Languages of Italy

This article is about the modern languages originating or spoken in Italy. For the regional varieties of the Italian language specifically, see Regional Italian. For the ancient languages, see Ancient languages of the Italian peninsula.

Languages of Italy

Regional and minority languages of Italy[1][2][3][4]

Official| Italian
Regional| see "classification"
Minority| see "historical linguistic minorities"
Immigrant|

* Romanian
* Albanian
* Arabic
* Chinese
* Ukrainian
* Romani[5]

Foreign|

* English (35%)
* French (16%)
* Spanish (11%)
* Other regional language (6%)

Signed| Italian Sign Language
Keyboard layout|

Italian QWERTY

Source| Special Eurobarometer, Europeans and their Languages, 2006
Part of a series on the

Culture of Italy

History

* Citizenship
* Currency and coinage
* Economy
* Fashion
* Flags
* Genetic
* Historic states
* Judaism
* LGBT
* Military
* Music
* Name
* Postage
* Railway

People

Languages

* Italian
* Arbëresh
* Algherese
* Slavomolisano
* Aostan French
* Friulian
* Gallo-Italic of Sicily
* Italian Germanic
* Griko
* Ladin
* Occitan
* Romani
* Sardinian
* Slovene
* Wenzhounese

Traditions

Mythology and folklore

* Folk dance
* Folk music

Cuisine

* Abruzzese
* Apulian
* Arbëreshë
* Corsican
* Ligurian
* Lombard
* Mantuan
* Lucanian
* Neapolitan
* Piedmontese
* Roman
* Sardinian
* Sicilian
* Venetian

Festivals

* Tricolour Day (7 January)
* National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe (10 February)
* Anniversary of the Unification of Italy (17 March)
* Liberation Day (25 April)
* Republic Day (2 June)
* National Unity and Armed Forces Day (4 November)

Religion

* Roman Catholicism
* Eastern Orthodoxy
* Oriental Orthodoxy
* Protestantism
* Islam
* Judaism
* Baháʼí Faith
* Buddhism
* Hinduism
* Sikhism
* Irreligiosity

Art

* Architecture
* Sculpture

Literature

Comics

Music and performing arts

* Theatre

Media

* Television
* Cinema
* Books
* Internet
* Magazines
* Newspapers
* Radio

Sport

* Association football
* Athletics
* Baseball
* Rugby union
* Tennis

Monuments

* World Heritage Sites
* More

Symbols

* Flag
* Coat of arms
* National anthem
* National day
* National monument
* National personification

Organisations

* Italian Cultural Institute
* Dante Alighieri Society
* Libraries
* Museums

* Italy portal

* v
* t
* e

This article is part of the series on the

Italian language

* Italo-Dalmatian languages
* Tuscan (Florentine)
* Regional Italian
* Accademia della Crusca
* Enciclopedia Treccani

History

* Veronese Riddle
* Placiti Cassinesi
* Sicilian School
* Dolce Stil Novo
* The Divine Comedy
* Pontifical Academy of Arcadia
* Italian Purism
* The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis
* The Betrothed

Literature and other

* Culture
* Literature
* Music
* Philosophy
* Poetry
* Comics
* Italophilia

Grammar

* Verb conjugation

Alphabet

* Orthography
* Braille

Phonology

* Syntactic gemination
* Tuscan gorgia

* v
* t
* e

The languages of Italy include Italian, which serves as the country's national language, in its standard and regional forms, as well as numerous local and regional languages, most of which, like Italian, belong to the broader Romance group. The majority of languages often labeled as regional are distributed in a continuum across the regions' administrative boundaries, with speakers from one locale within a single region being typically aware of the features distinguishing their own variety from others spoken nearby.[6]

The official and most widely spoken language across the country is Italian, which started off based on the medieval Tuscan of Florence. In parallel, many Italians also communicate in one of the local languages, most of which, like Tuscan, are indigenous evolutions of Vulgar Latin. Some local languages do not stem from Latin, however, but belong to other Indo-European branches, such as Cimbrian (Germanic), Arbëresh (Albanian), Slavomolisano (Slavic) and Griko (Greek). Other non-indigenous languages are spoken by a substantial percentage of the population due to immigration.

