what are the different dialects of italian

First of all, they can be divided into 3 groups:

• 1. Northern dialects (dialetti settentrionali o alto-italiani);
• 2. Tuscan and Central dialects ( dialetti toscani e mediani);
• 3. Southern and Extreme Southern dialects (dialetti meridionali e meridionali estremi).

Full Answer

What languages are spoken in Italy besides Italian?

Languages spoken in Italy. In the Aosta Valley, French is one of the 2 official languages. Italian is, of course an official language, too but German is also widely spoken in the Lys Valley. Apulia residents speak 3 languages namely, Arbëresh, Franco-Provençal and Griko. However, Slovene and Friulian are also prevalent but not officially ...

Are all Italian dialects mutually intelligible?

This depends on how you define “dialect”. The Italian notion of dialect is very different from the one English native speakers usually have. In Italy, there are many different languages, such as the Sicilian language, but usually referred to as a “dialect”. In that sense, no, they're not mutually intelligible.

Is Catalan spoken in Italy?

Currently, Catalan is spoken in the Aragon, Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Murcia and Valencia autonomous communities of Spain, the country of Andorra, the Roussillon region of France, and the city of Alghero in Sardinia, Italy.

Are Slovene and Croatian basically Italian dialects?

“Are Slovene and Croatian basically Italian dialects?” No they are both Slavic languages. There is or was a language called Dalmatian which is a Romance language with a lot of Italian (often Venetian) and Serbo-Croatian loan words. Maybe that is the language you are thinking of.

How many dialects of Italian are there?

Although Italian is the official language of Italy, it's not widely known that the country boasts some 34 spoken languages and related dialects. The majority of these languages are Romance-based, meaning that they evolved from Vulgar Latin.

What is the most common Italian dialect?

Dialects spoken in Italy 2018, by number of speakers The most spoken dialect in Italy is South Italian. This macro-group includes varieties spoken in the regions of Campania, Calabria, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Apulia, and Molise as well as in some areas of Lazio, Marche, and Umbria, three regions of the Center.

What is the best Italian dialect to learn?

The Neapolitan accent is an important one to learn, because along with Sicilian, it is the main Italian language used in the Italian Diaspora.

What are the different types of Italians?

Table of ContentsTuscan.Neapolitan.Sicilian.Venetian.Ligurian.Sardinian.Apulian.Map of Italian dialects.

Which Italian dialect is closest to standard Italian?

Romanesco dialect is very similar to standard Italian? It's certainly closer to standard Italian than any other non-Tuscan Italian languages/dialects, for historical reasons.

Is Sicilian a dialect or language?

Sicilian is indeed an official language separate from Italian. It is recognised by various international bodies, including UNESCO and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Most Sicilians, however, speak a variant dialect that is distinct to their own town, village, quarter or area.

Can Italian dialects understand each other?

Italians do not understand other regions' dialects Apart from several exceptions, a person from a region would not quite understand a person from another region if the latter is speaking the dialect.

Can northern and southern Italians understand each other?

If North Italian and South Italian speak with their local language, they understand each other completely? Nope. Maybe if they speak very slowly they will get some words and phrases, but mutual intelligibility is pretty low.

Which region speaks the best Italian?

South and Central America have more Italian speakers than you might imagine. The most live in Argentina, which has 1.5 million speakers, making Italian the second most-spoken language in the country, after Spanish. Italian is also the second most-spoken language in Venezuela, which is home to about 200,000 speakers.

Is Italian different from Sicilian?

Although some consider Sicilian to be a dialect of Italian, this is not the case. Sicilian is not a dialect of Italian but actually precedes the Italian language. While Italian is based on Latin, Sicilian incorporates components of Greek, Arabic, French, Catalan, and Spanish.

What is the difference between Italian and Sicilian?

Speaking Sicilian vs Speaking Italian Sicilian incorporates a blend of words rooted from Arabic, Hebrew, Byzantine, and Norman, unlike Italian that sounds more like a blend of Spanish and French. Most Italians find full-blown Sicilian incredibly hard to understand and to be a total departure from traditional Italian.

Which language is Italian closest to?

According to many sources, Italian is the closest language to Latin in terms of vocabulary. According to the Ethnologue, Lexical similarity is 89% with French, 87% with Catalan, 85% with Sardinian, 82% with Spanish, 80% with Portuguese, 78% with Ladin, 77% with Romanian.

What are the 3 main languages in Italy?

Percentage of people in Italy who speak the languages below as a mother tongue or foreign language.Italian 97.41%English 13.74%French 8.46%Spanish 6.56%German 2.06%Basque 1.04%Arabic 0.65%Croatian 0.43%More items...

Is Italian different from Sicilian?

Although some consider Sicilian to be a dialect of Italian, this is not the case. Sicilian is not a dialect of Italian but actually precedes the Italian language. While Italian is based on Latin, Sicilian incorporates components of Greek, Arabic, French, Catalan, and Spanish.

