Claim: The Italian language is spoken by people on at least two continents.

Italian -LRB- -LSB- itaˈljaːno -RSB- or lingua italiana -LSB- ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna -RSB- -RRB- is a Romance language . By most measures , Italian , together with Sardinian , is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages .  Italian is an official language in Italy , Switzerland , San Marino , Vatican City and western Istria -LRB- in Slovenia and Croatia -RRB- . It used to have official status in Albania , Malta and Monaco , where it is still widely spoken , as well as in former Italian East Africa and Italian North Africa regions where it plays a significant role in various sectors . Italian is spoken by small minorities in places such as France -LRB- especially in Corsica -RRB- , Montenegro , Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia . It has official minority status in Bosnia and Herzegovina , Croatia , Slovenia and Romania . Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages . Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world .   Italian is a major European language , being one of the official languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and one of the working languages of the Council of Europe . It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers -LRB- 13 % of the EU population -RRB- and it is spoken as a second language by 14 million EU citizens -LRB- 3 % -RRB- . Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries -LRB- such as Switzerland and Albania -RRB- and on other continents , the total number of speakers is around 85 million .   Italian is the main working language of the Holy See , serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta . Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and opera . Its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market . Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world .   Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy , having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society . Its development was also influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent , by the Germanic languages of the post-Roman invaders . The incorporation into Italian of learned , or `` bookish '' words from its own ancestor language , Latin , is arguably another form of lexical borrowing through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church . Throughout the Middle Ages and into the early modern period , most literate Italian speakers were also literate in Latin ; and thus they easily adopted Latin words into their writing -- and eventually speech -- in Italian . Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian . Unlike most other Romance languages , Italian retains Latin 's contrast between short and long consonants . As in most Romance languages , stress is distinctive .