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The Italian Language
Spoken in: Italy and 29 other countries
Total speakers: 70 million
Ranking: 19-20 native (in a near tie with Urdu)
Genetic classification: Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Italo-Dalmatian, Italian
Regulated by: Accademia della Crusca
Italian (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.
Like many languages it is 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 vocabulary and pronunciation, though
Romanian most closely preserves the grammar of Classical Latin.
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.
Classification
Italian is most closely related to the other two Italo-Dalmatian languages, Sicilian and the extinct Dalmatian.
The three are part of the Italo-Western grouping of the Romance languages, which are a subgroup of the Italic branch
of Indo-European.
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 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.
It is widely used also in France (Corse and Nice) and in Albania.
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.
Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world, but rarely as the first non-native language of pupils.
In anglophone parts of Canada, Italian is, after French, the second most taught language. In the United States
and the United Kingdom, Italian ranks fourth (after Spanish-French-German and French-German-Spanish respectively).
Throughout the world, Italian is the fifth most taught non-native language, after English, French, Spanish and
German.
Official status
Italian is an official language of Italy, the European Union, San Marino and Switzerland. It is also an official
language in the Istria County (Croatia) and municipalities of Koper, Piran and Izola (Slovenia).
It is also co-official language in Vatican City with the Latin and it is spoken usually by the hierarchy of catholic
church like "lingua franca" for internal communication.
Dialects and regional languages of Italy
The dialects of Italian identified by the Ethnologue are Tuscan, Abruzzese, Pugliese (Apulian), Umbrian, Laziale,
Central Marchigiano, Cicolano-Reatino-Aquilano, and Molisan. On the contrary Ethnologue and the Red book on endangered
languages of UNESCO consider Piemontese, Lombard, Ligurian, Emiliano-Romagnolo, Venetian, Friulian, Neapolitan-Calabrian
or Tricalabrian (a range including Neapolitan, Sicilian and Calabrian) and Sardinian as regional minority languages,
structurally separated from Italian. Most Italians, however, refer to these simply as "dialect", with
the exception of Sardinian and Friulian, which are usually recognized language status in the regions of Sardinia
and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Also the Corsican language has strong similarities to Italian and most linguists consider
it as a Tuscany dialect, the closest to modern Italian.
Many of the so-called dialects of Italian spoken around the country are different enough from standard Italian
to be considered separate languages by most linguists and some speakers themselves. Thus a distinction can be made
between "dialects of (standard) Italian" and "dialects (or languages) of Italy".
Cultural acceptance of dialects
The dialect of Tuscany became the basis for what would become the official language of Italy, by way of the famous
Tuscan author Dante Alighieri. Alighieri and other Tuscan poets were inspired by the Sicilian koine wanted by the
Sicilian School under holy roman emperor Frederick II. His project (in which Giacomo da Lentini invented the sonnet)
was accomplished by enriching the Sicilian language with new words adapted from French, Latin, and Apulian. The
Sicilians produced a collection of love-poems which can be considered the first standard Italian ever produced,
though it was only used for literary purposes until Guittone d'Arezzo. When the Svevs dynasty ended the Tuscans
and Dante re-discovered it (see De Divina Eloquentia and Vita Nova)and integrated the Sicilians into Florence's
linguistic heritage.
Dolce stil novo, the platonic school of courtly love can be considered the link between the old southern school
and Tuscan poetry which aimed to express the new intellectual sensibility and fervor of the newly-born city-states,
as Florence. Dante's work, Divina Commedia was the first of its kind to be written in a dialect (though sensibly
enriched compared with its spoken counterpart), as opposed to the traditional Latin. The success of his work spread
the Florentine dialect, and gave it prestige and acceptance. For this he is referred to as the father of the Italian
Language.
By the time Italy was unified 1861, and Rome was annexed (1870) the Italian standard had further been influenced
by Florentine through the work of the Accademia della Crusca (Cardinal Pietro Bembo and followers). Bembo laid
the foundation for what is today's modern standard. But Bembo was a purist and had accepted no other influence
than that from Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio. As time went on, the language was losing touch with linguistic change,
and could not put up with technology and science. The much-needed update would have to wait a little longer until,
in what is commonly regarded as the first modern novel of the Italian literature, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed),
Alessandro Manzoni further refined his widely read novel by "rinsing" it in the waters of the Arno (Florence's
river), as he states in his 1840 Preface.
However, Manzoni refused the Crusca's purist, written Florentine-only attitude and admitted a certain influence
from other dialects, though he reduced it as compared to the first edition of (1821). After unification the huge
number of civil servants and soldiers recruited from all over the country introduced many more words and idioms
from their home dialects ("ciao" is Venetian, "panettone" is Milanese etc.), in fact confirming
Manzoni's linguistic views.
Tuscan has thus become one of the twenty official dialects of Italy. Though technically speaking the division between
dialect and language is purely conventional, it has been used by scholars, for eg. by Francesco Bruni, to distinguish
between the languages that made up the Italian koine, and those which had very little or no part in it, as Albanian,
Greek, Südtirolean, Ladino, Friulian and Occitan, still spoken by small ethnic or linguistic minorites.
