun objects normally come after the verb, as do pronoun objects after imperative verbs, infinitives and gerunds, but otherwise, pronoun objects come before the verb.
There are both indefinite and definite
articles
in Italian. There are four indefinite articles, selected by the gender of the noun they modify and by the phonological structure of the word that immediately follows the article.
Uno
is masculine singular, used before
/ts/
or
/dz/
),
s+consonant
gn
/ɲ/
),
pn
or
ps
, while masculine singular
un
is used before a word beginning with any other sound. The noun
zio
'uncle' selects masculine singular, thus
uno zio
'an uncle' or
uno zio anziano
'an old uncle,' but
un mio zio
'an uncle of mine'. The feminine singular indefinite articles are
una
, used before any consonant sound, and its abbreviated form, written
un',
used before vowels:
una camicia
'a shirt',
una camicia bianca
'a white shirt',
un'altra camicia
'a different shirt'. There are seven forms for definite articles, both singular and plural. In the singular:
lo
, which corresponds to the uses of
uno
il
, which corresponds to the uses with the consonant of
un
la,
which corresponds to the uses of
una
l',
used for both masculine and feminine singular before vowels. In the plural:
gli
is the masculine plural of
lo and l'
is the plural of
il
; and
le
is the plural of feminine
la
and
'.
112
There are numerous
contractions
of
prepositions
with subsequent
articles
. There are numerous productive
suffixes
for
diminutive
augmentative
, pejorative, attenuating, etc., which are also used to create
neologisms
There are 27 pronouns, grouped in
clitic
and tonic pronouns. Personal pronouns are separated into three groups: subject, object (which takes the place of both direct and indirect objects), and reflexive. Second-person subject pronouns have both a polite and a familiar form. These two different types of addresses are very important in Italian social distinctions. All object pronouns have two forms: stressed and unstressed (clitics). Unstressed object pronouns are much more frequently used, and come before a verb conjugated for subject-verb (
la vedi
: 'you see her'), after (in writing, attached to) non-conjugated verbs (
vedendola
: 'seeing her'). Stressed object pronouns come after the verb, and are used when the emphasis is required, for contrast, or to avoid ambiguity (
vedo lui, ma non lei
: 'I see him, but not her'). Aside from personal pronouns, Italian also has demonstrative, interrogative, possessive, and relative pronouns. There are two types of demonstrative pronouns: relatively near (this) and relatively far (that); there exists a third type of demonstrative denoting vicinity only to the listener, but it has fallen out of use. Demonstratives in Italian are repeated before each noun, unlike in English.
112
There are three regular sets of verbal
conjugations
, and various verbs are irregularly conjugated. Within each of these sets of conjugations, there are four simple (one-word) verbal conjugations by person/number in the
indicative mood
present tense
past tense
with
imperfective aspect
, past tense with
perfective aspect
, and
future tense
), two simple conjugations in the
subjunctive mood
(present tense and past tense), one simple conjugation in the
conditional mood
, and one simple conjugation in the
imperative mood
. Corresponding to each of the simple conjugations, there is a compound conjugation involving a simple conjugation of "to be" or "to have" followed by a
past participle
. "To have" is used to form compound conjugation when the verb is transitive (
ha detto, ha fatto
: 'he/she has said, he/she has made/done'), while "to be" is used in the case of verbs of motion and some other intransitive verbs (
è andato, è stato
: 'he has gone, he has been'). "To be" may be used with transitive verbs, but in such a case it makes the verb passive (
è detto, è fatto
: 'it is said, it is made/done'). This rule is not absolute, and some exceptions do exist.
Words
edit
Conversation
edit
This section
does not
cite
any
sources
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by
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Note: the plural form of verbs could also be used as an extremely formal (for example to
noble
people in monarchies) singular form (see
royal we
).
English (
inglese
Italian (
italiano
Pronunciation
Yes
Sì
listen
/ˈsi/
No
No
listen
/ˈnɔ/
Of course!
Certo!
Certamente!
Naturalmente!
/ˈtʃɛrto/
/ˌtʃertaˈmente/
/naturalˈmente/
Hello!
Ciao
(informal) /
Salve!
(semi-formal)
/ˈtʃao/
Cheers!
Salute!
/saˈlute/
How are you?
Come stai?
(informal) /
Come sta?
(formal) /
Come state?
(plural) /
Come va?
