The history of the Italian language is rich and fascinating, as it comes from the vernacular Latin of the Roman Empire. It has ancient roots, but nevertheless is considered quite young, since the modern dialect was formed only in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Unlike other languages ​​of the Romance group, it did not receive such distribution. It is officially recognized in four states - directly in Italy, the Vatican, San Marino and Switzerland. The total number of speakers is almost 64 million people.

However, learning it does not mean understanding everything that is said in Italy. This territory is famous for its dialects, which can differ significantly from each other.

Classical Italian and dialects

The most commonly studied language in the world is the so-called lingua italiana. It is spoken by more than 60 million people. However, in Italy itself there is a huge number of dialects that are radically different from each other. Their differences reach the point that residents of different regions do not understand each other’s speech. This is due to historical events.

  1. All dialects can be divided into three geographical groups - central, southern and northern. The central region became a kind of language center - the Tuscan dialect was widespread there, which later became the basis for modern Italian. But in Rome they speak colloquial Latin with shades of Neapolitan and Tuscan dialects.
  2. In the north, Gallo-Italian dialects are common, some of which are considered separate languages. In total, this part of the country is divided into eight regions, each of which has its own dialect. For example, the Valle d'Aosta region borders France, so the French-Provençal dialect is spoken here.
  3. In the south of the country they used to speak Neapolitan, but now it is more Italian with a Neapolitan accent. In some regions you can find an Albanian accent. By the way, the islands also have their own dialects - Sicilian, for example, is divided into Western, Eastern and Central. Just a few centuries ago, Italians from different parts of the country did not understand each other. Nowadays, the dialects are closer to Italian and have common roots.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, folk Latin, a previously unpopular colloquial variant, spread throughout Italy. Of course, its development was affected by the fact that the entire period of the Middle Ages was divided.

It was only after the Renaissance that a single dialect based on Tuscan was created. We can say that in the 18th and 19th centuries the language of literature and art was artificially formed based on the dialect used by the greatest Italians - Dante and Petrarch.

Now this version can be heard on television, cinema, literature and art. But in order to understand the dialects of some regions, you need to study them directly in their places of distribution.

Vatican


In the smallest state in the world, Italian is officially recognized on a par with Latin. Of course, on the latter you can only find documents.

The population of the Vatican is only 1000 people, and half of them are ministers of the Holy See. This tiny state is completely surrounded by Roman territory and has always been part of Italy. The Vatican gained its independence from the country only in 1929.

San Marino


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Another small state in Italy is San Marino. Its territory is only 60 square meters. km. surrounded on all sides by Italian, so it is not surprising that this language is recognized as the official language here. San Marino has a rich history despite its size. The state was founded in 301, making it the oldest in Europe.

Switzerland


In Switzerland, Italian is officially recognized along with three others - French, German and Romansh. This is due to the ethnic composition of the country, which was formed due to its location.

Now Switzerland is a stronghold of reliability and stability, but since ancient times this territory has been a tasty morsel. Even the inhabitants of Ancient Rome wanted to conquer these Alpine valleys. Soon the territory of Switzerland became a transition between Italy and the north of Europe, which made its inhabitants Italian-speaking.

Slovenia


Slovenia has Slovenian as its official language, but in some areas of the country Italian and Hungarian are used as the second official language. This is due to its geographical location, because the country’s neighbors are Italy and Hungary. On the Istrian peninsula near the border with Italy, this language is recognized as the second official language. In total, about 2,500 thousand Italians live in Slovenia.

The state language is Italian, divided into three groups of dialects - northern, central and southern (including dialects, the total number of dialects reaches 40).

The literary language was formed on the basis of the Tuscan dialect (transitional between the northern and southern language groups). At the same time, local dialects and patois are widely used (primarily Sardinian, Neapolitan and Friulian), which have a completely official status within the historical regions. Numerous borrowings from Latin, Spanish and French, organically integrated into modern everyday language, are also easily noticeable.

English and French are understood almost everywhere in the tourism industry. German is widely used in the foothills of the Alps and in the resort areas of the northern Adriatic. In the Valle d'Aosta region there are many French-speaking residents, and in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region many understand Slovenian and Austrian. At the same time, at the everyday level, the number of speakers of foreign languages ​​is quite small - the Italians themselves prefer to use their dialects, leaving foreign languages ​​only for highly specialized professional activity.

In addition to the country itself, Italian is considered the official language of the Vatican (along with Latin), San Marino, Switzerland and the EU.

Italian belongs to the Romance language group of the Indo-European family. Moreover, in essence, it is a rather young language - literary Italian was formed on the basis of the Tuscan dialect in the 18th-19th centuries, and dialects that are noticeably different from each other are still used in different regions of the country (Tuscan, Neapolitan, Venetian, Sicilian, Ligurian and others - only about a hundred). In the north they speak dialects of the Gallo-Roman group, in the south - Italo-Roman, but the picture is complicated by a number of dialects that are considered separate languages, and not dialects of Italian (primarily Sardinian and Friulian). For Italians, language is a way to emphasize their national and ethnic identity, which is why all regional languages ​​coexist on equal terms.