Do Italians understand Neapolitan?

Many speakers switch easily back and forth between Neapolitan and "Standard" Italian, sometimes speaking somewhere between the two forms. Many Neapolitans will speak "Standard" Italian with non-Neapolitans, but with a thick accent, which makes it difficult for even native (northern) Italians to understand.

Can Italians understand other dialects?

In my experience Italians who speak a regionalized dialect (or even distinct language) can also understand and speak "national" Italian perfectly, if with a regional accent.

What language does Italy speak?

Even by that standard, the languages of Italy are definitely languages: A Sardinian speaker understands Friulian as much as and no more than a French speaker understands Spanish.

Why Study Italian Dialects?

Italy is home to 28 indigenous languages (and six non-indigenous) according to the count by Ethnologue.

What is the difference between dialects and languages?

So what’s the actual difference between a language and a dialect? There isn’t one, really. “Dialect” is more of a political designation than a linguistic category: It’s used to show which languages (and therefore speakers) a government/society chooses to empower and how.

What to keep in mind when learning Italian?

One incredibly important thing to keep in mind as you learn various Italian dialects is that almost nobody else— including Italians themselves—makes a concerted effort to do so. People will think you’re fun and crazy, but they may also, in certain cases, take offense.

What is the language of Barcelona?

Catalan. Barcelona’s infamous language is spoken in Alghero (Sardinia), which was once a part of the Catalan kingdom. It is, in my personal opinion, very mutually intelligible with Occitan, which is still spoken a bit in the northwest of Italy.

Is Sicilian a fun language?

Sicili an is similarly fun to learn and speak and varies quite a bit across the island. Its spelling is also not fixed.

Is Italian more a language than Neapolitan?

Meanwhile, many more have languished—but there’s no intrinsic grammar or linguistic reason that Italian is more of a language than Neapolitan.

What is the Italian language?

Considering an overview of the Italian dialects, the Italian linguistic heritage is one of the richest and varied in Europe. Among the different Italian dialects, in fact, there are not only those belonging to the branch of Romance languages (which includes Italian, Spanish and French), but also some coming from Germanic, Greek and Slavic languages.

What is the Northern dialect?

1) Northern dialects (dialetti settentrionali o alto-italiani) The dialects spoken in the North of Italy belong to the first group. This northern area is delimited by an imaginary line, the La Spezia-Rimini line, which runs through Northern Italy from La Spezia (in Liguria) to Rimini (in Emilia-Romagna) and distinguishes ...

Do Italians speak dialects?

Nowadays dialects are still spoken, to varying degrees, in the several Italian regions and cities, by different age groups: for example, in Northern regions dialects tend to be used only by old people, who have been speaking them for their entire life, often together with Standard Italian. In Central and Southern regions, instead, it is more frequent to find younger dialect speakers, who use it mostly in informal contexts. According to an ISTAT’s survey of 2015, 45,9% of Italians speak only or mainly Standard Italian, 32,2% alternate it with dialect, while just 14% speak dialect only.

Do all the other dialects have disappeared?

It doesn’t mean that all the other dialects disappeared: in fact, a lot of them have survived, mostly spoken in informal contexts, more often in the countryside and by less literate people, who didn’t have to learn Standard Italian.

Is Italian a dialect?

Actually, dialect influences a lot the Standard Italian spoken in the various Italian regions, creating the Italian regional varieties, which are a sort of middle ground between dialect and standard language: Italian spoken in Naples is, for instance, very different from that spoken in Milan in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary and so on. In this case, usually, there is no problem with communication or understanding, but almost every time our Italian reveals from which region we come from.

Is Sardinian a Southern dialect?

The third group consists of the Southern dialects (Abruzzese and Marchigiano, Molisano, Apulian, Neapolitan and Lucano) and the Extreme Southern dialects (Calabrian, Salentino and Sicilian). Sardinian is not actually a dialect, but rather a distinct language, closer to latin and preserved almost unvaried over many centuries, ...

What is the most common Italian dialect?

Florentine is the most standard Italian dialect, commonly used by people under the age of 35. The dialect uses nicknames of words. For example, the standard Italian word, “ Formaggio ” (cheese) is replaced with “ Cacio ” in Florentine.

What is the accent of Sicilian?

Sicilians talk with such a thick accent that people often mistake the dialect as a completely different foreign language–and they are right! Sicilian doesn’t derive from standard Italian. Rather it has linguistic elements from Greek, Latin, Arabic, French, Spanish, and more.

How is the letter J pronounced in Italian?

What’s more, the letter “ j ” is pronounced as “ i “, whereas in the other Italian dialects it’s not. Typically, the letter “ j ” will appear in between two vowels or at the beginning of a word followed by a vowel.

