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Ethnologue: Languages of the World
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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Europe > Italy > Italian

Italian

A language of Italy

ISO 639-3: ita

Population  55,000,000 in Italy. Population includes native bilinguals of Italian and regional varieties, who may use Italian as L2. Population total all countries: 61,696,677.
Region  Also in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Egypt, Eritrea, France, Germany, Israel, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Paraguay, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Switzerland, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vatican State.
Alternate names   Italiano
Dialects  Tuscan, Abruzzese, Pugliese, Umbrian, Laziale, Central Marchigiano, Cicolano-Reatino-Aquilano, Molisano. Regional varieties coexist with the standard language; some are mutually inherently unintelligible. Aquilano, Molisano, and Pugliese are very different from the other Italian varieties. Piemontese [pms] and Sicilian [scn] are distinct enough to be separate languages (1982 F. Agard). Venetian [vec] and Lombard [lmo] are also very different (1981 P. Cousson). The Napoletano dialect of Napoletano-Calabrese [nap] is reportedly unintelligible to Standard Italian. Northern varieties are more similar to French and Occitan [oci] than to standard or southern varieties (1982 F. Agard; Vincent 1987). Lexical similarity: 89% with French, 87% with Catalan-Valencian-Balear [cat], 85% with Sardinian, 82% with Spanish, 78% with Ladin [lld], 77% with Romanian [ron].
Classification  Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Italo-Dalmatian
Language use  Official language. Most Italians use varieties along a continuum from standard to regional to local according to what is appropriate. Possibly nearly half the population do not use Standard Italian as L1. Only 2.5% of Italy’s population could speak standard Italian when the nation unified in 1861.
Language development  Fully developed. Bible: 1471–1985.
Writing system  Latin script.
Comments  SVO.

Also spoken in:

Croatia

Language name   Italian
Population  19,600 in Croatia (2001 census). Ethnic population: 30,000 (1998).
Region  Istria, Iatarska County.
Language use  Official language.
 

Eritrea

Language name   Italian
Population  A few monolinguals.
Language use  Spoken as a L2.
 

France

Language name   Italian
Population  1,000,000 in France (Voegelin and Voegelin 1977).
Language use  Also use French.
 

Malta

Language name   Italian
Population  118,000 in Malta. L2 speakers.
Language use  Widespread. Some learn it from television.
Comments  An official language of Malta until 1936.
 

San Marino

Language name   Italian
Population  25,000 in San Marino (2004).
Language use  National language.
 

Slovenia

Language name   Italian
Population  4,010 in Slovenia (1991 census).
Language use  Official language.
Comments  Acknowledged as autochthonous communities and protected by the constitution.
 

Switzerland

Language name   Italian
Population  471,000 in Switzerland (2000 census).
Language map  Liechtenstein and Switzerland
Language use  Official language. People in the Italian-speaking area speak Italian as first or L2. Used for education in Italian- and Ticino (Lombard)-speaking areas.
 

Vatican State

Language name   Italian
Population  1,000 in Vatican State (2004).