Italian language

This article is about the Italian language. For the regional varieties of standard Italian, seeRegional Italian.

"Italiano" redirects here. For other uses, seeItaliano (disambiguation).

Italian
italiano,lingua italiana
Pronunciation	[itaˈljaːno]
Native to	Italy San Marino Vatican City Switzerland(TicinoandItalian Grisons) France(Corsica) Slovenia(Slovenian Littoral) Croatia(Western Croatia)
Ethnicity	Italians
Speakers	L1:65 million (2022) L2:3.1 million Total: 68 million
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Latin Romance Italo-Western Italo-Dalmatian Italo-Romance Italian
Early forms	Old Latin Vulgar Latin Tuscan Florentine
Dialects	Tuscan Maltese Italian Swiss Italian Various forms ofregional 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 3 regions Slovene Istria(Slovenia) Istria County(Croatia) Corsica(France) An order and various organisations Sovereign Military Order of Malta European Union FAO Holy See OSCE IDLO IIHL Mediterranean Universities Union UNICRI UNIDROIT and others
Recognised minority language in	Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil(2 municipalities) Croatia Romania Slovenia Eritrea
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 the majority in the past Areas where Italian-speaking communities are present

Italian(italiano,pronounced[itaˈljaːno],orlingua italiana,pronounced[ˈliŋɡwaitaˈljaːna]) is aRomance languageof theIndo-European language familythat evolved from theVulgar Latinof theRoman Empire.Italian is the least divergent language fromLatin,together withSardinian(meaning that Italian and Sardinian are the mostconservativeRomance languages).Spoken by about 85 million people, including 67 million native speakers (2024),Italian is an official language inItaly,San Marino,Switzerland(Ticinoand theGrisons),Corsica,andVatican City.It has official minority status inCroatia,Slovenian Istria,and the municipalities ofSanta TerezaandEncantadoinBrazil.

Italian is also spoken by largeimmigrant and expatriate communitiesin theAmericasandAustralia.Italian is included under the languages covered by theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority LanguagesinBosnia and Herzegovinaand inRomania,although Italian is neither a co-official nor a protected language in these countries.Some speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian (either in its standard form orregional varieties) and alocal language of Italy,most frequently the language spoken at home in their place of origin.

Italian is a majorlanguagein Europe, being one of the official languages of theOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europeand one of the working languages of theCouncil of Europe.It is the third-most-widely spoken nativelanguage in the European Union(13% of the EU population) and it is spoken as a second language by 13.4 million EU citizens (3%).Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland, Albania and theUnited Kingdom) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is approximately 85 million.Italian is the main working language of theHoly See,serving as thelingua franca(common language) in theRoman Catholic hierarchyas well as the official language of theSovereign Military Order of Malta.Italian has a significant use inmusical terminologyandoperawith numerous Italian words referring to music that have become international terms taken into various languages worldwide.Almost all native Italian words end withvowels,and the language has a 7-vowelsound system('e' and 'o' have mid-low and mid-high sounds). Italian has contrast between short andlong consonantsandgemination(doubling) of consonants.

History

"History of Italian" redirects here. For the history of the Italian people, seeItalians.For the history of the Italian culture, seeculture of Italy.

Origins

Dante Alighieri(top) andPetrarca(bottom) were influential in establishing theirTuscan dialectas the most prominent literary language in all of Italy in theLate Middle Ages.

During theMiddle Ages,the established written language in Europe was Latin, although the great majority of people were illiterate, and only few were well versed in the language. In theItalian Peninsula,as in most of Europe, most would instead speak a local vernacular. These dialects, as they are commonly referred to, evolved fromVulgar Latinover the course of centuries, unaffected by formal standards and teachings. They are not in any sense "dialects" of standard Italian, which itself started off as one of these local tongues, butsister languagesof Italian.Mutual intelligibilitywith Italian varies widely, as it does with Romance languages in general. The Romance languages of Italy can differ greatly from Italian at all levels (phonology,morphology,syntax,lexicon,pragmatics) and are classifiedtypologicallyas distinct languages.

The standard Italian language has a poetic and literary origin in the works ofTuscanwriters of the 12th century, and, although the grammar and core lexicon are basically unchanged from those used in Florence in the 13th century,the modern standard of the language was largely shaped by relatively recent events. However, Romancevernacularas language spoken in the Italian Peninsula has a longer history. In fact, the earliest surviving texts that can definitely be called vernacular (as distinct from its predecessor Vulgar Latin) are legal formulae known as thePlaciti Cassinesifrom theprovince of Beneventothat date from 960 to 963, although theVeronese 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. TheCommodilla catacomb inscriptionis also a similar case.

The Italian language has progressed through a long and slow process, which started after theWestern Roman Empire's fallin the 5th century.

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 writerDante Alighieri,written in his nativeFlorentine.Dante's epic poems, known collectively as theCommedia,to which another Tuscan poetGiovanni Boccacciolater affixed the titleDivina,were read throughout the peninsula and his written dialect became the "canonical standard" that all educated Italians could understand. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language. In addition to the widespread exposure gained through literature, the Florentine dialect also gained prestige due to the political and cultural significance of Florence at the time and the fact that it was linguistically an intermediate between the northern and the southern Italian dialects.Thus the dialect ofFlorencebecame the basis for what would become the official language of Italy.

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 theKingdom of Naples,or Austria in theKingdom of Lombardy–Venetia), although the masses kept speaking primarily their local vernaculars. Italian was also one of the many recognised languages in theAustro-Hungarian Empire.

