The+Italian+Language


 * The Italian language**


 * 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.

BBC Italian