Translations and Other Language Solutions in Italian Language

Italian is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from Vulgar Latin. Italian is considered to be the most direct descendant of Latin.

The origins of the Italian language can be traced back to the 1^st century BC. It evolved from colloquial Latin, which was the official language in Ancient Rome.

Italian in its written form started to appear in the 10^th century AD in the form of notes and short texts. The oldest monument of written Italian is dated to the year 960.

Italian is the official language in Italy and the European Union, and it is the minority language in two European Union countries – Croatia and Slovenia. It is one of the most commonly used languages in the European Union along with German, English, and French. Italian is not an international transactional language like English, French or Spanish, but it is commonly used in the Mediterranean countries and is one of the most popular languages based on the number of learners in the world. Italian knowledge will be quite useful for art historians and musicians. It has a significant role in the world of gastronomy. Italian has influenced almost all of the world languages, particularly in the aforementioned fields. It indicates the almost absolute dominance of Italian culture in the history of Europe starting from the Roman Empire to the Renaissance and modern times.

Literary Italian is based on the Tuscan (Florentine) dialect that was popularised by authors like Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, and Francesco Petrarch during the 13^th and 14^th centuries.

For a long time, literary Italian did not exist and authors wrote in their own local dialects.

Every city in Italy had its own dialect because a few centuries ago many cities were considered separate city-states.

French has borrowed around 3000 words from Italian. Dialects from neighbouring countries France, Croatia, and Slovenia have been greatly influenced by Italian. The Maltese language has many borrowings from Italian.

Nowadays, Italian is the working language in Vatican City, it is important in the whole Catholic world.

In Italian, articles are used before nouns to mark what gender and number the noun is. Feminine nouns are paired with the article ‘la’, while masculine nouns are paired with ‘il’. Feminine plural nouns are paired with the article ‘le’, masculine plural nouns with ‘i’. The indefinite feminine article ‘una’ and masculine article ‘un’ are used as well.

The linguistic diversity in Italy is wider than in other Romance language-speaking countries. Literary Italian in many aspects is more similar to Spanish or Portuguese than to the Piedmontese or Neapolitan languages. Piedmontese dialects are more similar to Provençal and French than to Italian.

The Tuscan language is still considered as the most literary correct Italian dialect since it is most similar to Classical Latin.

The unification of Italy in 1861 not only influenced the political situation, but also caused significant social, economic, and cultural changes. The importance of literacy rose when compulsory education was introduced, and many people forgot their native dialect by learning the state language.

Italian is taught in many schools and universities around the world, but rarely as the first foreign language. The technologies of the 21^st century help popularise Italian since people are offered new and easy ways to learn to speak, read, and write in Italian.

In accordance with the data gathered by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, every year more than 200,000 foreign students want to learn Italian.

THE ITALIAN ALPHABET