Dialects are generally not used for general communication, e.g. on TV, but are limited to groups of people who
can actually speak them and to informal contexts. Speaking dialect is often shunned upon in Italy as it is a sign
of lacking education. Younger generations, especially those under 35 (though it may vary in different areas), speak
almost exclusively standard Italian in all situations, usually with a slight local accent.
Dialects have their share of enthusiasts, but this is a small niche of the population. The promotion of dialects
by some political forces as the Lega Nord has possibly damaged rather than promoted their status.
Dialects are often used in movies to provide comic relief or to produce stereotypes: northern dialects can be connected
to greedy merchants; a Roman accent is associated with arrogant, simple-minded bullies; Neapolitan reminds of dishonest,
cunning slackers, and, even in Italy, Sicilian is often associated with the mafia. However, many screenwriters
also explore the more expressive and spontaneous features of a dialect, often to challenge the common cliches and
present a richer, less explored reality.
Sounds
Vowels
Italian has seven vowel phonemes: /a/, /e/, /?/, /i/, /o/, /?/, /u/. The 'couples' (/e/ - /?/) and (/o/ - /?/)
get mixed up in spoken Italian, even though each variety of Italian employs both phonemes consistently: compare,
for example: /per'k?/ (because) and /'senti/ (you listen), employed by some northern speakers, with /per'ke/ and
/'s?nti/, as pronounced by most central and southern speakers. As a result, the usage is strongly indicative of
a person's origin. The standard (Tuscan) usage of these vowels is listed in vocabularies, and employed outside
Tuscany mainly by the more educated people, especially actors and (television) journalists. These are truly different
phonemes, however: compare /'peska/ (fishing) and /'p?ska/ (peach), both spelled "pesca". Similarly /'botte/
(barrel) and /'b?tte/ (beatings), both spelled as "botte", discriminate /o/ and /?/ .
In general, vowel combinations usually pronounce each vowel separately. Diphthongs exist, (e.g. "uo",
"iu", "ie", "ai"), but are limited to the pattern:
(unstressed "u" or "i", or zero) + (stressed vowel) + (unstressed "u" or "i",
or zero)
The unstressed "u" in a diphthong approximates the English semivowel "w", the unstressed "i"
approximates the semivowel "y". E.g.: buono, ieri. As a semivowel, "j" is an alternate spelling
of i, currently obsolete but common until early 20th century and preserved in specific words like "Jesi"
(a town) or "Jacopo" (a first name).
Triphthongs are limited to a diphthong plus an unstressed "i". (e.g. miei, tuoi.) Other sequences of
three vowels exist (e.g. noia, febbraio), but they are not triphthongs; they consist of a vowel followed by a diphthong.
Consonants
Two symbols in a table cell denote the voiceless and voiced consonant, respectively.
bilabial labiodental dental alveolar postalveolar palatal velar
plosive p, b t, d k, g
nasal m n ?
trill r
flap ?
fricative f, v s, z ?
affricate ?, ? ?, ?
lateral l ?
The phoneme /n/ undergoes assimilation when followed by a consonant, e.g., when followed by a velar (/k/ or /g/)
it's pronounced [?], etc.
Italian plosives are not aspirated (unlike in English). Italian speakers hear the difference as a foreign accent.
Italian has geminate, or double, consonants, which are distinguished by length. Length is distinctive for all consonants
except for /?/, /?/, /?/, /?/ /?/, which are always geminate, and /z/ which is always single. Geminate plosives
and affricates are realized as lengthened closures. Geminate fricatives, nasals, and /l/ are realized as lengthened
continuants. Geminate /?/ is realized as the trill [rr].
Assimilation
Italian has few diphthongs, and so most unfamiliar diphthongs heard in foreign words (in particular, those with
a first vowel that is not "i" or "u", or a first vowel that is stressed), will be assimilated
as the corresponding dieresis (i.e., the vowel sounds will be pronounced separately: "strive" and "hive"
will rhyme with "naïve").
Grammar
see Italian grammar.
Writing system
Italian is written using the Latin alphabet. The letters J, K, W, X and Y are not part of the standard Italian
alphabet, but are seen in imported words (such as jeans, whiskey, taxi). J may also appear in many words from different
dialects. Each of these foreign letters had an Italian equivalent spelling: gi, ch, u, cs or s, and i, but these
are now obsolete.
Italian uses the acute accent over the letter E (as in perché, why/because) to indicate a mid-close vowel,
and the grave accent (as in tè, tea) to indicate a mid-open vowel. The grave accent is also used on letters
A, I, O, and U to mark the stress position when it is on the last letter of a word (for instance gioventù,
youth). Typically, the penultimate syllable is stressed. If other syllables are stressed, no accent is marked,
as is instead done in Spanish.
The letter H is always silent when it begins a word, and is only used to distinguish ho, hai, ha, hanno (present
indicative of avere, to have) from o (or), ai (to the), a (to), anno (year). H is otherwise used for some combinations
with other letters (see below), but the /h/ sound does not exist in Italian.