What is the Italian word for "tu non sei"?

For example, the standard Italian phrase “ Tu non sei ” (You are not) is pronounced “ ti te seet no ” in Milanese. Spoken in Venice and the surrounding areas by over two million people, Venetian derives from Latin and Greek. The Italian dialect is used mostly in informal contexts.

What is the difference between Italian and Venetian?

One example of how it differs from standard Italian, is that in Venetian the word “ Farmacia ” (pharmacy) is replaced with “ Apoteca .”

Can you learn Italian with a teacher?

Mastering these Italian dialects can be tricky, but with the help of your Italian teacher you can practice speaking, reading, writing, and hearing these dialects together!

Do you have to learn every Italian dialect?

While it’s not necessary for you to learn every Italian dialect, familiarizing yourself with the most popular accents could come in handy when you’re traveling throughout Italy.

What is the most common Italian language?

Here’s a run-down of some of the most common ones. Image via Pixabay. 1. Tuscan/Florentine. The Tuscan dialect of the Italian language refers to the several versions of Italian spoken in Italy’s Tuscany region, which has a population of over 20 million. Though there are numerous subgroups of Tuscan Italian, the most popular is its Florentine ...

How many people speak Italian?

Though Italian is spoken as a first language by over 60 million people and as a second language by many more, the Italian language is perhaps most famous for its non-verbal attributes; namely, its distinctive and expressive hand gestures. But while “talking with their hands” may be a characteristic associated with Italian speakers in general, the language itself can be quite different depending on where you are in Italy. Indeed, while nearly all Italians can communicate using a standard form of the language, the dialects of different regions are quite unique. Here’s a run-down of some of the most common ones.

What is the dialect of Romanesco?

The Romanesco dialect is more similar to Tuscan than the others on this list. One thing that English speakers may like about the Romanesco dialect is that they often omit the rolled R that notoriously causes so much trouble for English speakers. For instance, the word birra (beer) in Standard Italian involves rolling your tongue, but in Romanesco, the same word bira does not.

What is the most popular language in Tuscany?

Though there are numerous subgroups of Tuscan Italian, the most popular is its Florentine variety — that is, the language spoken in Florence, Tuscany’s capital and most populous city. Many great Italian writers — such as Dante, Petrarch, and Machiavelli — came from Florence. Because of this, when Italy was officially unified in 1861, ...

Where is the Romanesco dialect spoken?

Romanesco. Finally, the Romanesco dialect is spoken by about 2 million in Rome and its surrounding areas. It was originally spoken almost exclusively within the walls of Rome, but since Rome was established as Italy’s capital, it has spread to its surrounding areas as well.

Is Venetian a dialect?

Venetian. With 4 million speakers residing in and around Venice, the Venetian dialect is another commonly heard variety of Italian. In fact, Venetian is so different from Italian that it is classified as a separate language.

When was Italy unified?

Italy wasn’t unified until 1861, which is part of the reason why its dialectical variations are so strong. As such, there’s a lot of discussion about whether Italian “dialects” are really dialects of Italian, or if they should be classified as an entirely separate language.

What is the Italian dialect?

Jump to navigation Jump to search. Languages spoken in Italy. Linguistic map of Italy. Italian dialects refer to a vast array of separate languages spoken in Italy, most of which lack mutual intelligibility with one another and have their own local varieties; twelve of them ( Albanian, ...

When did Italian become the official language of Italy?

With the unification of Italy in the 1860s, Italian became the official national language of the new Italian state, while the other ones came to be institutionally regarded as "dialects" subordinate to Italian, and negatively associated with a lack of education.

What is the second most widespread family in Italy?

Aside from the Italo-Dalmatian languages, the second most widespread family in Italy is the Gallo-Italic group, spanning throughout much of Northern Italy 's languages and dialects (such as Piedmontese, Emilian-Romagnol, Ligurian, Lombard, Venetian, Sicily's and Basilicata's Gallo-Italic in southern Italy, etc.).

Is italoromance related to Italian?

the Italoromance languoid s [ it], which are related to Italian, but do not stem from it;

What is the Tuscan dialect?

The Tuscan dialect deviated very little in the formation of words and sounds from the classical Latin. Consequently, it most closely harmonized with the Italian traditions in the Latin culture. Most of all, Florentine culture produced the three literary giants who best summarized Italian thought and artistic expression of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. These writers were of course Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio.

What language did Italian writers write in?

Some of the earliest popular documents, which were produced in the10 th century, were written in volgare (a “street” version of Latin) rather than proper Latin—in other words, in “dialect.” During the next three centuries, Italian writers wrote in their native dialects, which resulted in the development of several competing regional schools of literature. The year 1230 marked the beginning of the Sicilian School and of a literature showing more uniform traits. Its importance lies more in the language (a move towards a standard Italian) than its subject—a love sonnet style, partly modeled on the Provençal poetry imported to southern Italy by the Normans and the Svevi under Frederick II of Sicily.