(general, informal)
/ˌkomeˈstai/
/ˌkomeˈsta/
/ˌkome
ˈstate/
/ˌkome
va/
Good morning!
Buongiorno!
(= Good day!)
/ˌbwɔnˈdʒorno/
Good evening!
Buonasera!
/ˌbwɔnaˈsera/
Good night!
Buonanotte!
(for a good night sleeping) /
Buona serata!
(for a good night awake)
/ˌbwɔnaˈnɔtte/
/ˌbwɔna
seˈrata/
Have a nice day!
Buona giornata!
(formal)
/ˌbwɔna
dʒorˈnata/
Enjoy the meal!
Buon appetito!
/ˌbwɔn‿appeˈtito/
Goodbye!
Arrivederci
(general) /
Arrivederla
(formal) /
Ciao!
(informal)
listen
/arriveˈdertʃi/
Good luck!
Buona fortuna!
(general)
/ˌbwɔna
forˈtuna/
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
ˈamo/
/ti
ˌvɔʎʎo
ˈbɛne/
Welcome [to...]
Benvenuto/-i
(for male/males or mixed)
/ Benvenuta/-e
(for female/females) [
a / in...
/benveˈnuto/
/benveˈnuti/
/benveˈnuta/
/benveˈnute/
Please
Per favore
Per piacere
Per cortesia
listen
/per
faˈvore/
/per
pjaˈtʃere/
/per
korteˈzia/
Thank you!
Grazie!
(general) /
Ti ringrazio!
(informal) /
La ringrazio!
(formal) /
Vi ringrazio!
(plural)
/ˈɡrattsje/
/ti
rinˈɡrattsjo/
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)
/ˈskuzi/
/ˈskuza/
/mi
disˈpjatʃe/
Who?
Chi?
/ki/
What?
Che cosa?
Cosa?
Che?
/kekˈkɔza/
or
/kekˈkɔsa/
/ˈkɔza/
or
/kɔsa/
/ˈke/
When?
Quando?
/ˈkwando/
Where?
Dove?
/ˈdove/
How?
Come?
/ˈkome/
Why / Because
Perché
/perˈke/
Again
Di nuovo
Ancora
/di
ˈnwɔvo/
/anˈkora/
How much? / How many?
Quanto?
Quanta?
Quanti?
Quante?
/ˈkwanto/
What is your name?
Come ti chiami?
(informal) /
Qual è il suo nome?
(formal) /
Come si chiama?
(formal)
/ˌkome
tiˈkjami/
/kwal
ˈɛ
il
ˌsu.o
ˈnome/
My name is...
Mi chiamo...
/mi
ˈkjamo/
This is...
Questo è...
(masculine) /
Questa è...
(feminine)
/ˌkwesto
ˈɛ/
/ˌkwesta
ˈɛ/
Yes, I understand.
Sì, capisco.
Ho capito.
/si
kaˈpisko/
/ɔkkaˈpito/
I do not understand.
Non capisco.
Non ho capito.
listen
/non
kaˈpisko/
/nonˌɔkkaˈpito/
Do you speak English?
Parli inglese?
(informal) /
Parla inglese?
(formal) /
Parlate inglese?
(plural)
listen
/parˌlate
inˈɡleːse/
listen
/ˌparla
inˈɡlese/
I do not understand Italian.
Non capisco l'italiano.
/non
kaˌpisko
litaˈljano/
Help me!
Aiutami!
(informal) /
Mi aiuti!
(formal) /
Aiutatemi!
(plural) /
Aiuto!
(general)
/aˈjutami/
/ajuˈtatemi/
/aˈjuto/
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?
/ke
ˌora
ˈɛ/
/ke
ˌore
ˈsono/
Where is the bathroom?
Dov'è il bagno?
listen
/doˌvɛ
il
ˈbaɲɲo/
How much is it?
Quanto costa?
/ˌkwanto
ˈkɔsta/
The bill, please.
Il conto, per favore.
/il
ˌkonto
per
faˈvore/
The study of Italian sharpens the mind.
Lo studio dell'italiano aguzza l'ingegno.
/loˈstudjo
dellitaˈljano
aˈɡuttsa
linˈdʒeɲɲo/
Where are you from?
Di dove sei?
(general, informal)/
Di dove è?