Of the indigenous languages, twelve are officially recognized as spoken by linguistic minorities:[7] Albanian,[8][9] Catalan, German, Greek, Slovene, Croatian, French, Franco-Provençal, Friulian, Ladin, Occitan and Sardinian;[7] at the present moment, Sardinian is regarded as the largest of such groups, with approximately one million speakers, even though the Sardophone community is overall declining.[10][11][12][13][14][15] However, full bilingualism (bilinguismo perfetto) is legally granted only to the three national minorities whose mother tongue is German, Slovene or French, and enacted in the regions of Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the Aosta Valley, respectively.

## Ancient languages of Italy

[edit]

See also: Ancient peoples of Italy and Italic languages

Ethnolinguistic map of Italy in the Iron Age, before the Roman expansion and conquest of Italy

Numerous languages were spoken in ancient Italy. These included Etruscan and the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages, consisting of Latino-Faliscan and Osco-Umbrian languages. Furthermore, Celtic languages were spoken in Cisalpine Gaul and ancient Greek was spoken in Magna Graecia. Latin emerged out of the Latino-Faliscan group and replaced the other languages spoken in Italy following the Romanization of the whole peninsula; it is the ancestor of all the Romance languages, the only living subgroup of the Italic languages.

## Language or dialect

[edit]

See also: Regional Italian

Almost all of the Romance languages spoken in Italy are native to the area in which they are spoken. Apart from Standard Italian, these languages are often referred to as dialetti "dialects", both colloquially and in scholarly usage; however, the term may coexist with other labels like "minority languages" or "vernaculars" for some of them.[16] The label "dialect" may be understood erroneously to imply that the native languages spoken in Italy are "dialects" of Standard Italian in the prevailing English-language sense of "varieties or variations of a language".[17][18] This is not the case in Italy, as the country's long-standing linguistic diversity does not actually stem from Standard Italian. Most of Italy's variety of Romance languages predate Italian and evolved locally from Vulgar Latin, independently of what would become the standard national language, long before the fairly recent spread of Standard Italian throughout Italy.[19][18] In fact, Standard Italian itself can be thought of as either a continuation of, or a dialect heavily based on, the Florentine dialect of Tuscan.

The indigenous Romance languages of Italy are therefore classified as separate languages that evolved from Latin just like Standard Italian, rather than "dialects" or variations of the latter.[20][21][22] Conversely, with the spread of Standard Italian throughout Italy in the 20th century, local varieties of Standard Italian have also developed throughout the peninsula, influenced to varying extents by the underlying local languages, most noticeably at the phonological level; though regional boundaries seldom correspond to isoglosses distinguishing these varieties, these variations of Standard Italian are commonly referred to as Regional Italian (italiano regionale).[18]

Twelve languages have been legally granted official recognition as of 1999, but their selection to the exclusion of others is a matter of some controversy.[17] Daniele Bonamore argues that many regional languages were not recognized in light of their communities' historical participation in the construction of the Standard Italian language: Giacomo da Lentini's and Cielo d'Alcamo's Sicilian, Guido Guinizelli's Bolognese, Jacopone da Todi's Umbrian, Neapolitan, Carlo Goldoni's Venetian and Dante's Tuscan are considered to be historical founders of the Standard Italian linguistic majority; outside of such epicenters are, on the other hand, Friulian, Ladin, Sardinian, Franco-Provençal and Occitan, which are recognized as distinct languages.[23] Michele Salazar found Bonamore's explanation "new and convincing".[24]

## Legal status of Italian

[edit]

Italian was first declared to be Italy's official language during the Fascist period, more specifically through the R.D.l., adopted on 15 October 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.[25]

The original Italian constitution does not explicitly express that Italian is the official national language. Since the constitution was penned, there have been some laws and articles written on the procedures of criminal cases passed that explicitly state that Italian should be used:

* Statute of the Trentino-South Tyrol, (constitutional law of the northern region of Italy around Trento) – "[...] [la lingua] italiana [...] è la lingua ufficiale dello Stato." (Statuto Speciale per il Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Art. 99, "[...] [the language] Italian [...] is the official language of the State.")
* Code for civil procedure – "In tutto il processo è prescritto l'uso della lingua italiana. (Codice di procedura civile, Art. 122, "In all procedures, the use of the Italian language is required.")
* Code for criminal procedure – "Gli atti del procedimento penale sono compiuti in lingua italiana." (Codice di procedura penale, Art. 109 [169-3; 63, 201 att.], "The acts of the criminal proceedings are carried out in the Italian language.")
* Article 1 of law 482/1999 – "La lingua ufficiale della Repubblica è l'italiano." (Legge 482/1999, Art. 1 Comma 1, "The official language of the Republic is Italian.")[26]

## Historical linguistic minorities

[edit]

### Recognition by the Italian state

[edit]

Communities recognized by Italy as historical linguistic minorities[27][28]

> The Republic safeguards linguistic minorities by means of appropriate measures.

