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About Learning the Italian Language
Italian is widely regarded as an inherently musical language: this is probably attributable to the fact that most words end in a vowel. Not only does this make it a very suitable language for opera, it also means that once you are familiar with its rhythms, it is a comparatively easy language to pronounce.
Even if you are a complete beginner, you are probably already familiar with a good range of Italian words, such as ciao , spaghetti , opera , minestrone , al fresco , and so on. Italian and English share a common source in Latin, so many words are similar in both languages.
Italian has borrowed many English words over the years. il computer , il marketing , il checkin , OK , un party , un week-end are just a few examples. Some borrowed words have been adjusted and Italianized, such as stoppare ('to stop') and cliccare ('to click a computer mouse').
There are a few general differences between Italian and English. Unlike English, Italian is a phonetic language: within the limits of a few simple rules, letters are pronounced consistently. This makes it a comparatively easy language to speak. The regular sound-to-letter correlations also mean there are rarely any surprises in spelling.
As Italian (like French, Spanish, and Romanian) belongs to the Romance group of European languages that are derived from Latin, nouns are either masculine or feminine and articles and adjectives have to agree with the nouns they refer to. Italian has more variation in verb forms than English: for example, where English has just two verb forms in the present tense ('live' for I/you (singular and plural)/we/they - and 'lives' for he/she/it), Italian has six different forms - abito , abiti , abita , abitiamo , abitate , abitano .
Italian also has two ways of addressing people ( tu being the informal and lei the formal 'you' form), which affects pronouns, possessives, and verb forms. Most Italians are very sympathetic towards people making an effort to speak their language and will encourage you in your attempts.
http://www.languagehelpers.com/languagefacts/italian.html
Classification
Italian is a member of the Italo-Dalmatian group of languages, which is part of the Italo-Western grouping of the Romance languages, which are a subgroup of the Italic branch of Indo-European.
History
The origins of italian language are very complex and mostly formalized by Dante Alighieri mixing south italian dialects, especially from Sicilian, with his native Tuscan ("supposed" to be derived from Etruscan and Oscan). Those older italian dialects were hardly influenced by the Occitan bring by the Bard escaping from France centuries before under the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Of the major Romance languages, which were derived from Latin language, Italian is the closest to Latin, although there are other langauges spoken in Italy which are even closer to Latin, for example Sardo logudorese language.
Italians say that the best spoken Italian is lingua toscana in bocca romana - 'the Tuscan tongue, in a Roman mouth.' The formative influence on establishing the Tuscan as the elite speech is generally agreed to have been Dante's Commedia, to which Boccaccio affixed the title Divina in the 14th century.
The economic power that Tuscany had at the time, specially considering Pisa's influence, gave its dialect weight, though Venetian remained widespread in the markets and streets of the Terra Firma. Also, the increasing cultural relevance of Florence in the period of Umanesimo (before Rinascimento) made its vulgare become a standard in art, quickly imported to Rome.
Geographic distribution
Italian is the official language of Italy, San Marino and an official language in the Ticino and Grigioni cantons or regions of Switzerland. It is also the second official language in Vatican City and in some areas of Istria in Slovenia and Croatia with an Italian minority. It is widely used by immigrant groups in Luxembourg, the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Australia, and is also spoken in neighbouring Malta and Albania. It is spoken, to a much lesser extent, in parts of Africa formerly under Italian rule such as Somalia, Libya and Eritrea.
Official status
Italian is an official language of Italy, San Marino, Switzerland, Slovenia and Vatican City.
Dialects
The dialects of Italian identified by the Ethnologue are Tuscan, Abruzzese, Pugliese (Apulian), Umbrian, Laziale, Central Marchigiano, Cicolano-Reatino-Aquilano, and Molisan. Other dialects are Milanese, Brescian, Bergamasc, Venetian, Modenese, Bolognese, Sicilian, Sardian, and so on, essentially one per city. Many of the so-called dialects of Italian spoken around the country are different enough from standard Italian to be considered separate languages by most linguists.
Grammar
Pronouns:
Personal pronouns in the subject of a sentence are usually unnecessary in Italian, because the verb ending provides information about the subject (apart some exceptions), and hence the pronouns are used only to emphasize the subject.
Singular Plural:
- 1st Person io - I noi - we
- 2nd Person tu - you (one person, familiar)
- voi - you (plural, familiar)
- 3rd Person lei - she
- Lei - you (one person, polite)
- lui - he
- loro - they
- Loro - you (plural, polite)
Lei and Loro (sometimes written with a capitalized L) have special meaning in addition to their meanings as "she" and "they". Lei is the polite form of tu (which is only used for individuals one is familiar with, family members, for children, or for praying to a god), and similarly, Loro is the polite form of voi (but voi or Voi too is a polite form).
Verbs
Italian verb infinitives have one of three endings, either -are, -ere, or -ire. Most Italian verbs are regular.
