The Italian language is spoken by approximately 2.7 % of the world's population, where it counts for 14% in the European Union; it is a language known as romance or Romanic. According to Wikipedia, Dante Alighieri a major Italian poet was the person who eventually simplified Italian in that he combined the Sicilian and Florence dialect through his works and formalized what would become the standard and the official language of Italy. Because it was a language picked up and understood by all educated Italians. He is still to this day credited for 'making' the first official Italian language.
Until Dante came around there wasn't an exact basic Italian language, every region or city had its own dialect. The cities were known for being city-states and therefore the variation of the Italian spoken in said cities had their own variation of the language. There are still variations from region to region in Italy, but the standard language of Italian is now used by most of Italy. And although schools were declared compulsory in 1861 it wasn't until 1923 more than 50 years later, that the illiteracy was halved. Many children in the southern and rural areas weren't sent to school it would take more than 70 years before 90% of children received education.
Northern Italian language became influenced by the French bards introduction by Franco-Occitania in the middle ages. The Occitan Valleys is a region in the Southern Alps of Italy. Italian is derived from the Vulgar (the common peoples language) Latin language with a strong Germanic influence. There are still many dialects present in Italy today. Each region still declares theirs as being the real Italian language. The Latin influence has become less distinct in modern times; Latin was the language of the educated Italians. Italian is the language closest to Latin in its vocabulary.
In the United States the largest Italian-speaking population (counting 1mill. according to the 2000 census) is found in 5 different cities, where New York wins first place with close to half of the total number. Italian is the fifth most common language in the world, after English, Spanish, French and German
Should you plan on going to Italy on a vacation learning the Italian language can only enhance your stay. Mussolini's minister of education Giovanni Gentile introduced the Gentile Reform in Italian schools in 1923. The reform among other things; abolished all foreign languages from the schools. Therefore there are still many of the older generation, who do not speak any foreign languages.
And although both the English and the French language are taught in Italian schools today, it can only make you enjoy your vacation more if you are able to speak and understand the older generation as well.
Susanne Hojgaard's background for writing about the Italian language is that she is married to an Italian-American. For more information and lessons in Italian, please visit her website http://learnhowtospeakitalianquick.com/
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