> — Italian Constitution, Art. 6

Art. 6 of the Italian Constitution was drafted by the Founding Fathers to show sympathy for the country's historical linguistic minorities, in a way for the newly founded Republic to let them become part of the national fabric and distance itself from the Italianization policies promoted earlier because of nationalism, especially during Fascism.[29][30][31] Since 1934, Minister Francesco Ercole had excluded in fact from the school curriculum any language other than Italian, in accordance with the policy of linguistic nationalism.[32]

For the Constitutional Court of the Italian Republic, Article 6 of the Constitution represents "the overcoming of the closed notion of the 19th-century national State and a reversal of great political and cultural significance, compared to the nationalistic attitude manifested by Fascism" as well as being "one of the fundamental principles of the current constitutional system".[33]

However, more than a half century passed before the Art. 6 was followed by any of the above-mentioned "appropriate measures".[34] Italy applied in fact the Article for the first time in 1999, by means of the national law N.482/99.[7] 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".[35]

Before said legal framework entered into force, only four linguistic minorities (the French-speaking community in the Aosta Valley; the German-speaking community and, to a limited extent, the Ladin one in the Province of Bolzano; the Slovene-speaking community in the Province of Trieste and, with less rights, the Province of Gorizia) enjoyed some kind of acknowledgment and protection, stemming from specific clauses within international treaties.[29] The other eight linguistic minorities were to be recognized only in 1999, including the Slovene-speaking minority in the Province of Udine and the Germanic populations (Walser, Mocheni and Cimbri) residing in provinces different from Bolzano. Some now-recognized minority groups, namely in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Sardinia, already provided themselves with regional laws of their own. It has been estimated that less than 400.000 people, out of the two million people belonging to the twelve historical minorities (with Sardinian being the numerically biggest one[14][10][15]), enjoyed state-wide protection.[36]

Around the 1960s, the Italian Parliament eventually resolved to apply the previously neglected article of the country's fundamental Charter. The Parliament thus appointed a "Committee of three Sages" to single out the groups that were to be recognized as linguistic minorities, and further elaborate the reason for their inclusion. The nominated people were Tullio de Mauro, Giovan Battista Pellegrini and Alessandro Pizzorusso, three notable figures who distinguished themselves with their life-long activity of research in the field of both linguistics and legal theory. Based on linguistic, historical as well as anthropological considerations, the experts eventually selected thirteen groups, corresponding to the currently recognized twelve with the further addition of the Sinti and Romani-speaking populations.[37] The original list was approved, with the only exception of the nomadic peoples, who lacked the territoriality requisite and therefore needed a separate law. However, the draft was presented to the law-making bodies when the legislature was about to run its course, and had to be passed another time. The bill was met with resistance by all the subsequent legislatures, being reluctant to challenge the widely-held myth of "Italian linguistic homogeneity",[34] and only in 1999 did it eventually pass, becoming a law. In the end, the historical linguistic minorities have been recognized by the Law no. 482/1999 (Legge 15 Dicembre 1999, n. 482, Art. 2, comma 1).[7][38]

Some interpretations of said law seem to divide the twelve minority languages into two groups, with the first including the non-Latin speaking populations (with the exception of the Catalan-speaking one) and the second including only the Romance-speaking populations. Some other interpretations state that a further distinction is implied, considering only some groups to be "national minorities".[34][39] Regardless of the ambiguous phrasing, all the twelve groups are technically supposed to be allowed the same measures of protection;[40] furthermore, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, signed and ratified by Italy in 1997, applies to all the twelve groups mentioned by the 1999 national law, therefore including the Friulians, the Sardinians,[41][42][43] the Occitans, the Ladins etc., with the addition of the Romani.