Italy has always had a distinctive dialect for each city because the cities, until recently, were thought of ascity-states.Those dialects now have considerablevariety.As Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions ofRegional Italian.The most characteristic differences, for instance, betweenRomanItalian andMilaneseItalian aresyntactic geminationof initialconsonantsin 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 theLa Spezia–Rimini Line);a casa"at home" is[akˈkaːsa]for Roman,[akˈkaːsa]or[akˈkaːza]for standard,[aˈkaːza]for Milanese and generally northern.

In contrast to theGallo-Italic linguistic panoramaofNorthern Italy,theItalo-Dalmatian,Neapolitanand its related dialects were largely unaffected by the Franco-Occitaninfluences introduced to Italy mainly bybardsfrom France during the Middle Ages, but after theNorman 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, althoughVenetianremained widespread in medieval Italian commercial life, andLigurian (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 theMedici Bank,humanism,and theRenaissancemade its dialect, or rather a refined version of it, a standard in the arts.

Renaissance

TheRenaissanceera, known asil Rinascimentoin Italian, was seen as a time of rebirth, which is the literal meaning of bothrenaissance(from French) andrinascimento(Italian).

VenetianPietro Bembowas an influential figure in the development of the Italian language from the Tuscan dialect, as a literary medium, codifying the language for standard modern usage.

During this time, long-existing beliefs stemming from the teachings of theRoman Catholic Churchbegan to be understood from new perspectives ashumanists—individuals who placed emphasis on the human body and its full potential—began to shift focus from the church to human beings themselves.The continual advancements in technology play a crucial role in the diffusion of languages. After the invention of theprinting pressin the 15th century, the number of printing presses in Italy grew rapidly and by the year 1500 reached a total of 56, the biggest number of printing presses in all of Europe. This enabled the production of more pieces of literature at a lower cost and Italian, as the dominant language, spread.

Italian became the language used in the courts of every state in theItalian Peninsula,as well as theprestige varietyused on the island ofCorsica(but not in the neighbouringSardinia,which on the contrary underwentItalianizationwell into the late 18th century, underSavoyardsway: the island's linguistic composition, roofed by the prestige of Spanish among theSardinians,would therein make for a rather slow process ofassimilationto the Italian cultural sphere). The rediscovery of Dante'sDe vulgari eloquentia,as well as 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 asquestione della lingua(i.e., theproblem 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:

• Thepurists,headed by VenetianPietro Bembo(who, in hisGli Asolani,claimed the language might be based only on the great literary classics, such asPetrarchand some part of Boccaccio). The purists thought theDivine Comedywas not dignified enough because it used elements from non-lyric registers of the language.
• Niccolò Machiavelliand otherFlorentinespreferred the version spoken by ordinary people in their own times.
• Thecourtiers,such asBaldassare CastiglioneandGian 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 theTuscanandRomandialects.Eventually, Bembo's ideas prevailed, and the foundation of theAccademia della Cruscain Florence (1582–1583), the official legislative body of the Italian language, led to the publication ofAgnolo Monosini's Latin tomeFloris italicae linguae libri novemin 1604 followed by the first Italian dictionary in 1612.

Modern era

An important event that helped the diffusion of Italian was the conquest and occupation of Italy byNapoleonin the early 19th century (who was himself of Italian-Corsican descent). This conquest propelled the unification of Italy some decades after and pushed the Italian language into alingua francaused not only among clerks, nobility, and functionaries in the Italian courts but also by thebourgeoisie.

Contemporary times

Alessandro Manzoniset the basis for the modern Italian language and helping create linguistic unity throughout Italy.

Italian literature's first modern novel,I promessi sposi(The Betrothed) byAlessandro Manzoni,further defined the standard by "rinsing" his Milanese "in the waters of theArno"(Florence's river), as he states in the preface to his 1840 edition.

After unification, a huge number of civil servants and soldiers recruited from all over the country introduced many more words and idioms from their home languages—ciaois derived from theVenetianwords-cia[v]o( "slave", that is "your servant" ),panettonecomes from theLombardwordpanetton,etc. Only 2.5% of Italy's population could speak the Italian standardized language properly when the nation was unified in 1861.

Classification

Italian is aRomance language,a descendant ofVulgar Latin(colloquial spoken Latin). Standard Italian is based onTuscan,especially itsFlorentine dialect,and is, therefore, anItalo-Dalmatian language,a classification that includes most other central and southern Italian languages and the extinctDalmatian.

According toEthnologue,lexical similarityis 89% with French, 87% withCatalan,85% withSardinian,82% with Spanish, 80% withPortuguese,78% withLadin,77% withRomanian.Estimates may differ according to sources.

One study, analyzing the degree of differentiation of Romance languages in comparison to Latin (comparingphonology,inflection,discourse,syntax,vocabulary,andintonation), estimated that distance between Italian and Latin is higher than that between Sardinian and Latin.In particular, its vowels are the second-closest to Latin afterSardinian.As in most Romance languages,stressis distinctive.

Geographic distribution

See also:Geographical distribution of Italian speakers

Italian language in Switzerland

Italian is the official language of Italy andSan Marinoand is spoken fluently by the majority of the countries' populations. Italian is the third most spoken language inSwitzerland(after German and French; seeSwiss Italian), although its use there has moderately declined since the 1970s.It is official both on the national level and on regional level in twocantons:TicinoandGrisons.In the latter canton, however, it is only spoken by a small minority, in theItalian Grisons.Ticino, which includesLugano,the largest Italian-speaking city outside Italy, is the only canton where Italian is predominant.Italian is also used in administration and official documents inVatican City.

