Italian language is the official language of Italy. It is also spoken, either officially or as a second language, in many other countries, including Switzerland and San Marino. The people in the areas of France and Slovenia that lie near Italy also speak the language. Italian, like English, belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. Like French and Spanish, it is a Romance language, one of the modern languages that developed from Latin.
Many words in other languages come from Italian. For example, English borrowed the words balcony, carnival, cash, costume, laundry, malaria, opera, piano, pilot, stucco, studio, umbrella, and volcano.
Italian grammar
Characteristics.
The sounds of Italian are more simply organized than the sounds of English. Italian has 7 vowel and 20 consonant sounds. In addition, Italian spelling is more consistent than English spelling because each letter or combination of letters usually stands for only one distinct sound. As a result, a word is generally pronounced exactly as it is spelled. Each syllable in an Italian word is pronounced clearly and separately. The syllables are spaced evenly, and intonations extend over a wide range of pitch. Most syllables in Italian end with a vowel, as do most words, except for a few prepositions.
Italian and English have similar systems of grammar. In both, the nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and verbs have inflections, which are changes of form. But the Italian system of inflection is more complicated than the English system. The essential part of an Italian sentence is the verb. In English, it is the combination of subject and verb.
Nouns and adjectives.
Italian nouns are either masculine or feminine. For example, book (libro) is masculine, and necktie (cravatta) is feminine. Most plurals are formed by changing the final vowel. Nouns ending with an accented vowel, such as citta (city), have only one form for the singular and plural.
Adjectives must agree with nouns in gender as well as number (singular or plural). Thus, the adjective rosso (red) has four forms: libro rosso (red book), cravatta rossa (red necktie), libri rossi (red books), and cravatte rosse (red neckties).
As in English, Italian personal pronouns have special forms to show their function in a sentence. The ending of the verb indicates the person and the number of the subject. In a majority of sentences in Italian, a subject pronoun is not needed. But subject pronouns, such as ìo (I) and noi (we), are sometimes used for emphasis or clarity. An example is Lo faccio ìo (I’ll do it).
Verbs
in Italian are grouped according to the endings of their infinitives. They fall into three classes: –are verbs, such as cantare (to sing); –ire verbs, such as dormire (to sleep); and –ere verbs, such as véndere (to sell). Italian also has many irregular verbs.
Italian has seven verb moods. Some of these moods have both simple and compound tenses (see Tense ). The simple tenses are formed by adding endings to the root. For example, cantiamo (we sing) is the present tense of cantare.
The compound tenses combine the past participle of a main verb with an appropriate form of the auxiliary verb avere (to have) or essere (to be). Ha cantato (he has sung) uses the present tense of avere to form the present perfect tense.
Word order
in Italian sentences is less firmly fixed than it is in English, especially in the position of the subject and verb. The emphasis in a typical Italian sentence tends to fall at the end. For example, the sentence My father did it can be Mio padre l’ha fatto, to emphasize the action, or it can be L’ha fatto mio padre, to emphasize the person. A written Italian sentence can be made interrogative merely by adding a question mark at the end. No change in word order is necessary, as it usually is in English. In speaking Italian, questions not introduced by an interrogative, such as what or why, are indicated by a sharply rising intonation.
Pronouns and predicate complements combine with the verb to form a verbal core. The verbal core always follows a strict word order, with the pronoun usually preceding the verb. Some examples of the use of a verbal core are: mi vedi (you see me), me lo dà (he gives it to me), and me ne dà (he gives some to me).
Development
Italian developed gradually from the vernacular Latin, the form of Latin used in everyday speech (see Latin language (Development) ). Italian emerged as a separate language about A.D. 1000. It consisted of several local dialects that had formed from different regions. After about 1250, Tuscany became the center of cultural life in Italy. The Tuscan dialect of Florence and the surrounding area became the language of literature and culture.
The Tuscan dialect forms the basis of modern Italian. It was used by such great writers as Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, and Giovanni Boccaccio. From the 1300’s to the 1500’s, Italian was widely used as the language of commerce in the eastern Mediterranean area. By the middle 1500’s, Italian had almost completely replaced Latin as a written and spoken language.
Many Italian dialects are still spoken. They include Neapolitan, Sicilian, Venetian, and Milanese. These dialects are gradually being replaced by standard Italian, which is used throughout Italy. But some Italians speak dialects with their families and in their communities.
Modern Italian has lost much of its Tuscan character and has borrowed words from many Italian dialects. Many influences in Italy have helped standardize Italian. They include military service, education, and nationwide communication by means of newspapers, books, radio, and television.
See also Romance languages .