In actual practice, not each of the twelve historical linguistic minorities is given the same consideration.[34] All of them still bear strong social pressure to assimilate to Italian, and some of them do not even have a widely acknowledged standard to be used for official purposes.[44] In fact, the discrimination lay in the urgent need to award the highest degree of protection only to the French-speaking minority in the Aosta Valley and the German one in South Tyrol, owing to international treaties.[45] For example, the institutional websites are only in Italian with a few exceptions, like a French version of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.[46] A bill proposed by former prime minister Mario Monti's cabinet formally introduced a differential treatment between the twelve historical linguistic minorities, distinguishing between those with a "foreign mother tongue" (the groups protected by agreements with Austria, France and Slovenia) and those with a "peculiar dialect" (all the others). The bill was later implemented, but deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.[47][48]

### Recognition at the European level

[edit]

Italy is a signatory of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, but has not ratified the treaty, and therefore its provisions protecting regional languages do not apply in the country.[49]

The Charter does not, however, establish at what point differences in expression result in a separate language, deeming it an "often controversial issue", and citing the necessity to take into account, other than purely linguistic criteria, also "psychological, sociological and political considerations".[50]

## Regional recognition of the local languages

[edit]

* Aosta Valley:
* French is co-official (enjoying the same dignity and standing of Italian) in the whole region (Le Statut spécial de la Vallée d'Aoste, Titre VIe, Article 38);[51]
* Franco-Provençal is unofficial, but protected and promoted according to federal and regional laws.[51][52]
* German is unofficial but recognised in the Lys Valley (Lystal) (Le Statut spécial de la Vallée d'Aoste, Titre VIe, Art. 40 - bis).[51]
* Apulia:
* Griko, Arbëresh and Franco-Provençal are recognized and safeguarded (Legge regionale 5/2012).[53]

Map showing the areas where the Griko language is still spoken (Bovesia and Grecìa Salentina); the last living trace of the Greek elements that once formed Magna Graecia.[54]

* Calabria:
* Calabrian Greek, Arbëresh and Occitan are officially recognized and safeguarded.
* Campania: Neapolitan is "promoted", but not recognised, by the region (Reg. Gen. nn. 159/I 198/I, Art. 1, comma 4).[55]
* Friuli-Venezia Giulia:
* Friulian, Slovene and German are "promoted", but not recognised, by the region (Legge regionale 18 dicembre 2007, n. 29, Art. 1, comma 1);[56] (Legge regionale 16 novembre 2007, n. 26, Art. 16);[57] (Legge regionale 20 novembre 2009, n. 20);[58]

Comparison between the domains of the Duchy of Milan in the 14th century (in green) and the modern geographical borders of the Lombard language (in yellow)

* Lombardy:
* Lombard is unofficial but recognised as the regional language (Legge regionale 25/2016).[59]
* Piedmont:
* Piedmontese is unofficial but recognised as the regional language (Consiglio Regionale del Piemonte, Ordine del Giorno n. 1118, Presentato il 30 November 1999);[60][61]
* the region "promotes", without recognising, the Occitan, Franco-Provençal, French and Walser languages (Legge regionale 7 aprile 2009, n. 11, Art. 1).[62]
* Sardinia:
* The region considers the cultural identity of the Sardinian people as a primary asset (l.r. N.26/97,[63] l.r. N.22/18[64]), 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).[63] 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)[63] in their respective linguistic areas.
* Sicily:
* Gallo-Italic of Sicily and Arbëresh are officially recognized and safeguarded. Sicilian is unofficial but recognised as the regional language (Legge regionale 9/2011).[65]
* South Tyrol:
* German is co-official (enjoying the same dignity and standing of Italian) in the province of South Tyrol (Statuto speciale per il Trentino-Alto Adige, Titolo XI, Articolo 99);[66] Ladin is the third co-official language of South Tirol
* Trentino:
* Ladin, Cimbrian, and Mòcheno are unofficial but recognised in (Statuto speciale per il Trentino-Alto Adige, Titolo XI, Articolo 102).[66]
* Veneto:
* Venetan is unofficial but recognised and promoted (Legge regionale 13 aprile 2007, n. 8, Art. 2, comma 2).[67]

## Conservation status

[edit]

Frequency of use of regional languages in Italy, as the sole or principal languages at home, based on ISTAT data from 2015[68]

According to the UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, there are 31 endangered languages in Italy.[69] 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).[70]

The source for the languages' distribution is the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger[69] unless otherwise stated, and refers to Italy exclusively.