Italian is also spoken by a minority inMonacoand France, especially in the southeastern part of the country.Italian was the official language inSavoyand inNiceuntil 1860, when they were both annexed by France under theTreaty of Turin,a development that triggered the "Niçard exodus",or the emigration of a quarter of theNiçard Italiansto Italy,and theNiçard Vespers.Giuseppe Garibaldicomplained about the referendum that allowed France to annex Savoy and Nice, and a group of his followers (among theItalian Savoyards) took refuge in Italy in the following years.Corsicapassed from theRepublic of Genoato France in 1769 after theTreaty of Versailles.Italian was the official language ofCorsicauntil 1859.Giuseppe Garibaldi called for the inclusion of the "Corsican Italians"within Italy whenRome was annexedto theKingdom of Italy,but KingVictor Emmanuel IIdid not agree to it. Italian is generally understood in Corsica by the population resident therein who speakCorsican,which is an Italo-Romance idiom similar to Tuscan.Francizationoccurred in Nice case, and caused a near-disappearance of the Italian language as many of the Italian speakers in these areas migrated to Italy.In Corsica, on the other hand, almost everyone still speaks theCorsican idiom,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 inMonacountil 1860, when it was replaced by the French.This was due to the annexation of the surroundingCounty of Niceto France following theTreaty of Turin (1860).

Percent of inhabitants with Italian native tongue inCroatia's andSlovenia'sIstria

It formerly had official status inMontenegro(because of theVenetian Albania), parts ofSloveniaandCroatia(because of theVenetian IstriaandVenetian Dalmatia), parts ofGreece(because of theVenetian rule in the Ionian Islandsand by theKingdom of Italy in the Dodecanese). Italian is widely spoken inMalta,where nearly two-thirds of the population can speak it fluently (seeMaltese Italian).Italian served as Malta's official language until 1934, when it was abolished by the British colonial administration amid strong local opposition.Italian language in Sloveniais an officially recognizedminority languagein the country.The official census, carried out in 2002, reported 2,258 ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians) inSlovenia(0.11% of the total population).Italian language in Croatiais an official minority language in the country, with many schools and public announcements published in both languages.The 2001 census inCroatiareported 19,636 ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians andDalmatian Italians) in the country (some 0.42% of the total population).Their numbers dropped dramatically afterWorld War IIfollowing theIstrian–Dalmatian exodus,which caused the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians.Italian was the official language of theRepublic of Ragusafrom 1492 to 1807.

Italy andits colonial possessionsin 1940

It formerly had official status inAlbaniadue to theannexation 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.The Albanian government has pushed to make Italian a compulsory second language in schools.The Italian language is well-known and studied in Albania,due to its historical ties and geographical proximity to Italy and to the diffusion of Italian television in the country.

Due to heavy Italian influence during theItalian colonial period,Italian is still understood by some in former colonies such as Libya.Although it was the primary language inLibyasincecolonial rule,Italian greatly declined under therule of Muammar Gaddafi,who expelled theItalian Libyanpopulation and madeArabicthe sole official language of the country.A few hundred Italian settlers returned to Libya in the 2000s.

Italian was the official language ofEritreaduringItalian 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 theItalian Eritreansgrew from 4,000 during World War I to nearly 100,000 at the beginning of World War II.In Asmara there are two Italian schools, theItalian School of Asmara(Italian primary school with aMontessoridepartment) and theLiceo Sperimentale "G. Marconi"(Italian international senior high school).

Italian was also introduced toSomaliathrough colonialism and was the sole official language of administration and education during thecolonial periodbut fell out of use after government, educational and economic infrastructure were destroyed in theSomali Civil War.

Italian language in the United States

Italian is also spoken by largeimmigrant and expatriate communitiesin the Americas and Australia.Although over 17 millionAmericans are of Italian descent,only a little over one million people in the United States speak Italian at home.Nevertheless, an Italian language media market does exist in the country.In Canada, Italian is the second most spoken non-official language whenvarieties of Chineseare not grouped together, with 375,645 claiming Italian as theirmother tonguein 2016.

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 inArgentinaafter 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 as well as in the South.InVenezuela,Italian is the most spoken language after Spanish and Portuguese, with around 200,000 speakers.InUruguay,people who speak Italian as their home language are 1.1% of the total population of the country.In Australia, Italian is the second most spoken foreign language after Chinese, with 1.4% of the population speaking it as their home language.

The main Italian-language newspapers published outside Italy are theL'Osservatore Romano(Vatican City), theL'Informazione di San Marino(San Marino), theCorriere del Ticinoand thelaRegione Ticino(Switzerland), theLa Voce del Popolo(Croatia), theCorriere d'Italia(Germany), theL'italoeuropeo(United Kingdom), thePassaparola(Luxembourg), theAmerica Oggi(United States), theCorriere Canadeseand theCorriere Italiano(Canada), theIl punto d'incontro(Mexico), theL'Italia del Popolo(Argentina), theFanfulla(Brazil), theGente d'Italia(Uruguay), theLa Voce d'Italia(Venezuela), theIl Globo(Australia) and theLa gazzetta del Sud Africa(South Africa).

