Learn Italian
Italian is a beautiful language that is, of course, the predominant language of Italy. Although it might not be the easiest language to learn, there are a variety of reasons to learn Italian.
 One reason to learn Italian is the beauty of the language. Italian is one of the most delightful languages ever spoken.
Another reason that you may want to learn Italian is because your family is of Italian descent or perhaps you have married into an Italian family. Learning your families’ native tongue can give you a more deeply rooted connection with your family, allowing you the opportunity to communicate with some family members who are only able to speak Italian.
Learn Italian in Italy
Yet another reason to learn Italian in Italy is to fully immerse yourself in the culture of Italy while you are visiting or living there. You will have more meaningful encounters if you can actually speak the language. If you speak and understand basic Italian, you can immerse yourself in Italian culture, while gaining many insights through the intrinsic usages of the native language.
Whatever you reasons, learn Italian in Italy and you will learn a beautiful language in a stunning country.
Italian Language Facts
Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino, and one of the official languages of Switzerland. About 58 million people in Italy, 24,000 in San Marino, 840,000 in Switzerland, and another 1 million throughout Europe, speak Italian. Approximately 5 million people in North and South America speak Italian.
 Italian is also the second official language of Vatican City, Croatia, and some areas of Istria in Slovenia. It is widely known and taught in Monaco and Malta, and is widely spoken in Corsica and Nice (both were former Italian possessions before being handed over to France), and Albania.
Italian is used widely by Italians living around the world and is spoken in parts of Africa. It is the second most commonly spoken language in Australia, where almost 400,000 Italian Australians, or 1.9% of the population, speak Italian at home.
The presence of Italian people is significant in Latin America. Northern Italian dialects are to be found in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Venezuela. Spanish and Portuguese languages are highly influenced by Italian, particularly in some parts of these countries.
Italian Language 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 are legal formulae from the region of Benevento dating from 960-963. Italian was first formalized in the beginning of the 14th century through the works of Dante Alighieri. He mixed southern Italian languages with his native Tuscan in his epic poems known collectively as the Commedia, to which Giovanni Boccaccio later affixed the title Divina.
 The works of Dante were read throughout Italy and his writing became the standard language that all Italians could understand. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language.
Italian has always had a distinctive dialect for each city. A well-known Italian dictum proclaims 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 is the closest existing dialect to Dante's now-standard Italian.
Italian Language Interesting Facts
- Today's modern Italian language originated in the region of Tuscany.
- Italian is pronounced phonetically - every letter corresponds to a distinguishable sound, there are hardly any differences between pronunciation and spelling. Nevertheless, pronunciation varies from region to region.
- Formal / informal address - deference and politeness are expressed by the switch between formal 'lei' and informal 'tu'.
- Italian shares an approximate 85% lexical similarity to Spanish and French.
- Inflection, declination and grammatical gender are important features of Italian grammar
- Vowels can feature diacritic marks: à, è, ì, ò, and ù.
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The content of this page is original and is copyright of Languages in Action. It has been researched and adapted from several respected sources of Italian language information such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_language.
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