### Vulnerable

[edit]

* Alemannic: spoken in the Lys Valley of the Aosta Valley and in Northern Piedmont
* Bavarian: South Tyrol
* Ladin: several valleys, comunes and villages in the Dolomites, including the Val Badia and the Gardena Valley in South Tyrol, the Fascia Valley in Trentino, and Livinallongo in the Province of Belluno
* Sicilian: Sicily, southern and central Calabria and southern Apulia
* Neapolitan: Campania, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Molise, northern Calabria, northern and central Apulia, southern Lazio and Marche as well as eastern fringes of Umbria
* Romanesco: Metropolitan City of Rome in Lazio and in some communes of southern Tuscany
* Venetian (Venetan): Veneto, parts of Friuli-Venezia Giulia

### Definitely endangered

[edit]

* Algherese Catalan: the town of Alghero in northwestern Sardinia; an outlying dialect of Catalan language not listed separately by the SIL International.
* Occitan Alpine Provençal: the upper valleys of Piedmont (Val Mairo, Val Varacho, Val d'Esturo, Entraigas, Limoun, Vinai, Pinerolo, Sestrieres)
* Arbëresh: (i) Adriatic zone: Montecilfone, Campomarino, Portocannone and Ururi in Molise as well as Chieuti and Casalvecchio di Puglia in Apulia; (ii) San Marzano in Apulia; (iii) Greci in Campania; (iv) northern Basilicata: Barile, Ginestra and Maschito; (v) North Calabrian zone: ca. 30 settlements in northern Calabria (Plataci, Civita, Frascineto, San Demetrio Corone, Lungro, Acquaformosa etc.) as well as San Costantino Albanese and San Paolo Lucano in southern Basilicata; (vi) settlements in southern Calabria, e.g. San Nicola dell'Alto and Vena di Maida; (vii) Sicilian zone: Piana degli Albanesi and two nearby villages near Palermo; (viii) formerly also Villabadessa in Abruzzo; an outlying dialect of Albanian
* Cimbrian: vigorously spoken in Luserna in Trentino; disappearing in Giazza (part of the commune Selva di Progno) in the Province of Verona and in Roana in the Province of Vicenza; recently extinct in several other locations in the region; an outlying Bavarian dialect
* Corsican: spoken on Maddalena Island off the northeast coast of Sardinia
* Emilian: North to Northwestern Emilia-Romagna, parts of the provinces of Pavia, Voghera, and Mantua in southern Lombardy, the Lunigiana district in northwestern Tuscany and in a zone called Traspadana Ferrarese in the Province of Rovigo in Veneto
* Romagnol: Southeastern Emilia-Romagna, the Alta Valle del Tevere district in northern part of the Province of Perugia and eastern part of the Province of Arezzo, the Province of Pesaro-Urbino in the Marche (disputed)
* Faetar: Faeto and Celle San Vito in the Province of Foggia in Apulia; a variety of Franco-Provençal not listed separately by the SIL
* Franco-Provençal: spoken in the Aosta Valley (Valdôtain dialect) and the Alpine valleys to the north and east of the Susa Valley in Piedmont
* Friulan: Friuli-Venezia Giulia except the Province of Trieste and western and eastern border regions, and Portogruaro area in the Province of Venice in Veneto