Questions are formed by a rising intonation at the end of the sentence, as in most European languages (see examples below).
Present Indicative Regular Conjugation Patterns
This is the basic conjugation pattern used to indicate that something is occurring now.-are Singular Plural
1st Person -o -iamo
2nd Person -i -ate
3rd Person -a -anoExample: mangiare, "to eat".
Io mangio. (or just Mangio.) I eat.
Antonio mangia. Antonio eats.
Antonio mangia? Does Antonio eat?
Mangia Antonio? Does Antonio eat?
guardare, "to watch"Noi guardiamo la televisione. (or just Guardiamo la televisione.) We watch television.
-ere Singular Plural
1st Person -o -iamo
2nd Person -i -ete
3rd Person -e -onoExample: leggere, "to read"
Leggono i libri. They read books.
Leggo il giornale. I read the newspaper.
Some regular -ire verbs conjugate normally, and some conjugate according to the -isco pattern. There is no way to tell other than to memorize which are which-ire (normal form) Singular Plural
1st Person -o -iamo
2nd Person -i -ite
3rd Person -e -onoExample: partire, "to leave"
Partite. You leave. (plural; used if talking to two or more persons one is familiar with.)
Parti. You leave. (singular; used if talking to only one person one is familiar with.)
Partono. Depending on context, could mean either You leave (if addressing more than one person formally), or could also mean They leave.-ire (-isco form) Singular Plural
1st Person -isco -iamo
2nd Person -isci -ite
3rd Person -isce -isconoExample: capire, "to understand".
Io capisco or just Capisco. "I understand."
Capisci? "Do you understand?"Writing system
Italian is written using the Latin alphabet. Italian uses both acute accent and grave accent for marking words with irregular stress.
Examples:
- cheers (generic toast): salute /sa"lute/ (sall-OO-teh); cincin /tSin"tSin/ (cheen-CHEEN)
- English: inglese /iN"glEze/ (ing-GLAY-zay)
- good-bye: arrivederci /ar:ive"dErtSi/ (a-ree-veh-DARE-chee)
- hello: ciao /"tSAo/ (CHAH-oh) (informal); buon giorno /"bwon "dZOrno/ (bwon JAWR-noh) (good morning), buona sera /"bwona "s:era/ (BWO-na SAY-ra) (good evening)
- how much? quanto /"kwAnto/ (KWAN-tuh) (masculine); quanta /"kwAnta/ (KWAN-tah) (feminine)
- I don't understand: non capisco /"noN ka"pisko/ (known kah-PEES-kuh)
- Italian: italiano /ita"ljano/ (ee-tah-LYAN-oh)
- no: no /no/ (nuh)
- please: per favore /"per favOre/ (per fa-VOAR-ay)
- sorry: scusa /"skuza/ (SKOO-zah) (familiar); scusi /"skuzi/ (SKOO-zee) (polite)
- thank you: grazie /"gratzje/ (GRAT-zyeh)
- that one: quello /"kwEl:o/ (KWEL-luh) (masculine); quella /"kwEl:a/ (KWEL-lah) (feminine)
- where's the bathroom?: dov'è il bagno? /do"vE il "baJo/ (duh-vay-eel-BA-"spanish ñ"-uh)
- yes: sì /si/ (see)
Area of Distribution and Number of Speakers
Italian ( Italiano ) is a Romance language currently spoken by some 66,000,000 people, of whom the vast majority live in peninsular Italy (including the Republic of San Marino). France, including Corsica, has about 260,000 Italian speakers and Switzerland more than 500,000 (the canton of Ticino). For a large, if decreasing, proportion of these speakers, standard Italian is not the language of the home, where dialectal forms are used.
Overseas ( e.g., in the United States, where it is estimated that there are some 1,500,000 Italian speakers; in Brazil, with about 700,000 and in Argentina, with about 600,000) speakers sometimes do not know the standard language and use only dialect forms.
Standard Italian is widely used in the countries of Malta and Somalia. A pidgin Italian can still be heard in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, but has little extension. In Libya , also, its use is now dying out. Relics of a Jewish Italian ( see Italkian ) survive within Italy; an entire colony of 6,000 Corfu Jews, who used a Venetan dialect ( see Venetan language ) as a home language, was exterminated during World War II.
Italian dialects developed from Vulgar Latin , the colloquial language of the late Roman empire. The early texts, reflecting the spoken language of Italy, are written in dialects. Possibly the very first text is a riddle from Verona, dating from perhaps the 8th century, but its interpretation is obscure and its language Latinized. More surely Italian are some 10th-century documents from Monte Cassino , after which there are three Central Italian texts of the 11th century. The first literary work of any length is the Tuscan Ritmo Laurenziano ("Laurentian Rhythm") of the late 12th century, followed soon by other compositions from the Marches and Monte Cassino. In the 13th century, lyric poetry was first written in a conventionalized Sicilian dialect that influenced later developments in central Italy.