Education

Italian Secondary School in Rijeka/Fiume,Croatia

Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world, but rarely as the first foreign language. 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 applicationDuolingohas 4.94 million English speakers learning the Italian language.

According to theItalian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,every year there are more than 200,000 foreign students who study the Italian language; they are distributed among the 90Institutes of Italian Culturethat 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.

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.

Influence and derived languages

See also:Italian diaspora

Municipalities whereTalianis co-official inRio Grande do Sul,Brazil

Trilingual sign inSan Francisco, Argentina,in Spanish, Italian andPiedmontese

From the late 19th to the mid-20th century, millions of Italians settled in Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Brazil and Venezuela, as well as in Canada and the United States, where they formed a physical and cultural presence.

In some cases, colonies were established where variants of regionallanguages of Italywere used, and some continue to use this regional language. Examples areRio Grande do Sul,Brazil, whereTalianis used, and the town ofChipilonear Puebla, Mexico; each continues to use a derived form ofVenetiandating back to the 19th century. Other examples areCocoliche,an Italian–Spanishpidginonce spoken inArgentinaand especially inBuenos Aires,andLunfardo.TheRioplatense Spanishdialect of Argentina and Uruguay today has thus been heavily influenced by both standard Italian and Italian regional languages as a result.

Lingua franca

See also:Mediterranean Lingua Franca

Starting in latemedievaltimes 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 theRenaissancewith the strength of Italy and the rise ofhumanismandthe arts.

Italy came to enjoy increasing artistic prestige within Europe. A mark of the educated gentlemen was to make theGrand 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 languagesLatinandGreekwere 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 theCatholic Church,Italian is known by a large part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and is used in substitution for Latin in some official documents.

Italianloanwordscontinue 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 asfootballand especially in culinary terms.

Languages and dialects

See also:Languages of ItalyandRegional Italian

Linguistic map of Italy according to Clemente Merlo and Carlo Tagliavini (1937)

Italy's ethno-linguistic minorities

In Italy, almost all theother 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" dialectsofItalian ". The Romance dialects of Italy are local evolutions of spoken Latin that pre-date the establishment of Italian, and as such aresister languagesto 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 recognized as distinctminority languagesby the law. On the other hand,Corsican(a language spoken on the French island ofCorsica) is closely related to medievalTuscan,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 naturalchangesthat 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.

Throughout Italy, regional varieties of Standard Italian, calledRegional Italian,are spoken. Regional differences can be recognized by various factors: the openness of vowels, the length of the consonants, and influence of the local language (for example, in informal situationsandà,annàandnarereplace the standard Italianandarein 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 longermutually 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 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 ninth and tenth centuries C.E. 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.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 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 afterWorld War II,contributed to the proliferation of Standard Italian. The Italians who emigrated during theItalian diasporabeginning 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.

Although use of the Italian dialects has declined in themodern era,as Italy unified under Standard Italian and continues to do so aided by mass media from newspapers to radio to television,diglossiais still frequently encountered in Italy andtriglossiais not uncommon in emigrant communities among older speakers. Both situations normally involve some degree ofcode-switchingandcode-mixing.

Phonology

Main article:Italian phonology

Luke 2,1–7 of the Bible being read by a speaker of Italian fromMilan

This section is an excerpt fromItalian phonology § Consonants.[edit]

Consonant phonemes

	Labial		Dental/ alveolar		Post- alveolar/ palatal		Velar
Nasal		m		n		ɲ
Stop	p	b	t	d			k	ɡ
Affricate			t͡s	d͡z	t͡ʃ	d͡ʒ
Fricative	f	v	s	(z)a	ʃ	(ʒ)
Approximant						j		w
Lateral				l		ʎ
Trill				r

Notes:

• Between two vowels, or between a vowel and an approximant (/j,w/) or a liquid (/l,r/), consonants can be both singleton orgeminate.Geminate consonants shorten the preceding vowel (or block phonetic lengthening) and the first element of the geminate isunreleased.For example, compare/fato/[ˈfaːto]('fate') with/fatto/[ˈfat̚to]('fact').However,/ɲ/,/ʃ/,/ʎ/,/d͡z/,/t͡s/are always geminate intervocalically, including across word boundaries.Similarly, nasals, liquids, and sibilants are pronounced slightly longer in medial consonant clusters.
• /j/,/w/,and/z/are the only consonants that cannot be geminated.
• /t,d/arelaminaldenti-alveolar[t̪,d̪],commonly called "dental" for simplicity.
• /k,ɡ/are pre-velar before/i,e,ɛ,j/.
• /t͡s,d͡z,s,z/have two variants:
  • Dentalized laminalalveolar[t̪͡s̪,d̪͡z̪,s̪,z̪](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.
  • Non-retractedapicalalveolar[t͡s̺,d͡z̺,s̺,z̺].The stop component of the "apical" affricates is actually laminal denti-alveolar.
• /n,l,r/are apical alveolar[n̺,l̺,r̺]in most environments./n,l/are laminal denti-alveolar[n̪,l̪]before/t,d,t͡s,d͡z,s,z/andpalatalizedlaminalpostalveolar[n̠ʲ,l̠ʲ]before/t͡ʃ,d͡ʒ,ʃ/./n/is velar[ŋ]before/k,ɡ/.
• /m/and/n/do not contrast before/p,b/and/f,v/,where they are pronounced[m]and[ɱ],respectively.
• /ɲ/and/ʎ/arealveolo-palatal.In a large number of accents,/ʎ/is a fricative[ʎ̝].
• Intervocalically, single/r/is realised as a trill with one or two contacts.Some literature treats the single-contact trill as atap[ɾ].Single-contact trills can also occur elsewhere, particularly in unstressed syllables.Geminate/rr/manifests as a trill with three to seven contacts.
• 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' versusfuso/ˈfuso/'spindle'. According to Canepari,although, thetraditionalstandard has been replaced by a modernneutral pronunciationwhich always prefers/z/when intervocalic, except when the intervocalicsis the initial sound of a word, if the compound is still felt as such: for example,presento/preˈsɛnto/('I foresee', withpre-meaning 'before' andsentomeaning 'I perceive') vspresento/preˈzɛnto/('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).
  • :^ain most accents/z/and/s/do not contrast.

