Italian language

Italian (Template:Audio, or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 70 million people primarily in Italy. Standard Italian is based on the Tuscan dialect and is somewhat intermediate between the languages of Southern Italy and the Gallo-Romance languages of the North. Like many languages written using the Latin alphabet, Italian has double consonants. However, contrary to, for example, French and Spanish, double consonants are pronounced as long (geminated) in Italian. As in most Romance languages (with the notable exception of French), stress is distinctive. Out of the Romance languages, Italian is generally considered to be the one most closely resembling Latin in terms of vocabulary, though Romanian most closely preserves the declension system of Classical Latin while Sardinian is the most conservative in terms of phonology.

History

The history of the Italian language is quite complex but the modern standard of the language was largely shaped by relatively recent events. The earliest surviving texts which can definitely be called Italian (as opposed to its predecessor Vulgar Latin) are legal formulae from the region of Benevento dating from A.D. 960-963. Italian was first formalized in the first years of the 14th century through the works of Dante Alighieri, who mixed southern Italian languages, especially Sicilian, with his native Tuscan in his epic poems known collectively as the Commedia, to which Giovanni Boccaccio later affixed the title Divina. Dante's much-loved works were read throughout Italy and his written dialect became the "canonical standard" that others could all understand. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language.

Italian has always had a distinctive dialect for each city, since the cities were up until recently city-states. A well-known Italian dictum has it 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 Romans are known for speaking clearly and distinctly, while the Tuscan dialect (supposedly influenced by Etruscan and Oscan) is the closest existing dialect to Dante's now-standard Italian.

In contrast to the dialects of northern Italy, the older southern Italian dialects were largely untouched by the Franco-Occitan influences introduced to Italy, mainly by bards from France, during the middle ages. (See La Spezia-Rimini Line.) The economic might and relative advanced development of Tuscany at the time (late middle ages), gave its dialect weight, though Venetian remained widespread in medieval 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.

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

Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino, and is an official language in Switzerland because it's spoken in Ticino and Grigioni cantons. It is also the second official language in Vatican City and in some areas of Istria in Slovenia and Croatia with an Italian minority. It is also widely known and taught in Monaco and Malta. (It served as Malta's official language until English was enshrined in the 1934 Constitution.) It is also widely used in France (Corsica and Nice) and Albania.

It is widely used by immigrants in Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, the United States, Canada, Venezuela, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia. It is spoken in parts of Africa that were formerly under Italian rule such as Somalia, Libya and Eritrea.

The presence of Italian immigrants is very substantial above all in South America. In this case the presence of Italian Language, most of all in dialectal forms, are abundant in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. Here the Spanish and the Portuguese Languages are influenced by Italian particularly in some parts of these countries (i.e. Rio Grande do Sul, Cordoba, etc.).

Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world, but rarely as the first non-native language of pupils. In anglophone parts of Canada, Italian is, after French, the second most taught language. In the United States and the United Kingdom, Italian ranks fourth (after Spanish-French-German and French-German-Spanish respectively). Throughout the world, Italian is the fifth most taught non-native language, after English, French, Spanish and German [1].

The Italian language is also used as a "lingua franca" in some environments. For example, in the Catholic ecclesiastic hierarchy, Italian is known by a large part of members and is used in substitution of Latin in some official documents as well. The presence of Italian as the second official language in Vatican City indicates not only use in the seat in Rome, but also in the whole world where an episcopal seat is present.

Dialects and regional languages of Italy

See Italian dialects

The dialects of Italian listed by Ethnologue are Tuscan, Abruzzese, Pugliese (Apulian), Umbrian, Laziale, Central Marchigiano, Cicolano-Reatino-Aquilano, and Molisan. Ethnologue and the Red book on endangered languages of UNESCO consider Piemontese, Lombard, Ligurian, Emiliano-Romagnolo, Venetian, Friulian, Neapolitan-Calabrian or Tricalabrian (a range including Neapolitan, Sicilian and Calabrian) and Sardinian as regional minority languages, structurally distinct from Italian. Most Italians, however, refer to these simply as "dialect", with the exception of Sardinian and Friulian, which are usually recognized language status in the regions of Sardinia and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Many linguists also refer to "dialects of Italy", as opposed to "dialects of (standard) Italian". Also the Corsican language has strong similarities to Italian and most linguists consider it as a Tuscan dialect, the closest to modern Italian.

A link to an Italian site with translation features between Italian dialects and Italian: [2]

Cultural acceptance of dialects

The dialect of Tuscany became the basis for what would become the official language of Italy, by way of the famous Tuscan author Dante Alighieri. Dante and other Tuscan poets were inspired by the Sicilian koine wanted by the Sicilian School under the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. His project (in which Giacomo da Lentini invented the sonnet) was accomplished by enriching the Sicilian language with new words adapted from French, Latin, and Apulian. The Sicilians produced a collection of love-poems which can be considered the first standard Italian ever produced, though it was only used for literary purposes until Guittone d'Arezzo. When the Svevs dynasty ended the Tuscans and Dante re-discovered the standard (see De Vulgari Eloquentia and Vita Nova) and integrated the Sicilians into Florence's linguistic heritage.

