The Italian Language

Learn about the Italian language, grammar, vocabulary and culture

The Italian Language

THIS SITE is about the Italian language, past and present. In it I speak primarily of the Italian language, of its origins in the Latin of Ancient Rome, the development during the Middle Ages of several dialects of Latin and the final emergence of Tuscan as the standard language.

This site started life only speaking about the Italian language itself, but has since developed to include all aspects not only of the language, but of the culture of Italy itself.

This is not a study in linguistics, but rather a presentation of the language for the general reader. It tries to understand what makes Italian Italian, trying to gain an insight normally lacking in other studies.

Latin is not discussed in depth: only those characteristics which made their way into modern Italian and the changes which took place in the transition between ancient and modern language are examined.

Although the main subject of this site, it is not only Italian which is under the spotlight, but also most of the languages and dialects spoken in Italy, only ignoring those spoken by recent migrant communities which cannot be considered as settled in Italy as separate groups. They are, in any case, non-Italians. Among these are Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Romanians, Albanians (recent arrivals), Brazilians and Moroccans.

Something I found might be useful was a figured pronunciation table with the equivalent Italian sounds in several different (for the moment) European languages. I compare an Italian word with one in, say German, where the same sound is present, this way helping a prospective learner to pronounce the Italian word correctly.

Pronunciation plays an important part in any language. I have tried to give a rough idea how Italian letters sound, but bear in mind these will only be approximations. It is slight nuances in the pronunciation of each single letter which makes people aware their interlocutor is or not a native speaker. Recently I was at a concert and behind me there was a girl who spoke Italian almost perfectly, using turns of phrase a native would have used, but I could tell she was foreign, because when she said “molto”, the “l” was stronger than in Italian. She was in fact half-Italian, her mother being Polish, and she and her mother lived in Warsaw.

I have made a comparative table with the approximate Italian sounds of in a number of other languages.

I also try to find common ground between Italian and other modern languages, using comparative tables, which should make, for example, clear to a Russian or a German, what is common between Russian or German and Italian.

You will also find examples of the several languages and dialects spoken in Italy and you will be able to compare them.

Parallel to the language I speak of Latin and Italian literature, emphasizing the principal writers of both periods.

Another aspect of the language I explore is specific vocabulary, words that have made their way from Italy to become part of the common vocabulary of a number of languages. These are cooking and food terms, art terms and, mainly, musical terms, as the crucial period of development of Western music took place when Italy was the main musical country of Europe.

A last section examines several fields in which Italians has contributed to, such as architecture, painting, fashion and car manufacture.

This site is open to your contributions. If you, dear reader, find any error or you would like to see your language included, please feel free to send me your comments.

Why learn Italian?