Italian has a seven-vowel system, consisting of/a,ɛ,e,i,ɔ,o,u/,as well as 23 consonants. Compared with most other Romance languages, Italian phonology is conservative, preserving many words nearly unchanged fromVulgar Latin.Some examples:

• Italianquattordici"fourteen" < Latinquattuordecim(cf. Spanishcatorce,Frenchquatorze/katɔʁz/,CatalanandPortuguesecatorze)
• Italiansettimana"week" < Latinseptimāna(cf. Romaniansăptămână,Spanish and Portuguesesemana,Frenchsemaine/səmɛn/,Catalansetmana)
• Italianmedesimo"same" < Vulgar Latin *medi(p)simum(cf. Spanishmismo,Portuguesemesmo,Frenchmême/mɛm/,Catalanmateix;Italian usually prefers the shorterstesso)
• Italianguadagnare"to win, earn, gain" < Vulgar Latin *guadaniāre<Germanic/waidanjan/(cf. Spanishganar,Portugueseganhar,Frenchgagner/ɡaɲe/,Catalanguanyar).

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 ofFlorencein the region ofTuscany,and has changed little in the last 700 years or so. Furthermore, the Tuscan dialect is the most conservative of allItalian dialects,radically different from theGallo-Italian languagesless than 160 kilometres (100 mi) to the north (across theLa Spezia–Rimini Line).

The following are some of the conservative phonological features of Italian, as compared with the commonWestern Romancelanguages (French, Spanish,Portuguese,Galician,Catalan). Some of these features are also present inRomanian.

• Little or nophonemiclenitionof consonants between vowels, e.g.vīta>vita"life" (cf. Romanianviață,Spanishvida[ˈbiða],Frenchvie),pedem>piede"foot" (cf. Spanishpie,Frenchpied/pje/).
  • Word that are an exception to this rule exist, such as:scvtella>scodella"bowl",recipere>ricevere"receive",lacvs>lago"lake",acvs>ago"needle", (only in theTuscanaccent and historical standard Italian)vīsus>viso/vizo/"face".
• Preservation of geminate consonants, e.g.annum>/ˈanːo/anno"year" (cf. Spanishaño/ˈaɲo/,Frenchan/ɑ̃/,Romanianan,Portugueseano/ˈɐnu/).
• Preservation of allProto-Romancefinal vowels, e.g.pacem>pace"peace" (cf. Romanianpace,Spanishpaz,Frenchpaix/pɛ/),octō>otto"eight" (cf. Romanianopt,Spanishocho,Frenchhuit/ɥi(t)/),fēcī>feci"I did" (cf. Romanian dialectalfeci,Spanishhice,Frenchfis/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 formsquattordiciandsettimanagiven above.
• Slower consonant development, e.g.folia> Italo-Western/fɔʎʎa/>foglia/ˈfɔʎʎa/"leaf" (cf. Romanianfoaie/ˈfo̯aje/,Spanishhoja/ˈoxa/,Frenchfeuille/fœj/;but note Portuguesefolha/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>lasciareandlassare,captiāre>cacciareandcazzare,(ex)dēroteolāre>sdrucciolare,druzzolareandruzzolare,rēgīna>reginaandreina.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 fromlanguagesfarther to the north, with different sound outcomes. (TheLa Spezia–Rimini Line,the most importantisoglossin the entire Romance-language area, passes only about 30 kilometres or 20 miles north of Florence.) Dual outcomes of Latin/ptk/between vowels, such aslŏcvm>luogobutfŏcvm>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:

• Latince-,ci-becomes/tʃe,tʃi/rather than/(t)se,(t)si/.
• Latin-ct-becomes/tt/rather than/jt/or/tʃ/:octō>otto"eight" (cf. Spanishocho,Frenchhuit,Portugueseoito).
• Vulgar Latin-cl-becomescchi/kkj/rather than/ʎ/:oclum>occhio"eye" (cf. Portugueseolho/ˈoʎu/,Frenchœil/œj/</œʎ/); but Romanianochi/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. Romanianamic,amiciandamică,amice;Spanishamigo(s)"male friend(s)",amiga(s)"female friend(s)" );trēs, sex→tre, sei"three, six" (cf. Romaniantrei,șase;Spanishtres,seis).

Standard Italian also differs in some respects from most nearby Italian languages:

• Perhaps most noticeable is the total lack ofmetaphony,although metaphony is a feature characterizing nearly every otherItalian language.
• No simplification of original/nd/,/mb/(which often became/nn/,/mm/elsewhere).

Assimilation

Italianphonotacticsdo not usually permit verbs and polysyllabic nouns to end with consonants, except in poetry and song, so foreign words may receiveextra terminal vowel sounds.