Standard language and Dialects
Standard Italian began to be developed in the 13th and 14th centuries as a literary dialect. At first basically a Florentine dialect, stripped of local peculiarities, it has since acquired some characteristics of the dialect of Rome in particular and has always been heavily influenced by Latin . It overlies a wide variety of dialects, which are sometimes considered to represent a fundamental differentiation between northern and southern Italy that dates from Roman times.
Today, however, these variant dialects form a continuum of intelligibility, although geographically distant dialects may be radically different. The northern dialects include what are often called the Gallo-Italian dialects (Piedmontese, Lombard, Ligurian, Emilian-Romagnol); as the influence of a Celtic (Gaulish) substratum is discernible, some linguists consider them separate languages pertaining to the Gallo-Romance Subgroup. The other northern group of dialects, spoken in northeastern Italy, is called Venetan (including Venetian, Veronese, Trevisan, and Paduan dialects, etc.). Istrian, which is spoken on the peninsula now divided between Croatia and Slovenia, with a tiny portion belonging to Italy, is sometimes considered yet another northern Italian dialect, or an independent language of the Balkano-Romance Subgroup. The Tuscan dialects (including those of Corsica) are often held to form a linguistic group of their own, while in the south and east three broad dialect areas are grouped loosely together: (1) the dialects of the Marche (Marchigiano), Umbria, and Rome; (2) Abruzzian, Apulian, Neapolitan, Campanian, and Lucanian; and (3) Calabrian, Otrantan, and Sicilian, which are believed by some to be influenced by the Greek once spoken there (which still survives in isolated pockets on the extreme southern portion of the peninsula).
In modern Italy dialects are still the primary spoken idiom, though the standard Italian is virtually the only written language. Speakers of an Italian dialect, even one as superficially different as Sicilian, can with effort understand standard Italian, however, and can even learn it by such means as listening to radio programs. For most Italians their first contact with the standard language comes in primary school, in which until recently it was the only dialect used; standard Italian is virtually the only dialect of culture in modern Italy, and with immigration from the south to the industrial north it is becoming increasingly the language of intercommunication.
The sound system of Italian did not evolve further than that of Vulgar Latin. The vocal system consists of 7 vowels and is considered triangular (as that of Classical Latin and modern Spanish ):
The consonant system is characterized by the palatalization of c, g, t, d in front of e and i ( cf. CL hodie => It . oggi ) and the intervocal gemination ( cf. CL legere => It . leggere ); the palatalization of Latin c to [t 
] is similar to that in the Balkano-Romance languages. The consonantic i [=j] became [d 
] (written g ) ( cf. CL justus => It . giusto ). The clusters cl, fl, pl were transformed to chi [ki], fi , pi ( cf. CL clamâre => It . chiamare, CL flama => It . fiamma, CL plangere => It . piangere ). A lot of assimilations occurred to alleviate the pronunciation ( cf. CL administratione(m) => It . amministrazione, CL sexus => It . sesso ). The intervocal voiceless consonants tended to become voiced ( cf. CL apothêca => It . bottega ).
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Italian orthography is rather simple as it follows a phonetic (like Spanish) and not an etymologcal pattern (like French and English).
Italian grammar is like that of the other Western Romance languages, especially similar to the modern French grammar. It shows agreement of adjectives and nouns, the use of definite and indefinite articles, loss of noun declension for case, two genders (masculine and feminine), and an elaborate system of perfect and progressive tenses for the verb. As in French (see...) , the compound tenses are constructed with the verb 'to be' ( essere ) for the intransitive (as morire to die , nascere to be born , partire to depart , venire to come etc.) and pronominal verbs (as lavarsi to wash myself etc .) or with the verb 'to have' ( avere ) for the transitive verbs. Similar to French, Italian has a partitive article and uses pronominal adverbs.
The most notable difference between Italian and French or Spanish is that it does not use -s or -es to form the plural of nouns but instead uses -e for most feminine words and -i for masculine words (and some feminine words). There is a theory that Italian formed in its earliest times the plural mainly with -s as other Romance languages, but a palatalisation phenomenon caused the passages: *-as => -e; *-es => -i .
The Italian vocabulary is derived mainly from Latin. The basic words are inherited from Vulgar Latin and often are marked by some slang bias as compared with Classical Latin, cf. :
- It. testa head <= L testa earthenware jar .
- It. donna woman <= L domina mistress .
- Old Italian * stoggio study became studio , both from the Latin studium .
There are numerous German ( see Germanic languages ) borowings from the late Antiquity and Middle ages (a lot of them were adopted via French): gaio gay , garantire to guarantee , guadagnare to gain , guerra war , especially the world directions ( nord, sud, est, ovest ). The Arabic words ( see Arabic languages ) (like arancia orange ) reached Italian mainly via Spanish and French.
The Greek words were inherited from Latin ( ballare to dance , governare to govern , parola word ), but their mass introduction was connected with the development of the scientific literature in Italian during the Renaissance.