Distribution of Gallo-Italic of Sicily

* Gallo-Italic of Sicily: Nicosia, Sperlinga, Piazza Armerina, Valguarnera Caropepe and Aidone in the province of Enna, and San Fratello, Acquedolci, San Piero Patti, Montalbano Elicona, Novara di Sicilia and Fondachelli-Fantina in the province of Messina; an outlying dialect of Lombard not listed separately by the SIL; other dialects were formerly also spoken in southern Italy outside Sicily, especially in Basilicata
* Gallurese: northeastern Sardinia; an outlying dialect of Corsican
* Ligurian: Liguria and adjacent areas of Piedmont, Emilia and Tuscany; settlements in the towns of Carloforte on the San Pietro Island and Calasetta on the Sant'Antioco Island off the southwest coast of Sardinia
* Lombard: Lombardy (except the southernmost border areas) and the Province of Novara in Piedmont
* Mòcheno: Palù, Fierozzo and Frassilongo in the Fersina Valley in Trentino; an outlying Bavarian dialect
* Piedmontese: Piedmont except the Province of Novara, the western Alpine valleys and southern border areas, as well as minor adjacent areas
* Resian: Resia in the northeastern part of the Province of Udine; an outlying dialect of Slovene not listed separately by the SIL
* Romani: spoken by the Roma community in Italy
* Sardinian, consisting of both the Campidanese (southern Sardinia) and Logudorese (central Sardinia) dialects
* Sassarese: northwestern Sardinia; a transitional language between Corsican and Sardinian
* Yiddish: spoken by parts of the Jewish community in Italy[71]

### Severely endangered

[edit]

* Walser German: the village of Issime in the upper Lys Valley/Lystal in the Aosta Valley; an outlying dialect of Alemannic not listed separately by the SIL. It is considered by Glottolog to be a separate language.
* Molise Croatian: the villages of Montemitro, San Felice del Molise, and Acquaviva Collecroce in the Province of Campobasso in southern Molise;[72] a mixed Chakavian–Shtokavian dialect of Croatian not listed separately by the SIL. It is considered by Glottolog to be a separate language.
* Griko: the Salento peninsula in the Province of Lecce in southern Apulia; an outlying dialect of Greek not listed separately by the SIL. It is considered by Glottolog to be a separate language known as Apulia-Calabrian Greek.
* Gardiol Occitan: Guardia Piemontese in Calabria; an outlying dialect of Occitan Alpine Provençal. It is considered by Glottolog to be a separate language.
* Griko (Calabria): a few villages near Reggio di Calabria in southern Calabria; an outlying dialect of Greek not listed separately by the SIL. It is considered by Glottolog to be a separate language known as Apulia-Calabrian Greek.

## Classification

[edit]

All living languages indigenous to Italy are part of the Indo-European language family.

They can be divided into Romance languages and non-Romance languages. The classification of the Romance languages of Italy is controversial, and listed here are two of the generally accepted classification systems.

### Romance languages

[edit]

Loporcaro[73] proposes a classification of Romance languages of Italy based on Pellegrini,[74] who groups different Romance languages according to areal and some typological features. The following five linguistic areas can be identified:[75]

* Northern (dialetti settentrionali):
* Gallo-Italic (Emilian,[76] Piedmontese, Lombard, and Ligurian)
* Venetian
* Friulian
* Tuscan
* Mid-Southern (dialetti centro-meridionali):
* Middle (dialetti mediani; Central Marchigiano, Umbrian, Laziale).
* Upper Southern (dialetti alto-meridionali; Marchigiano-Abruzzese, Molisano, Apulian, Southern Laziale and Campanian including Neapolitan, Northern Lucano-Calabrese).
* Extreme Southern (dialetti meridionali estremi; Salentino, Calabrian, Sicilian).
* Sardinian

The following classification is proposed by Maiden:[77]

* Northern varieties:
* Northern Italo-Romance:
* 'Gallo-Italian' (Piedmont, Lombardy, Liguria and Emilia-Romagna).
* Venetan.
* Ladin.
* Friulian.
* Central and Southern:
* Tuscan (with Corsican).
* 'Middle Italian' (Marche, Umbria, Lazio).
* Upper Southern (Abruzzo, northern Puglia, Molise, Campania, Basilicata).
* Extreme Southern (Salento, southern Calabria and Sicily).
* Sardinian.

### Non-Romance languages

[edit]

#### Albanian, Slavic, Greek and Romani languages

[edit]