Writing system

Main article:Italian orthography

Italian has ashallow 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 aphonemic orthography.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 wordchair) 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 wordgem) before the letters e and i.
• The letter n represents the phoneme/n/,which is pronounced[ŋ](as in the English wordsing) before the letters c and g when these represent velar plosives/k/or/ɡ/,as inbanco[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 theaffricates/tʃ/or/dʒ/spelt with c or g before the letters i and e:mancia[ˈmant͡ʃa],mangia[ˈmand͡ʒa].
• The letterhis always silent:hotel/oˈtɛl/;hanno'they have' andanno'year' both represent/ˈanno/.It is used to form adigraphwithcorgto represent/k/or/ɡ/beforeiore:chi/ki/'who',che/ke/'what';aghi/ˈaɡi/'needles',ghetto/ˈɡetto/.
• The spellingsciandgibefore another vowel represent only/tʃ/or/dʒ/with no /i/ sound (ciuccio/ˈtʃuttʃo/'pacifier',Giorgio/ˈdʒordʒo/) unlesscorgprecede stressed/i/(farmacia/farmaˈtʃi.a/'pharmacy',biologia/bioloˈdʒi.a/'biology'). Elsewhereciandgirepresent/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 asjeans,whisky,taxi,xenofobo,xilofono.The letter⟨x⟩has become common in standard Italian with the prefixextra-,although(e)stra-is traditionally used; it is also common to use the Latin particleex(-)to mean "former(ly)" as in:la mia ex( "my ex-girlfriend" ), "Ex-Jugoslavia" ( "Former Yugoslavia" ). The letter⟨j⟩appears in the first nameJacopoand in some Italian place-names, such asBajardo,Bojano,Joppolo,Jerzu,Jesolo,Jesi,Ajaccio,among others, and inMar Jonio,an alternative spelling ofMar Ionio(theIonian Sea). The letter⟨j⟩may appear in dialectal words, but its use is discouraged in contemporary standard Italian.Letters used in foreign words can be replaced withphoneticallyequivalent native Italian letters anddigraphs:⟨gi⟩,⟨ge⟩,or⟨i⟩for⟨j⟩;⟨c⟩or⟨ch⟩for⟨k⟩(including in the standard prefixkilo-);⟨o⟩,⟨u⟩or⟨v⟩for⟨w⟩;⟨s⟩,⟨ss⟩,⟨z⟩,⟨zz⟩or⟨cs⟩for⟨x⟩;and⟨e⟩or⟨i⟩for⟨y⟩.

• Theacute accentis used over word-final⟨e⟩to indicate a stressedfront close-mid vowel,as inperché"why, because". In dictionaries, it is also used over⟨o⟩to indicate a stressedback close-mid vowel(azióne). Thegrave accentis used over word-final⟨e⟩and⟨o⟩to indicate afront open-mid voweland aback open-mid vowelrespectively, as intè"tea" andpuò"(he) can". The grave accent is used over any vowel to indicate word-final stress, as ingioventù"youth". Unlike⟨é⟩,which is aclose-mid vowel, a stressed final⟨o⟩is almost always aback open-mid vowel(andrò), with a few exceptions, such asmetró,with a stressed finalback 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 forprìncipi"princes" andprincìpi"principles", oràncora"anchor" andancóra"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:è"is",e"and" ).
• The letter⟨h⟩distinguishesho,hai,ha,hanno(present indicative ofavere"to have" ) fromo( "or" ),ai( "to the" ),a( "to" ),anno( "year" ). In the spoken language, the letter is always silent. The⟨h⟩inhoadditionally marks the contrasting open pronunciation of the⟨o⟩.The letter⟨h⟩is also used in combinations with other letters. Nophoneme/h/exists in Italian. In nativized foreign words, the⟨h⟩is silent. For example,hotelandhovercraftare 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 symbolizevoicedorvoicelessconsonants.⟨z⟩symbolizes/dz/or/ts/depending on context, with few minimal pairs. For example:zanzara/dzanˈdzara/"mosquito" andnazione/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 betweenplosivesandaffricatesdepending on following vowels. The letter⟨c⟩symbolizes/k/when word-final and before the back vowels⟨a, o, u⟩.It symbolizes/tʃ/as inchairbefore 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 ingembefore the front vowels⟨e, i⟩.Other Romance languages and, to an extent, English have similar variations for⟨c, g⟩.Comparehard and soft C,hard and soft G.(See alsopalatalization.)
• Thedigraphs⟨ch⟩and⟨gh⟩indicate (/k/and/ɡ/) before⟨i, e⟩.The digraphs⟨ci⟩and⟨gi⟩indicate "softness" (/tʃ/and/dʒ/,theaffricate consonantsof Englishchurchandjudge) before⟨a, o, u⟩.For example:

	Before back vowel (A, O, U)		Before front vowel (I, E)
Plosive	C	caramella/karaˈmɛlla/candy	CH	china/ˈkina/India ink
	G	gallo/ˈɡallo/rooster	GH	ghiro/ˈɡiro/edible dormouse
Affricate	CI	ciambella/tʃamˈbɛlla/donut	C	Cina/ˈtʃina/China
	GI	giallo/ˈdʒallo/yellow	G	giro/ˈdʒiro/round,tour

Note:⟨h⟩issilentin 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 inciao/ˈtʃa.o/and cielo/ˈtʃɛ.lo/,but it is pronounced infarmacia/ˌfar.maˈtʃi.a/andfarmacie/ˌfar.maˈtʃi.e/.