The dolce stil novo, the platonic school of courtly love, can be considered the link between the old southern school and Tuscan poetry which aimed to express the new intellectual sensibility and fervor of the newly-born city-states, as Florence. Dante's work, Divina Commedia was the first of its kind to be written in a dialect (though sensibly enriched compared with its spoken counterpart), as opposed to the traditional Latin. The success of his work spread the Florentine dialect, and gave it prestige and acceptance. For this he is referred to as the father of the Italian Language.

By the time Italy was unified 1861, the Italian standard had further been influenced by Florentine through the work of the Accademia della Crusca (Cardinal Pietro Bembo and followers). Bembo laid the foundation for what is today's modern standard. But Bembo was a purist and had accepted no other influence than that from Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio. As time went on, the language was losing touch with linguistic change, and could not put up with technology and science. The much-needed update would have to wait a little longer until, in what is commonly regarded as the first modern novel of the Italian literature, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed), Alessandro Manzoni further refined his widely read novel by "rinsing" it in the waters of the Arno (Florence's river), as he states in his 1840 Preface.

However, Manzoni refused the Crusca's purist, written Florentine-only attitude and admitted a certain influence from other dialects, though he reduced it as compared to the first edition of (1821). After unification the huge number of civil servants and soldiers recruited from all over the country introduced many more words and idioms from their home dialects ("ciao" is Venetian, "panettone" is Milanese etc.), in fact confirming Manzoni's linguistic views.

Tuscan has thus become one of the twenty official dialects of Italy. Though technically speaking the division between dialect and language is purely conventional, it has been used by scholars (e.g., by Francesco Bruni) to distinguish between the languages that made up the Italian koine, and those which had very little or no part in it, as Albanian, Greek, Südtirolean, Ladin, Friulian and Occitan, which are still spoken by small minorities.

Dialects are generally not used for general communication (e.g., on TV), but are limited to native speakers in informal contexts. Dialect is often deprecated as a sign of poor education. Younger generations, especially those under 35 (though it may vary in different areas), speak almost exclusively standard Italian in all situations, usually with local accents.Template:Fact Different accents can be recognized from various factors: the openness of vowels, the length of the consonants, and influence of the local dialect (for example, annà for andare in the area of Rome).

Dialects have their share of enthusiasts, but in most areas of Italy this is a small niche of the population. The promotion of dialects by political forces such as the Lega Nord has possibly damaged rather than promoted their status. Throughout Italy, some singers and actors use dialects as their language, but the language they use is, in most cases, strongly influenced by Italian.

Dialects and accents are often used in movies to provide comic relief or to produce stereotypes: northern dialects can be connected to self-made entrepreneurs; a Roman accent is associated with arrogant, simple-minded bullies; Neapolitan reminds of dishonest slackers, or of people living from hand to mouth; and, even in Italy, Sicilian is often associated with the Mafia. However, many screenwriters also explore the more expressive and spontaneous features of a dialect, often to challenge the common cliches and present a richer, less explored reality.

Derived languages

There is a presence of different varieties of Italian language most of all in South America. During the XIX and XX century a lot of Italians was immigrants and they spoke particularly dialects.

A proof is the presence of Talian in Brazil: this is a variety of Italian influenced strongly by Venetian. In any case there is a brave discussion on considering the talian like creole language or a variety of dialect with external influences (i.e. from Portuguese).

Sounds

Main Page: Italian phonology Template:IPA notice

Vowels

Italian has seven vowel phonemes: Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA. The pairs Template:IPA-Template:IPA and Template:IPA-Template:IPA are seldom distinguished in writing and often confused, even though each variety of Italian employs both phonemes consistently. Compare, for example: Template:IPA (because) and Template:IPA (you listen), employed by some northern speakers, with Template:IPA and Template:IPA, as pronounced by most central and southern 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 the more educated people, especially actors and (television) journalists. These are truly different phonemes, however: compare Template:IPA (fishing) and Template:IPA (peach), both spelled "pesca" (Template:Audio). Similarly Template:IPA (barrel) and Template:IPA (beatings), both spelled as "botte", discriminate Template:IPA and Template:IPA (Template:Audio).

