# Italian language

| Italian |
| --- |
| **italiano*, lingua italiana* |
| Pronunciation | [itaˈljaːno] |
| Native to | Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, Slovenia (Slovenian Istria), Croatia (Istria County), and the Italian diaspora |
| Region | (widely known among older people and in commercial sectors in Somalia, Eritrea, and Libya; used in the Federal Government of Somalia) |
| Native speakers | 59 million Italian proper, native and native bilingual (2007) 85 million all varieties |
| Language family | Indo-European
* Italic
	+ Romance
		- Italo-Western
			* Italo-Dalmatian
				+ **Italian**
 |
| Writing system | Latin (Italian alphabet) Italian Braille |
| Official status |
| Official language in |  European Union  Malta  Italy   Switzerland  San Marino   Vatican City  Slovenia (Slovenian Istria)  Croatia (Istria County)  Brazil (Talian dialect in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina) |
| Recognised minority language in |  Albania  Argentina  Australia  Bolivia  Brazil  Brunei  Chile  Eritrea  Ethiopia  Greece  Libya  Monaco  Montenegro  Papua New Guinea  Somalia  Solomon Islands  Tunisia |
| Regulated by | not officially by Accademia della Crusca |
| Language codes |
| ISO 639-1 | `it` |
| ISO 639-2 | `ita` |
| ISO 639-3 | `ita` |
| Linguasphere | `51-AAA-q` |
| Where *Italian* is spoken in Europe |
|

The Bible being read in Italian by a speaker from Milan
Woman speaking Italian and Sicilian
The **Italian language** is a Romance language spoken in Italy. Other countries that use Italian as their *official language* are San Marino, Vatican City and Switzerland. Slovenia, and Croatia also use Italian as an official language, but only in some regions. Italian is spoken by about 70 million people in several countries, including some parts of Monaco, Malta, Albania, Montenegro, Dodecanese (Greece), Eritrea, Libya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Tunisia. The standard version from Tuscany is used for most writing but other dialects are sometimes written.

## Spoken

It is mostly derived from Latin, with some words from Greek, Etruscan and elsewhere. It is called an inflected language - that means that the meaning of words can be changed by changing their endings. Italian nouns are either masculine or feminine in gender (these usually have little to do with natural genders).

Most singular masculine nouns end in -o, and most plural masculine nouns end in -i.

Most singular feminine nouns end in -a, and most plural feminine nouns end in -e.

So:

1. *gatto* = male cat
2. *gatta* = female cat
3. *gatti* = male cats
4. *gatte* = female cats

The ending of verbs are quite complicated because of conjugation. The endings depend upon the *tense* of the verb (past, present, future and so on) and on the *person* of the verb (I, you, they etc.). Because Italian grammar uses endings for these inflections, the personal pronoun is not always needed (in the following example it is in parenthesis).

So:

1. (io) parlo = I speak
2. (noi) parliamo = we speak
3. (lui) parlava = he was speaking
4. (loro) parlarono = they spoke
5. (io) parlerò = I will speak
6. parliamo! = let's speak!

There are very many of these endings to learn - it is one of the more difficult parts of the Italian Grammar. But pronunciation is simple - there are just a few rules to learn, and hardly any difficult sounds.

Many Italian words for food have entered the English language, such as: pizza, spaghetti and ravioli. Many technical words in music are Italian, such as forte and allegro. Many musical instrument names are also Italian, such as cello and tuba. Mafia and vendetta come from the darker side of Italian culture.

Pidgin versions of the Italian language were developed in the colonies of Italy: the most important were in Eritrea, Somalia and Libya.

* Where italian is spoken in the world
* How handwrite cursive at Italian school
* Where Italian is born

* Berloco, Fabrizio (2018). *The Big Book of Italian Verbs: 900 Fully Conjugated Verbs in All Tenses. With IPA Transcription, 2nd Edition*. Lengu. ISBN 9788894034813.
* Palermo, Massimo (2015). *Linguistica italiana*. Il Mulino. ISBN 9788815258847.
* Simone, Raffaele (2010). *Enciclopedia dell'italiano*. Treccani.

## Other websites

* Italian grammar and interactive course
* Italian proverbs
* Italian Learning Tips Archived 2021-01-26 at the Wayback Machine
* Italian Grammar Primer Archived 2008-04-16 at the Wayback Machine
* Italian Online Dictionaries and Glossaries Archived 2007-12-26 at the Wayback Machine
* A dictionary of Italian orthography and pronunciation
* English-Italian Dictionary Archived 2011-07-02 at the Wayback Machine and English-Italian Dictionary Archived 2012-01-12 at the Wayback Machine on  Archived 2021-05-13 at the Wayback Machine