Italian Steps- Language - Cultural notes

Fact File

• Italian has only been the official language of Italy since the country was unified in the 1860s. The original Romance language, Italian derives from Vulgar Latin, the ancient colloquial language of the Roman Empire and remains very close to its Latin roots.



• The 'standard' Italian as spoken today originates from the Tuscan dialect. Thanks to its place in the court and government, and the high profile of its writers such as Dante and Petrarch, the Tuscan dialect grew to be the national tongue. For this reason many Tuscans today state that theirs is the 'purest' spoken Italian.



• There are several different regional dialects, or dialetti, still spoken today, but more in the provinces and countryside than the cities and mostly at home. They include Tuscan from the northern Tuscany region and Pugliese spoken in Puglia in the South. Even today, some Italians still struggle to understand the accents and dialects from different areas of the country.



• As well as the dialects, there are 11 other minority languages, or minoranze linguistiche, spoken in Italy - Albanian, Catalan, German (Trentino, Alto Adige), Greek, Slovene, Croat, Franco-Provençal (spoken on the French border), Friulan, Ladin (spoken in the Alps), Occitan and Sardinian.



• Today, around 62 million people speak Italian. Over 50 million are resident in Italy, while other speakers can be found in countries as far apart as Argentina, Australia, and Eritrea. Italian is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, spoken mainly in the canton of Ticino.



• Some modern English words have found their way into the colloquial Italian language, creating a new language known as Italiese, a combination of standard italiano, Italian, and inglese, English. For example, you'll hear Sono single, 'I'm single', pronounced the same as in English. Italiese is often found in sporting terms, e.g. lo sprint, il dribbling, or new trends - la babysitter, and even lo stress. Sometimes these are confusing - il mister is a manager, il kit is DIY, and il night is a nightclub.



• The Italian language can rightfully claim culinary terms among its most successful international exports, e.g. pizza, pasta, lasagne, bolognese, risotto, minestrone, spaghetti and al forno.



• The majority of expressive musical terms are Italian. From forte, loud, and adagio, slow, to vivace, lively, and allegro, lively and fairly fast. Piano, meaning soft in musical terms, can also mean slow in spoken Italian, while presto, meaning quick as a musical expression, can mean early or quickly in spoken Italian.



• Italians are famous for punctuating their speech with animated gestures and facial expressions to assist comprehension, e.g. creating a ring with your thumb and index finger means perfetto, 'perfect', while flicking the underside of your chin means 'I don't give a damn!'