In general, vowel combinations usually pronounce each vowel separately. Diphthongs exist,(e.g. "uo", "iu", "ie", "ai"), but are limited to the pattern: (unstressed "u" or "i", or zero) + (stressed vowel) + (unstressed "u" or "i", or zero)

The unstressed "u" in a diphthong approximates the English semivowel "w", the unstressed "i" approximates the semivowel "y". E.g.: buono, ieri. As a semivowel, "j" is an alternate spelling of i, currently obsolete but common until early 20th century and preserved in specific words like "Jesi" (a town) or "Jacopo" (a first name).

Triphthongs are limited to a diphthong plus an unstressed "i". (e.g. miei, tuoi.) Other sequences of three vowels exist (e.g. noia, febbraio), but they are not triphthongs; they consist of a vowel followed by a diphthong.

Consonants

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

The phoneme Template:IPA undergoes assimilation when followed by a consonant, e.g., when followed by a velar (Template:IPA or Template:IPA) it's pronounced Template:IPA, etc.

Italian plosives are not aspirated (unlike in English). Italian speakers hear the difference as a foreign accent.

Italian has geminate, or double, consonants, which are distinguished by length. Length is distinctive for all consonants except for Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA Template:IPA, which are always geminate, and Template:IPA which is always single. Geminate plosives and affricates are realized as lengthened closures. Geminate fricatives, nasals, and Template:IPA are realized as lengthened continuants. Geminate Template:IPA is realized as the trill Template:IPA.

Assimilation

Italian has few diphthongs, and so most unfamiliar diphthongs heard in foreign words (in particular, those with a first vowel that is not "i" or "u", or a first vowel that is stressed), will be assimilated as the corresponding dieresis (i.e., the vowel sounds will be pronounced separately). Italian phonotactics don't usually permit words to end on consonants, so foreign words may receive extra terminal vowel sounds.

Grammar

see Italian grammar.

Writing system

Image:Jon Hawk.jpg Italian is written using the Latin alphabet. The letters J, K, W, X and Y are not part of the standard Italian alphabet, but are seen in imported words (such as jeans, whiskey, taxi). J may also appear in many words from different dialects. Each of these foreign letters had an Italian equivalent spelling: gi, ch, u, cs or s, and i, but these are now obsolete.

• Italian uses the acute accent over the letter E (as in perché, why/because) to indicate a mid-close vowel, and the grave accent (as in tè, tea) to indicate a mid-open vowel. The grave accent is also used on letters A, I, O, and U to mark the stress position when it is on the last letter of a word (for instance gioventù, youth). Typically, the penultimate syllable is stressed. If other syllables are stressed, marking an accent is not mandatory, as is instead done in Spanish, and, in virtually all cases, no accent is marked. In some cases, when the word is ambiguous (as principi), the accent is sometimes marked in order to disambiguate the meaning (in this case, príncipi, princes, or princípi, principles; balia, nurse or balìa, force

• The letter H is always silent when it begins a word, and is only used to distinguish ho, hai, ha, hanno (present indicative of avere, to have) from o (or), ai (to the), a (to), anno (year). H is otherwise used for some combinations with other letters (see below), but the /h/ sound does not exist in Italian.

• The letter Z is pronounced Template:IPA, for example: Zanzara Template:IPA (mosquito), or Template:IPA, for example: Nazione Template:IPA (nation), depending on context, though there are few minimal pairs. The same goes with S, which can be pronounced Template:IPA or Template:IPA. However, these two phonemes are in complementary distribution everywhere except between two vowels in the same word, and even in such environment there are extremely few minimal pairs, therefore this distinction is being lost in most accents.

• The letters C and G are affricates: Template:IPA as in "chair" and Template:IPA as in "gem", respectively, before the front vowels I and E. They are pronounced as plosives Template:IPA, Template:IPA (as in "call" and "gall") otherwise¹. But, the normally silent H is added between CI, CE, GI or GE if the consonant is to be a plosive. For example:

	Before back vowel: plosive	Before front vowel: affricate	With "H": plosive
"C"	cara (Template:IPA)	ciao (Template:IPA)	chiaro (Template:IPA)
"G"	gallo (Template:IPA)	genere (Template:IPA)	ghetto (Template:IPA)

¹(Front/back vowel rules for C and G are similar in French, Romanian, and to some extent English (including Old English). Swedish and Norwegian have similar rules for K and G. See also palatalization.)

• There are three special digraphs in Italian: GN, GL and SC. GN is always pronounced Template:IPA2 and GL is pronounced Template:IPA2) only before i, and never at the beginning of a word, except in the plural form gli of the masculine definite article. (Compare with Spanish "ñ" and "ll", Portuguese "nh" and "lh".) SC is pronounced Template:IPA2 before i and e.

• In general all letters are clearly pronounced, and always in the same way. (The only notable allophonic variations in the pronunciation of phonemes in standard Italian are the assimilation of /n/ before consonants, and vowel length (vowels are long in stressed open syllables, and short elsewhere) — compare with the enormous number of allophones of the English phoneme /t/. Spelling is clearly phonetic and difficult to mistake given a clear pronunciation. Exceptions are generally only found in foreign borrowings. There is less dyslexia than in languages like English.