Is Roman dialect a true dialect?

Anyway, I find that the Roman dialect (which should NEVER be called “romanesco” or “romanaccio”… to a local these terms are mildly offensive) is, nowadays, not even a true dialect – it’s more like an accent, a way of speaking.

Is Italian a second language?

But as recent as fifty years ago, Standard Italian was still a second language for many people ( if they spoke it at all), although the trend has since reversed and most Italians are now fully “bilingual.” A greater concern for the future is that many of the more obscure Italian dialects will be lost in subsequent generations. The various forms of media—such as the Internet and Sky TV—are now spreading foreign languages (namely English) throughout the country. Consequently, there has been an influx of many English words and phrases into the everyday Italian, either by direct usage, or by “Italianizing” the words. (Even if you don’t speak Italian, I’m sure you could guess what “downloadare” means!)

Who was the first Italian to model the language of Italian literature?

In 1525, Pietro Bembo, a Venetian, set out his proposals for a standardized language and style. His models were Petrarca for poetry and Boccaccio for prose, and the result became the modern classic standard. Therefore, the language of Italian literature was modeled after the Italian spoken in Florence during the 15 th and 16 th centuries.

Did Manzoni speak Tuscan?

Manzoni himself, being from Milan, did not speak the Tuscan dialect perfectly. After writing his original draft, called Fermo e Lucia, he decided to “tuscanize” it by going through the entire manuscript and converting many of the words into Tuscan—including the name of the protagonist who went from the Milanese name Fermo, to the more Tuscan-sounding Renzo. The overall result, however, was awkward and it sounded forced and unnatural. Therefore he felt that he needed to “ sciacquare i panni in Arno ;” to wash his clothes (his language) in the Arno river—or in other words, to actually acquire the Tuscan dialect himself by living in Florence and hearing it spoken in the streets every day before completing the final draft of I Promesi Sposi, which we have today.

What languages do Italians speak?

In parallel, many Italians also communicate in one of the local or regional languoids, many of which are indigenous evolutions of Vulgar Latin too; however, some of these languages do not stem from Latin, but belong to other Indo-European branches instead, such as Cimbrian, Arbëresh, Slavomolisano and Griko.

What are the languages of Italy?

Braille. Phonology. Syntactic gemination. Tuscan gorgia. v. t. e. The languages of Italy are Italian, which serves as the country's national language, as well as several local and regional languages. There are approximately 34 native living languages in Italy, most of which belong to the broader Romance group.

What is the cultural identity of Sardinian people?

The region considers the cultural identity of the Sardinian people as a primary asset (l.r. N.26/97, l.r. N.22/18 ), in accordance with the values of equality and linguistic pluralism enshrined in the Italian Constitution and the European treaties, with particular reference to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (l.r. N.26/97). All the languages indigenous to the island ( Sardinian, Catalan, Tabarchino, Sassarese and Gallurese) are recognised and promoted as "enjoying the same dignity and standing of Italian" (l.r. N.26/97) in their respective linguistic areas.

How many languages are endangered in Italy?

According to the UNESCO 's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, there are 31 endangered languages in Italy. The degree of endangerment is classified in different categories ranging from 'safe' (safe languages are not included in the atlas) to 'extinct' (when there are no speakers left).

Why did Italy delay Article 6?

According to the linguist Tullio De Mauro, the Italian delay of over 50 years in implementing Article 6 was caused by "decades of hostility to multilingualism" and "opaque ignorance".

Where are the Northern Italian languages spoken?

The Northern Italian languages are conventionally defined as those Romance languages spoken north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line, which runs through the northern Apennine Mountains just to the north of Tuscany; however, the dialects of Occitan and Franco-Provençal spoken in the extreme northwest of Italy (e.g. the Valdôtain in the Aosta Valley) are generally excluded. The classification of these languages is difficult and not agreed-upon, due both to the variations among the languages and to the fact that they share isoglosses of various sorts with both the Italo-Romance languages to the south and the Gallo-Romance languages to the northwest.

When was Italian first spoken in Italy?

Italian was first declared to be Italy's official language during the Fascist period, more specifically through the R.D.l. which was adopted on October 15, 1925 with the name of Sull'Obbligo della lingua italiana in tutti gli uffici giudiziari del Regno, salvo le eccezioni stabilite nei trattati internazionali per la città di Fiume.

and Which Are These Italian dialects?

• First of all, they can be divided into 3 groups: 1. Northern dialects (dialetti settentrionali o alto-italiani); 2. Tuscan and Central dialects (dialetti toscani e mediani); 3. Southern and Extreme Southern dialects (dialetti meridionali e meridionali estremi).

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Northern Dialects

Tuscan and Central Dialects

Southern and Extreme Southern Dialects