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Italian (italiano) is a
Romance language spoken by about 70 million people primarily in Italy.
Standard Italian is based on Tuscan dialects and is somewhat
intermediate between the languages of Southern Italy and the
Gallo-Romance languages of the North. The long-established Tuscan
standard has, over the last few decades, been slightly influenced by
the variety of Italian spoken in Milan, the economic center of Italy.
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 grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.
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 14th century through the works of Dante
Alighieri, who mixed southern Italian dialects, especially Sicilian,
with his native Tuscan in his epic poems known collectively as the
Commedia, to which 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. Italians generally believe
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 derived from 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.
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Classification
Italian is a member of the Italo-Dalmatian group of languages, which is
part of the Italo-Western grouping of the Romance languages, which are
a subgroup of the Italic branch of Indo-European.
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Geographic distribution
Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino, and is an
official language in Ticino and Grigioni cantons of Switzerland. 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 widely
used by immigrant groups in Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, the United
States, Canada, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia, and is
also spoken in neighbouring Albania. It is spoken, to a much lesser
extent, in parts of Africa formerly under Italian rule such as Somalia,
Libya and Eritrea. It is also widely known and taught in Monaco and in
the neighbouring island of Malta and served as an official language of
the country until English was enshrined in the 1934 Constitution.
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Official status
Italian is an official language of Italy, the European Union, San
Marino, Switzerland and Vatican City. It is also an official language
in the Istria County (Croatia) and municipalities of Koper, Piran and
Izola (Slovenia).
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