(formal)
/di
dove
ssˈɛi/
/di
dove
ˈɛ/
I like
Mi piace
(for one object) /
Mi piacciono
(for multiple objects)
/mi
pjatʃe/
/mi
pjattʃono/
Question words
edit
Italian
112
110
IPA
what (adj.)
che
/ke/
what (standalone)
cosa
/ˈkɔza/, /ˈkɔsa/
who
chi
/ki/
how
come
/ˈkome/
where
dove
/ˈdove/
why, because
perché
/perˈke/
which
quale
/ˈkwale/
when
quando
/ˈkwando/
how much
quanto
/ˈkwanto/
Time
edit
Italian
112
110
IPA
today
oggi
/ˈɔddʒi/
yesterday
ieri
/ˈjɛri/
tomorrow
domani
/doˈmani/
second
secondo
/seˈkondo/
minute
minuto
/miˈnuto/
hour
ora
/ˈora/
day
giorno
/ˈdʒorno/
week
settimana
/settiˈmana/
month
mese
/ˈmeze/, /ˈmese/
year
anno
/ˈanno/
Numbers
edit
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does not
cite
any
sources
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improve this section
by
adding citations to reliable sources
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Italian
IPA
one
uno
/ˈuno/
two
due
/ˈdue/
three
tre
/ˈtre/
four
quattro
/ˈkwattro/
five
cinque
/ˈtʃinkwe/
six
sei
/ˈsɛi/
seven
sette
/ˈsɛtte/
eight
otto
/ˈɔtto/
nine
nove
/ˈnɔve/
ten
dieci
/ˈdjɛtʃi/
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/
Italian
IPA
twenty-one
ventuno
/venˈtuno/
twenty-two
ventidue
/ˌventiˈdue/
twenty-three
ventitré
/ˌventiˈtre/
twenty-four
ventiquattro
/ˌventiˈkwattro/
twenty-five
venticinque
/ˌventiˈtʃinkwe/
twenty-six
ventisei
/ˌventiˈsɛi/
twenty-seven
ventisette
/ˌventiˈsɛtte/
twenty-eight
ventotto
/venˈtɔtto/
twenty-nine
ventinove
/ˌventiˈnɔve/
thirty
trenta
/ˈtrenta/
Italian
IPA
one hundred
cento
/ˈtʃɛnto/
one thousand
mille
/ˈmille/
two thousand
duemila
/ˌdueˈmila/
two thousand (and) twenty-five (2025)
duemilaventicinque
/dueˌmilaˈventitʃinkwe/
one million
un milione
/miˈljone/
one billion
un miliardo
/miˈljardo/
one trillion
mille miliardi
/ˈmilleˈmiˈljardi/
Days of the week
edit
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does not
cite
any
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by
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Italian
IPA
Monday
lunedì
/luneˈdi/
Tuesday
martedì
/marteˈdi/
Wednesday
mercoledì
/ˌmerkoleˈdi/
Thursday
giovedì
/dʒoveˈdi/
Friday
venerdì
/venerˈdi/
Saturday
sabato
/ˈsabato/
Sunday
domenica
/doˈmenika/
Months of the year
edit
Italian
IPA
January
gennaio
/dʒenˈnajo/
February
febbraio
/febˈbrajo/
March
marzo
/ˈmartso/
April
aprile
/aˈprile/
May
maggio
/ˈmaddʒo/
June
giugno
/ˈdʒuɲɲo/
July
luglio
/ˈluʎʎo/
August
agosto
/aˈɡosto/
September
settembre
/setˈtɛmbre/
October
ottobre
/otˈtobre/
November
novembre
/noˈvɛmbre/
December
dicembre
/diˈtʃɛmbre/
113
Example text
edit
Italian pronunciation
Article 1 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
in Italian:
Tutti gli esseri umani nascono liberi ed eguali in dignità e diritti. Essi sono dotati di ragione e di coscienza e devono agire gli uni verso gli altri in spirito di fratellanza.