Only with the development of television did the spoken language throughout the country begin to more or less “even out.” Literary Italian is taught in schools, most television programs are broadcast in it, literally thousands of newspapers are published in it, and it is recognized as one of the official languages ​​of the European Union and the UN. But at the same time, during a special study (1992), it turned out that 86% of the country’s residents use the Italian language and dialects simultaneously in everyday communication, while 13% do not know the literary national language at all! And they don’t suffer from this at all, by the way, since in return they know 3-4 dialects of their “neighbors,” which makes it easy to communicate with any resident of the Apennines (in the middle of the 20th century the picture was completely different - even the soldiers of the Italian Expeditionary Force in Russia often simply did not understand each other). The echoes of this linguistic diversity can be traced even now - even films made in the south of the country are dubbed for distribution in the north!

Communication with local residents

Knowledge of foreign languages ​​in Italy leaves much to be desired. In popular tourist areas, staff mostly speak fluent English, but in smaller towns and in the provinces, almost no one understands it. In the northern regions of Italy, many local residents speak fluent German (including Swiss and Austrian dialects) and French, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region many understand Serbo-Croatian, in Sardinia - Catalan and Spanish, but on the Apennine Peninsula itself You can only communicate with a local resident in Italian or using sign language (which is strongly not recommended). However, young Italians, as a rule, speak English quite well, and recently the staff of Russian-speaking sellers and guides has noticeably increased.

A characteristic feature of local communication is the abundant use of body language and gestures - often gesticulation completely changes the meaning of what is said, but more often serves as a means of adding emphasis and imagery to speech. Moreover, many familiar gestures may have a completely different meaning here, so you should not use them thoughtlessly.

Italians have always been distinguished by their mobility, lively temperament, figurative speech and love for various proverbs and sayings. Many foreigners consider this trait to be the desire of a local resident to disguise the true meaning of what was said, attributing cunning and resourcefulness to the Italians. However, in reality this is far from the case - figurative speech is intended to add weight to what is being said, and not to veil its meaning. But lies and cunning are far from being held in high esteem here - the Italians even have a saying Le bugie hanno le gambe corte, which can be translated as “A lie has legs too short to take you far.” What about cunning and swindlers? Well, where are they not? Like any other country in the world, the tourist places in Italy are filled with those who make “easy money” from numerous visitors, and therefore do not disdain all sorts of tricks and deception.

The official language adopted in Italy is Italian- a beautiful melodic language of the Romance group, belonging to the Indo-European family. It is generally believed to be spoken by all Italians, although in fact it is divided into such a huge number of dialects and dialects, diverging from each other, that often the inhabitants of the north and south do not understand each other.

Films released in the northern part of the country are even dubbed for showing in the southern regions. Moreover, some dialects, according to linguists, do not belong to the Romance group and can be considered as separate languages.

Literary Italian, adopted as the official language in Italy and disseminated through television, goes back to the vernacular Latin spoken by the inhabitants of the late Roman Empire. Its formation was also influenced by Old French and Old Provençal languages. The first records in Italian date back to the 10th century AD, after which the Florentine dialect began to dominate in Italy. And from the end of the 13th century, the new literary Italian style was based on Tuscan dialect, in which the main authors of Italy of the Middle Ages wrote - Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio. Their language was essentially taken as the basis of common Italian, as the standard of the classical literary language. Thus, modern literary Italian is based on the Tuscan dialect.

Italians have a very developed division into ethnic groups, so despite the spread of a common language throughout the country, dialects continue to play a large role in everyday life. About 86% of the country's residents know the national language, but most of them also use dialects. 13%, according to a 1992 study, cannot even speak standard Italian. Ligurian, Florentine, Venetian, Neapolitan, Sicilian and other dialects are common. Sardinian and Friulian are so different from Italian that they are considered separate languages. In total, there are more than a hundred dialects and dialects in the country.

Italian is the official language of San Marino, Vatican City, Switzerland and is accepted as one official language in the European Union. Also common in Italy are Albanian, French, Croatian, Slovenian, and German - they are spoken mainly in the border areas. Due to the large number of immigrants in the country, there are many speakers of languages ​​from the Middle East, Maghreb countries, and Asia.

Italian uses the Latin alphabet with additional characters- diacritics and digraphs. In oral speech, Italians are accustomed to supplementing what is said with abundant gestures, which give the language expressiveness. A large number of metaphors, proverbs and sayings give Italian great imagery, although many foreigners believe that such complex speech only masks the meaning of what is said.