The letter Z is pronounced /?/, or sometimes /?/, depending on context, though there are few minimal pairs. The
same goes with S, which can be pronounced /s/ or /z/. However, these two phonemes are in complementary distribution
everywhere except between two vowels in the same word, and even in such environment there are extremely few minimal
pairs, therefore this distinction is being lost in most accents.
The letters C and G are affricates: /?/ as in "chair" and /?/ as in "gem", respectively, before
the front vowels I and E. They are pronounced as plosives /k/, /g/ (as in "call" and "gall")
otherwise1. But, the normally silent H is added between CI, CE, GI or GE if the consonant is to be a plosive. For
example:
Before back vowel: plosive Before front vowel: affricate With "H": plosive
"C" cara ('kara) ciao (/'?ao/) chiaro (/'kjaro/)
"G" gallo (/'gallo/) genere (/'??nere/) ghetto (/'g?tto/)
1(Front/back vowel rules for C and G are similar in French, Romanian, and to some extent English (including Old
English). Swedish and Norwegian have similar rules for K and G. See also palatalization.)
There are two special digraphs in Italian: GN and GL. GN is always pronounced IPA: /??/, and GL is pronounced IPA:
/??/) but only before i, and never when at the beginning of the word, except in the plural form gli of the masculine
definite article. (Compare with Spanish "ñ" and "ll", Portuguese "nh" and
"lh".)
In general all letters are clearly pronounced, and always in the same way. (The only notable allophonic variations
in the pronunciation of phonemes in standard Italian are the assimilation of /n/ before consonants, and vowel length
(vowels are long in stressed open syllables, and short elsewhere) — compare with the enormous number of allophones
of the English phoneme /t/. Spelling is clearly phonetic and difficult to mistake given a clear pronunciation.
Exceptions are generally only found in foreign borrowings. There is less dyslexia than in languages like English.
Usage among Younger Generations
Some variations in the usage of the writing system may be present in practical use. Most scholars consider these
to be mistakes, but they are so common that knowledge of these may be useful to read an Italian text.
Usage of x instead of per: this is very common among teenagers and in SMS abbreviations. Since per means "to",
"for you" becomes x te, similar to the English 4 U. Words containing per can also have it substituted
with x, and once an university student allegedly pronounced the surname of Italian revolutionary Nino Bixio as
Biperio at an oral exam[2]. Perché (both "why" and "because") is often shortened as
x`.
Usage of foreign letters such as k, j and y, especially in nicknames and SMS language: ke instead of che, Giusy
instead of Giuseppina. This is curiously mirrored in the usage of i in English names such as Staci instead of Stacey,
or in the usage of c in Northern Europe (Jacob instead of Jakob). The letter k also appears to give words a certain
strength and threatening aspect, possibly because it is associated with Germany. Politician Francesco Cossiga used
to be nicknamed Kossiga by rioting students as early as 1968, because of his role as minister of internal affairs.
Accents are often substituted by apostrophes, such as in perche' instead of perché. È is particularly
rare, as it is absent from the Italian keyboard layout. Few are aware of the distinction between grave and acute
accents.
Examples
cheers (generic toast): salve
English: inglese /in'gleze/
good-bye: arrivederci /arrive'dert?i/
hello: ciao /'t?ao/ (informal); buongiorno /bw?n'd?orno/ (good morning/good afternoon), buonasera /bw?na'sera/
(good evening)
Yes: sì /si/
No: no /n?/
Sorry: scusi /'skuzi/
Again: ancora /ankora/
Always: sempre /'s?mpre/
When: quando /kwando/
Why? / Because: perché /per'ke/
how much?: quanto /'kwanto/ (masculine); quanta /'kwanta/ (feminine)
thank you!: grazie! /'grattsje/
you're welcome!: prego! /'pr?go/
Sample texts
You can hear a recording of Dante's Divine Comedy read by Lino Pertile at http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/.
From the Holy Bible, Luke 2, 1-7 (for an English version see http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=luke+2)
You can listen to a rendition of this text as recorded by an Italian native speaker from Milan.
2:1 In quei giorni, un decreto di Cesare Augusto ordinava che si facesse un censimento di tutta la terra. 2 Questo
primo censimento fu fatto quando Quirino era governatore della Siria. 3 Tutti andavano a farsi registrare, ciascuno
nella propria città. 4 Anche Giuseppe, che era della casa e della famiglia di Davide, dalla città
di Nazaret e dalla Galilea si recò in Giudea nella città di Davide, chiamata Betlemme, 5 per farsi
registrare insieme a Maria, sua sposa, che era incinta. 6 Proprio mentre si trovavano lì, venne il tempo
per lei di partorire. 7 Mise al mondo il suo primogenito, lo avvolse in fasce e lo depose in una mangiatoia, poiché
non c'era posto per loro nella locanda.
Language codes
ISO 639-1: it
ISO 639-2: ita
ISO/DIS 639-3: ita
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