Usage among Younger Generations

Some variations in the usage of the writing system may be present in practical use. Most scholars consider these to be mistakes, but they are so common that knowledge of these may be useful to read an Italian text.

• Usage of x instead of per: this is very common among teenagers and in SMS abbreviations. Since per means "to", "for you" becomes x te, similar to the English 2 and 4 U. Words containing per can also have it substituted with x, and once a university student allegedly pronounced the surname of Italian revolutionary Nino Bixio as Biperio at an oral exam[3]. Perché (both "why" and "because") is often shortened as xché or xké (see below). This usage stems from mathematical notation, where the symbol for multiplication is pronounced "per", (for example '3 x 2' is pronounced 'tre per due' in Italian).
• Usage of foreign letters such as k, j and y, especially in nicknames and SMS language: ke instead of che, Giusy instead of Giuseppina. This is curiously mirrored in the usage of i in English names such as Staci instead of Stacey, or in the usage of c in Northern Europe (Jacob instead of Jakob). The purpose of the k letter focuses at replacing the hard ch sound. The letter k also appears to give words a certain strength and threatening aspect, possibly because it is associated with Germany. Politician Francesco Cossiga used to be nicknamed Kossiga by rioting students as early as 1968, because of his role as minister of internal affairs. It should however be pointed out that foreign letters were used in the past, like for example in Jodio for Iodine, now written as Iodio.
• Accents are often substituted by apostrophes, such as in perche' instead of perché. Uppercase È is particularly rare, as it is absent from the Italian keyboard layout, and is usually written as E'. Few are aware of the distinction between grave and acute accents, so it is also common to see perchè.

Examples

• Cheers (generic toast): cin cin Template:IPA
• English: inglese Template:IPA
• Good-bye: arrivederci Template:IPA
• Hello: ciao Template:IPA (informal); buongiorno Template:IPA (good morning/good afternoon), buonasera Template:IPA (good evening)
• Yes: sì Template:IPA
• No: no Template:IPA
• Sorry: scusi /Template:IPA/
• Again: di nuovo /Template:IPA/
• Always: sempre /Template:IPA/
• When: quando Template:IPA
• Why / Because: perché Template:IPA
• How much: quanto Template:IPA
• Thank you!: grazie! Template:IPA
• Bon appetit: buon appetito Template:IPA
• You're welcome!: prego! Template:IPA
• I love you: Ti amo Template:IPA
• I want to make love to you : Voglio fare l'amore con te Template:IPA

Counting to Ten:

• One: Uno pron: oo-no Template:IPA
• Two: Due pron: do-e Template:IPA
• Three: Tre pron: tre Template:IPA
• Four: Quattro pron: quat-tro Template:IPA
• Five: Cinque pron: chin-que Template:IPA
• Six: Sei pron: say Template:IPA
• Seven: Sette pron: set-te Template:IPA
• Eight: Otto pron: ot-to Template:IPA
• Nine: Nove pron: nov-ve Template:IPA
• Ten: Dieci pron: di-e-ci Template:IPA

Sample texts

You can hear a recording of Dante's Divine Comedy read by Lino Pertile at http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/.

From the Holy Bible, Luke 2: 1-7 (for an English version see http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=luke+2)

You can listen to a rendition of this text as recorded by an Italian native speaker from Milan.

2:1 In quei giorni, un decreto di Cesare Augusto ordinava che si facesse un censimento di tutta la terra. 2 Questo primo censimento fu fatto quando Quirino era governatore della Siria. 3 Tutti andavano a farsi registrare, ciascuno nella propria città. 4 Anche Giuseppe, che era della casa e della famiglia di Davide, dalla città di Nazaret e dalla Galilea si recò in Giudea nella città di Davide, chiamata Betlemme, 5 per farsi registrare insieme a Maria, sua sposa, che era incinta. 6 Proprio mentre si trovavano lì, venne il tempo per lei di partorire. 7 Mise al mondo il suo primogenito, lo avvolse in fasce e lo depose in una mangiatoia, poiché non c'era posto per loro nella locanda.

See also

• Italian phonology
• Sicilian School
• Veronese Riddle
• Italian grammar
• Swadesh list of Italian words

External links

Template:InterWiki Template:Wikibooks Template:Wiktionarypar

• Template:About.com
• Website Devoted to the Italian Language
• Learn to Speak Italian Online Learn Italian online for free.
• Italian Language Tutorial at ielanguages.com
• Italian Language Courses London
• Learn Italian Online Online Italian courses, exercises and exams
• Online Italian language test
• Learn and listen to useful expressions in Italian
• Italian Language schools
• Italian Language Podcasts for Learning

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