114
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
115
International Phonetic Alphabet
transcription:
[ˈtut.ti‿ʎ.ʎ‿ˈɛs.seri̯‿uˈmaːni ˈnaskono ˈliːberi e.d‿eˈgwaːli̯‿in diɲ.ɲiˈta e‿diˈrit.ti ‖ ˈɛs.si ˈsoːno doˈtaːti di raˈd͡ʒoːn‿e‿di koʃˈʃɛnt͡sa e‿ˈdɛːvono aˈd͡ʒiːre‿ʎ.ʎ‿ˈuːni ˈvɛr.so‿ʎ.ʎ‿ˈaltri̯‿in ˈspiːrito di fratelˈlant͡sa ‖]
Nobel Prizes for Italian language literature
edit
Main article:
List of Italian Nobel laureates
Swiss Nobel laureates
Year
Image
Laureate
Born
Died
Field
Rationale
1906
Giosuè Carducci
27 July 1835
in
Valdicastello
16 February 1907
in
Bologna
Literature
"not only in consideration of his deep learning and critical research, but above all as a tribute to the creative energy, freshness of style, and lyrical force which characterize his poetic masterpieces"
116
1926
Grazia Deledda
27 September 1871
in
Nuoro
(Sardinia)
15 August 1936
in
Rome
Literature
"for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on
her native island
and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general"
117
1934
Luigi Pirandello
28 June 1867
in
Agrigento
10 December 1936
in
Rome
Literature
"for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art"
118
1959
Salvatore Quasimodo
20 August 1901
in
Modica
14 June 1968
in
Naples
Literature
"for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times"
119
1975
Eugenio Montale
12 October 1896
in
Genoa
12 September 1981
in
Milan
Literature
"for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions"
120
1997
Dario Fo
24 March 1926
in
Leggiuno
Sangiano
13 October 2016
in
Milan
Literature
"who emulates the
jesters
of the
Middle Ages
in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden"
121
See also
edit
Italy portal
Vatican City portal
Switzerland portal
Language portal
Languages of Italy
(includes "Italian dialects",
dialetti
CELI
CILS (Qualification)
Italian alphabet
Regional Italian
Italian grammar
Italian honorifics
List of countries and territories where Italian is an official language
The Italian Language Foundation
(in the United States)
Italian language in Brazil
Italian language in Croatia
Italian language in Slovenia
Italian language in the United States
Italian language in Venezuela
Italian literature
Italian musical terms
Italian phonology
Italian profanity
Italian Sign Language
Italian Studies
Italian-language international radio stations
Lessico etimologico italiano
Sicilian School
Veronese Riddle
Languages of the Vatican City
Talian
List of English words of Italian origin
List of Italian musical terms used in English
Notes
edit
Recognised as a minority language by the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
References
edit
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«La dominazione sabauda in Sardegna può essere considerata come la fase iniziale di un lungo processo di italianizzazione dell'isola, con la capillare diffusione dell'italiano in quanto strumento per il superamento della frammentarietà tipica del contesto linguistico dell'isola e con il conseguente inserimento delle sue strutture economiche e culturali in un contesto internazionale più ampio e aperto ai contatti di più lato respiro. [...] Proprio la variegata composizione linguistica della Sardegna fu considerata negativamente per qualunque tentativo di assorbimento dell'isola nella sfera culturale italiana.» Loi Corvetto, Ines.
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Given these assumptions, De Mauro (34-43) estimated that, in 1861, only 630,000 citizens, in a population of more than 25 million inhabitants, were speakers of the national language: that is, in the united Italy of the nineteenth century only 2.5% of the population was able to speak Italian. Some years later, Arrigo Castellani adjusted the percentage, arguing on the basis of new criteria that almost one-tenth of Italians spoke Italian as their everyday language in 1861.")
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Demonstrates a comparative statistical method for determining the extent of change from the Latin for the free and checked stressed vowels of French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Rumanian, Old Provençal, and Logudorese Sardinian. By assigning 3½ change points per vowel (with 2 points for diphthongization, 1 point for modification in vowel quantity, ½ point for changes due to nasalization, palatalization or umlaut, and −½ point for failure to effect a normal change), there is a maximum of 77 change points for free and checked stressed vowel sounds (11×2×3½=77). According to this system (illustrated by seven charts at the end of the article), the percentage of change is greatest in French (44%) and least in Italian (12%) and Sardinian (8%). Prof. Pei suggests that this statistical method could be extended not only to all other phonological but also to all morphological and syntactical phenomena.
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Accademia della Crusca
(in Italian)
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Venetian is either grouped with the rest of the Italo-Dalmatian or the Gallo-Italic languages, depending on the linguist, but the major consensus among linguists is that in the dialectal landscape of northern Italy, Veneto dialects are clearly distinguished from Gallo-Italic dialects.
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