Italian has geminate, or double, consonants, which are distinguished bylengthand 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 lengthenedcontinuants.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].

Of special interest to the linguistic study ofRegional Italianis thegorgia toscana,or "Tuscan Throat", the weakening orlenitionofintervocalic/p/,/t/,and/k/in theTuscan language.

Thevoiced 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' butla gente[laˈʒɛnte]'the people',ragione[raˈʒoːne]'reason'.

Grammar

Main article:Italian grammar

See also:Italian verbs

Italiangrammaris typical of the grammar ofRomance languagesin general.Casesexist for personal pronouns (nominative,oblique,accusative,dative), but not for nouns.

There are two basic classes of nouns in Italian, referred to asgenders,masculine and feminine. Gender may benatural(ragazzo'boy',ragazza'girl') or simply grammatical with no possible reference to biological gender (masculinecosto'cost', femininecosta'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,ragazziis the plural, suggesting that-iis a general neutral plural. A third category of nouns isunmarkedfor gender, ending in-ein the singular and-iin 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:finemeaning 'aim', 'purpose' is masculine, whilefinemeaning 'end, ending' (e.g. of a movie) is feminine, and both arefiniin the plural, a clear instance of-ias a non-gendered default plural marker. These nouns often, but not always, denoteinanimates.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 fromneuterLatin nouns). An instance of neuter gender also exists in pronouns of the third person singular.

Examples:

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 articlesinflectfor 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), speakers of languages, or inhabitants of an area (e.g. Italians) are not capitalized.

There are three types ofadjectives: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)" change in form when placed before different types of nouns. Italian has three degrees for comparison of adjectives: positive, comparative, and superlative.

The order of words in the phrase is relatively free compared to most European languages.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 anull-subject language,so nominative pronouns are usually absent, with subject indicated by verbalinflections(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 definitearticlesin 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.Unois masculine singular, used beforez(/ts/or/dz/),s+consonant,gn(/ɲ/),pnorps,while masculine singularunis used before a word beginning with any other sound. The nounzio'uncle' selects masculine singular, thusuno zio'an uncle' oruno zio anziano'an old uncle,' butun mio zio'an uncle of mine'. The feminine singular indefinite articles areuna,used before any consonant sound, and its abbreviated form, writtenun',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 ofuno;il,which corresponds to the uses with the consonant ofun;la,which corresponds to the uses ofuna;l',used for both masculine and feminine singular before vowels. In the plural:gliis the masculine plural oflo and l';iis the plural ofil;andleis the plural of femininelaandl'.

There are numerouscontractionsofprepositionswith subsequentarticles.There are numerous productivesuffixesfordiminutive,augmentative,pejorative, attenuating, etc., which are also used to createneologisms.

There are 27 pronouns, grouped incliticand 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.

There are three regular sets of verbalconjugations,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 theindicative mood(present tense;past tensewithimperfective aspect,past tense withperfective aspect,andfuture tense), two simple conjugations in thesubjunctive mood(present tense and past tense), one simple conjugation in theconditional mood,and one simple conjugation in theimperative 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 apast 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

Conversation

Note: the plural form of verbs could also be used as an extremely formal (for example tonoblepeople in monarchies) singular form (seeroyal 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//ˌkomeˈstate//ˌkomeva/
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//ˌbwɔnaseˈrata/
Have a nice day!	Buona giornata!(formal)	/ˌbwɔnadʒorˈnata/
Enjoy the meal!	Buon appetito!	/ˌbwɔn‿appeˈtito/
Goodbye!	Arrivederci(general) /Arrivederla(formal) /Ciao!(informal)	(listen)/arriveˈdertʃi/
Good luck!	Buona fortuna!(general)	/ˌbwɔnaforˈtuna/
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.)	/tiˈamo/;/tiˌvɔʎʎoˈbɛne/
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)/perfaˈvore//perpjaˈtʃere//perkorteˈzia/
Thank you!	Grazie!(general) /Ti ringrazio!(informal) /La ringrazio!(formal) /Vi ringrazio!(plural)	/ˈɡrattsje//tirinˈɡrattsjo/
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/;/midisˈpjatʃe/
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	/diˈnwɔvo/;/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)	/ˌkometiˈkjami//kwalˈɛilˌsu.oˈnome/
My name is...	Mi chiamo...	/miˈkjamo/
This is...	Questo è...(masculine) /Questa è...(feminine)	/ˌkwestoˈɛ//ˌkwestaˈɛ/
Yes, I understand.	Sì, capisco./Ho capito.	/sikaˈpisko//ɔkkaˈpito/
I do not understand.	Non capisco./Non ho capito.	(listen)/nonkaˈpisko//nonˌɔkkaˈpito/
Do you speak English?	Parli inglese?(informal) /Parla inglese?(formal) /Parlate inglese?(plural)	(listen)/parˌlateinˈɡleːse/(listen)/ˌparlainˈɡlese/
I do not understand Italian.	Non capisco l'italiano.	/nonkaˌpiskolitaˈljano/
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?	/keˌoraˈɛ//keˌoreˈsono/
Where is the bathroom?	Dov'è il bagno?	(listen)/doˌvɛilˈbaɲɲo/
How much is it?	Quanto costa?	/ˌkwantoˈkɔsta/
The bill, please.	Il conto, per favore.	/ilˌkontoperfaˈvore/
The study of Italian sharpens the mind.	Lo studio dell'italiano aguzza l'ingegno.	/loˈstudjodellitaˈljanoaˈɡuttsalinˈdʒeɲɲo/
Where are you from?	Di dove sei?(general, informal)/Di dove è?(formal)	/didovessˈɛi//didoveˈɛ/
I like	Mi piace(for one object) /Mi piacciono(for multiple objects)	/mipjatʃe//mipjattʃono/