The languages ​​and dialects in Italy are so different from each other that residents of different regions of the same country cannot always understand each other. The dialects of the Italian language have received such diversity due to a number of historical reasons. Historically, Italy consisted of many separate regions, which over the centuries had all the characteristics of individual states. Among these distinctive features was a language that was different from that of the neighboring region. Today in modern Italy there are 20 regions, but the number of languages ​​and dialects in these regions is much more than 20. In this article we will try to find out what languages ​​and dialects there are in Italy, why they were formed there and how they differ from languages ​​or dialects neighboring Italian regions.

The best way to classify the languages ​​and dialects of Italy is geographically. To do this, we will conditionally divide Italy into three zones: northern, central and southern.

Languages ​​and dialects of northern Italy

The northern zone of Italy includes 8 administrative regions: Valle d'Aosta, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Emilia-Romagna.

Valle d'Aosta is the smallest administrative region in the northwestern part of Italy, bordering France and Switzerland. The following languages ​​and dialects are common in this mountainous region of Italy: French as one of the official languages, Franco-Provencal is the language of the indigenous population (language considered endangered), as well as the Occitan (Provençal) language.

To the south of Valle d'Aosta there is a large administrative region of Piedmont. In the central part of Piedmont, the Piedmontese dialect is used for communication (one of the dialects of the Italian language, spoken by about 2 million people), in the west of the region the Occitan language is widespread, and in the east - Lombard dialect of Italian.

To the south of Piedmont is Liguria, a small coastal region of Italy. In Liguria, about a million inhabitants speak several Ligurian dialects of Italian, incl. in the Genoese dialect (note: Genoa is the capital of Liguria).

A significant part of the Italian population lives in the rich and developed northern administrative province of Lombardy. The language used in this region is Lombard, which in turn is divided into 2 dialects of Italian: Western Lombard and Eastern Lombard. Lombard dialects (or Lombard language, as some believe) are spoken by about 10 million people, which is the second most in Italy (after classical Italian).

To the northeast of Lombardy is an autonomous region of Italy called Trentino-Alto Adige. This region borders Austria and Switzerland to the north, and its population speaks German and Ladin (one of the Romansh languages).

East of Lombardy is the Veneto region (the capital is Venice). Several varieties of the Venetian dialect of Italian are used in Veneto.

To the east of other northern regions in Italy is the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, which borders Austria in the north and Slovenia in the east. Based on its geographical location, in this region, in addition to the official Italian language, the Friulian language (one of the Romansh languages), Cimbrian (one of the Germanic languages), as well as the Slovenian language (Gorizia and Trieste) are widespread.

The southernmost region in the northern region of Italy is Emilia-Romagna. In this region, about 3 million people speak Emilian and Romagnol dialects of Italian with their transitional forms.

Languages ​​and dialects of central Italy

An important region of Italy in terms of the formation of the classical Italian language is Tuscany. It was on the basis of the Tuscan dialects of the Italian language that in the Middle Ages the classical Italian language began to form, which later became the official language for all of Italy and was included in the 20 most widespread languages ​​in the world (native speakers of classical Italian are the largest group in the territory of modern Italy).

Tuscany's neighboring regions of Umbria and Marche use Tuscan dialects of Italian, as well as the Sabine dialect of Italian.

The Roman dialect of Italian originates from that branch of the Latin language called “vernacular Latin”. In its historical development, the Roman dialect changed under the influence of the Neapolitan and Tuscan dialects of the Italian language. The Roman dialect of Italian is used in Rome itself and some cities in the Lazio region (in the southern part of Lazio the Neapolitan dialect is used).

Languages ​​and dialects of southern Italy

Among the languages ​​and Italian dialects of the southern part of the country, the Neapolitan dialect stands out (many call it the Neapolitan language). In addition to Neapolitan, dialects from the regions of Abruzzo and Molise have become widespread in southern Italy. In the southern administrative regions of Apulia and Calabria, in addition to the actual Apulian and Calabrian dialects of the Italian language, the Albanian language is used (a significant number of ethnic Albanians live in these regions). In the southern parts of Calabria, Sicilian dialects of Italian are spoken.

Languages ​​and dialects of the Italian islands

The largest islands in Italy are Sicily and Sardinia. These islands have been influenced by different cultures (Greek, Roman, Arab) in different historical eras, which is reflected in the languages ​​and dialects of these regions. In Sicily, several Sicilian dialects have formed depending on the geographical location (central, eastern and western). The Sicilian language differs significantly from standard Italian.

Sardinia has even more languages ​​and dialects. The main language of the island is Sardinian, which is spoken by more than a million people. There are several dialects of the Sardinian language (Sassarian, Galluran, Nuoran, Logudorian). The Sardinian language includes features of both Italian and Spanish.

In addition to the Sardinian language, the Corsican language (in the north of Sardinia) and the Catalan language (Alghero) are used on the island.

This concludes our brief overview of the languages ​​in Italy, as well as the dialects of the Italian language, of which, due to historical and geographical reasons, there were so many in such a relatively small area.