Italian / Italiano

History and Evolution

Italian is a major European language belonging to the Romance language branch of the Indo-European family. It is related to Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Romanian and is closest to Latin in terms of vocabulary.

The predecessor of the modern variety is Vulgar Latin, a simpler, more colloquial spoken form of Classical Latin. During the 14th century, Florentine authors Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrach helped popularize the Tuscan dialect as the main literary language, which later served as the foundation for standard Italian.

Italian is marked by a wide variety of dialects due to its long history of political fragmentation in city-states and periods of foreign colonization. The Napoleonic occupation in the early 19th century spread Tuscan Italian as the lingua franca in administration, government, and the royal courts. With the political consolidation of Italy in 1861, Tuscan Italian became the common language of government, trade, and culture. During the 20th century, internal migration, urbanization, and mass media further contributed to the country’s linguistic unification, making standard Italian the country’s dominant language.

Geographic Distribution

Italy is a linguistically rich country, with hundreds of regional dialects and vernacular languages including the Romance-based dialects of Gallo-Italic, Lombardian, Piedmontese, Franco-Provencal, Occitan and Venetian to the north, Emilio-Romagnolo, Tuscan and Central Italian in the middle of the country, Neapolitan and Sicilian in the south, and Sardinian and Corsican on the surrounding islands. Other unique vernaculars include Italy’s Judeo-Italian languages. Although dialects are still commonly spoken, many are on the decline: UNESCO currently considers 31 dialects spoken in Italy to be endangered. 

From the mid-19th through the late 20th century, more than 25 million Italians emigrated, largely to North America, South America, and Australia, where significant Italian-speaking communities still exist. Italian is the second most commonly spoken language in Argentina and has strongly influenced Rioplatense Spanish. During the late 19th century, Italian was the official language in the Italian colonies of LIbya and Ethiopia, where it is still often spoken by older generations.

Prominence in Society

Musicians and opera singers learn basic Italian to read and perform music. Italian culinary terms are also widely used by chefs around the world.

Italian is the fifth most commonly taught foreign language around the world, after English, French, German, and Spanish.

Unique Characteristics

The Italian alphabet consists of 21 letters. The letters J, K, W, X, and Y are only used in loanwords or foreign names. The alphabet is phonetic, so si legge come si scrive, (it is pronounced as it is written).

As in other Romance languages, Italian nouns are inflected by gender and number. Adjectives modifying masculine nouns end in o; adjectives for feminine nouns end in a, as in l’uomo alto (the tall man) and la donna alta (the tall woman). Most nouns, verbs, and adjectives end in vowels, giving the language a melodic lilt.

Italian has six different subjects and verbs are conjugated according to the subject. All infinitive verbs end in –are, -ere, or –ire. Sentences generally follow the subject-verb-object sequence.

Italian adds shades of meaning with certain suffixes to express small or large size, or pejorative qualities. For example, libro (book) can be modified as libretto (small book), librone (large book), or libraccio (bad book).

Because Italian nouns and verbs do not generally end in consonants, vowels are often added to facilitate the pronunciation of foreign loanwords. For example, the verb “to chat” is chatare and the noun “freak” is freaketto.

Loanwords in English

English has thousands of loan words from Italian, reflecting Italy’s influence on culture and the arts, cuisine, and politics.

• ballerina
• barista
• broccoli
• diva
• finale
• graffiti
• motto
• orchestra
• paparazzi
• piano
• propaganda
• solo
• studio

Say Whaaat?

The name “America” derives from the first name of 15th-century Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who demonstrated that the new “American” continent was not part of Asia.

The term lingua franca (literally “Frankish language”) also comes from Italian, which was the main language spoken in the Eastern Mediterranean from the medieval age through the 18th century. Arab and Turkish traders referred to all western Europeans, including Italians, as “Franks.”

In Northern Italy, last names commonly end in –i, while surnames in the south tend to end in –o. The most common Italian surname is Russo.

Ardent Italian soccer fans are referred to as tifosi, meaning “carriers of typhus,” a reference to their “fever” of enthusiasm.

Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini attempted to replace foreign loanwords with Italian equivalents during his reign (1922–1943). “Goal” became meta, Donald Duck became Paperino and Mickey Mouse became Topolino.

Writer: Carly Ottenbreit