Question words

English	Italian	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

English	Italian	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

English	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/

English	Italian	IPA
eleven	undici	/ˈunditʃi/
twelve	dodici	/ˈdoditʃi/
thirteen	tredici	/ˈtreditʃi/
fourteen	quattordici	/kwatˈtorditʃi/
fifteen	quindici	/ˈkwinditʃi/
sixteen	sedici	/ˈseditʃi/
seventeen	diciassette	/ditʃasˈsɛtte/
eighteen	diciotto	/diˈtʃɔtto/
nineteen	diciannove	/ditʃanˈnɔve/
twenty	venti	/ˈventi/

English	Italian	IPA
twenty-one	ventuno	/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/

English	Italian	IPA
one hundred	cento	/ˈtʃɛnto/
one thousand	mille	/ˈmille/
two thousand	duemila	/ˌdueˈmila/
two thousand (and) twenty-four (2024)	duemilaventiquattro	/dueˌmilaˈventikwattro/
one million	un milione	/miˈljone/
one billion	un miliardo	/miˈljardo/
one trillion	mille miliardi	/ˈmilleˈmiˈljardi/

Days of the week

English	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

English	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/

Example text

Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rightsin 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.

Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rightsin 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.

Nobel Prizes for Italian language literature

Giosuè Carducci,the first Italian to receive theNobel Prize in Literature

Year	Winner	Contribution
1906	Giosuè Carducci	"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."
1926	Grazia Deledda	"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."
1934	Luigi Pirandello	"For his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art."
1959	Salvatore Quasimodo	"For his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times."
1975	Eugenio Montale	"For his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions."
1997	Dario Fo	"Who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden."

See also

• Languages of Italy(includes "Italian dialects",dialetti)
• ItalianAccademia della Crusca
• CELI
• CILS (Qualification)
• Enciclopedia Italiana
• Italian alphabet
• Regional Italian
• Italian exonyms
• 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 Wikipedia
• 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

Bibliography

• Ashby, Patricia (2011),Understanding Phonetics,Understanding Language series, Routledge,ISBN978-0340928271
• Bertinetto, Pier Marco; Loporcaro, Michele (2005)."The sound pattern of Standard Italian, as compared with the varieties spoken in Florence, Milan and Rome".Journal of the International Phonetic Association.35(2): 131–151.doi:10.1017/S0025100305002148.S2CID6479830.
• Canepari, Luciano (1992),Il MªPi – Manuale di pronuncia italiana[Handbook of Italian Pronunciation] (in Italian), Bologna: Zanichelli,ISBN978-88-08-24624-0
• Berloco, Fabrizio (2018).The Big Book of Italian Verbs: 900 Fully Conjugated Verbs in All Tenses. With IPA Transcription, 2nd Edition.Lengu.ISBN978-8894034813.Archivedfrom the original on 27 April 2024.Retrieved5 November2019.
• Palermo, Massimo (2015).Linguistica italiana.Il Mulino.ISBN978-8815258847.
• Simone, Raffaele (2010).Enciclopedia dell'italiano.Treccani.
• Hall, Robert A. Jr. (1944). "Italian phonemes and orthography".Italica.21(2). American Association of Teachers of Italian: 72–82.doi:10.2307/475860.JSTOR475860.
• Ladefoged, Peter;Maddieson, Ian(1996).The Sounds of the World's Languages.Oxford: Blackwell.ISBN0-631-19815-6.
• Prifti, Elton (2014). "Enèrgeia in trasformazione: elementi analitici di linguistica migrazionale".Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie.130(1): 1–22.doi:10.1515/zrp-2014-0001.S2CID142121342.
• Recasens, Daniel (2013),"On the articulatory classification of (alveolo)palatal consonants"(PDF),Journal of the International Phonetic Association,43(1): 1–22,doi:10.1017/S0025100312000199,S2CID145463946,archived fromthe original(PDF)on 6 May 2021,retrieved21 March2019
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004)."Italian".Journal of the International Phonetic Association.34(1): 117–121.doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628.
• M. Vitale,Studi di Storia della Lingua Italiana,LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 1992,ISBN88-7916-015-X
• S. Morgana,Capitoli di Storia Linguistica Italiana,LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 2003,ISBN88-7916-211-X
• J. Kinder,CLIC: Cultura e Lingua d'Italia in CD-ROM / Culture and Language of Italy on CD-ROM,Interlinea, Novara, 2008,ISBN978-88-8212-637-7
• Treccani Italian Dictionary(iso)(in Italian). it – viaarchive.org.(with a similar list of other Italian-modern languages dictionaries)

External links

• Salvatore Battaglia (1961–2002)."Grande dizionario della lingua italiana. Prototipo edizione digitale".UTET.
• Il Nuovo De Mauro(in Italian)
• Swadesh list in English and Italian
• Italorussian (Италоруссо)atOmniglot
• Italian proverbs
• "Learn Italian",BBC