Language  | Family  | ISO 639-3  | Dialects spoken in Italy  | Notes  | Speakers

|
|
|
|
|

Arbëresh | Albanian | Tosk |  |  | aae | According to Minority Rights Group International: "The ethnic Albanian (Arbëresh) dialects of Italy bear little resemblance to the standard language or dialects of Albania, as they have been cut off from the main language for around 500 years. Some dialects spoken in Italy are so dissimilar that ethnic Albanians use Italian as a lingua franca. Ethnic Albanians are bilingual."[78] | recognized as a variant of the Albanian strain by UNESCO[69] | 100,000
Croatian | Slavic | South | Western |  | hr | Molise Croatian |  | 1,000
Slovene (slovenščina) | Slavic | South | Western |  | slv | Gai Valley dialect; Resian; Torre Valley dialect; Natisone Valley dialect; Brda dialect; Karst dialect; Inner Carniolan dialect; Istrian dialect |  | 100,000
Italiot Greek | Hellenic (Greek) | Attic |  |  | ell | Griko (Salento); Calabrian Greek |  | 20,000
Romani | Indo-Iranian | Indo-Aryan | Central Zone | Romani | rom | By ISO 639-3 classification, Sinte Romani is the individual language most present in Italy in the Romany macrolanguage |  |

#### High German languages

[edit]

Language  | Family  | ISO 639-3  | Dialects spoken in Italy  | Notes  | Speakers

|
|
|
|
|

German | Middle German | East Middle German | deu | Tyrolean dialects | Austrian German is the usual standard variety | 315,000
Cimbrian | Upper German | Bavarian-Austrian | cim |  | sometimes considered a dialect of Bavarian, also considered an outlying dialect of Bavarian by the UNESCO[69] | 2,200
Mocheno | Upper German | Bavarian-Austrian | mhn |  | considered an outlying dialect of Bavarian by the UNESCO[69] | 1,000
Walser | Upper German | Alemannic | wae |  |  | 3,400

## Geographic distribution

[edit]

### Northern Italy

[edit]

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.

Alemannic

Alpine
Provençal

Bavarian

Cimbrian

Emilian-Romagnol

Francoprovençal

Friulian

Ladin

Ligurian

Lombard

Mócheno

Piedmontese

Resian

Töitschu

Venetian

One common classification divides these languages into four groups:

* The Italian Rhaeto-Romance languages, including Ladin and Friulian.
* The poorly researched Istriot language.
* The Venetian language (sometimes grouped with the majority Gallo-Italian languages).
* The Gallo-Italian languages, including all the rest (although with some doubt regarding the position of Ligurian).

Any such classification runs into the basic problem that there is a dialect continuum throughout northern Italy, with a continuous transition of spoken dialects between e.g. Venetian and Ladin, or Venetian and Emilio-Romagnolo (usually considered Gallo-Italian).

All of these languages are considered innovative relative to the Romance languages as a whole, with some of the Gallo-Italian languages having phonological changes nearly as extreme as standard French (usually considered the most phonologically innovative of the Romance languages). This distinguishes them significantly from standard Italian, which is extremely conservative in its phonology (and notably conservative in its morphology).[79]

### Southern Italy and islands

[edit]

Approximate distribution of the regional languages of Sardinia and Southern Italy according to the UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger:

Corsican

Gallurese

Sassarese

Catalan
(Algherese dialect)

Sardinian
(Logudorese dialect)

Sardinian
(Campidanese dialect)

Molise
Croatian

Franco-Provençal
(Faetar)

Albanian
(Arbëresh)

Southern Italian

Griko
(Salento)

Griko
(Calabria)

Gardiol

Gallo-Italic

Sicilian

One common classification divides these languages into two groups:

* The Italo-Dalmatian languages, including Neapolitan and Sicilian, as well as the Sardinian-influenced Sassarese and Gallurese which are sometimes grouped with Sardinian but are actually of southern Corsican origin.
* The Sardinian language, usually listed as a group of its own with two main Logudorese and Campidanese orthographic forms.

All of these languages are considered conservative relative to the Romance languages as a whole, with Sardinian being the most conservative of them all.

## Mother tongues of foreign citizens in Italy

[edit]

Language (2018)[80][81] | Population

|

Romanian | 806,938
Albanian | 441,027
Arabic | 420,980
Chinese | 299,823
Spanish | 285,664
Ukrainian | 239,424
Filipino | 168,292
Italian | 162,148
Others | 892,283

## Standardised written forms

[edit]

Although "[al]most all Italian dialects were being written in the Middle Ages, for administrative, religious, and often artistic purposes",[82] use of local language gave way to stylized Tuscan, eventually labeled Italian. Local languages are still occasionally written, but only the following regional languages of Italy have a standardised written form. This may be widely accepted or used alongside more traditional written forms:

* Piedmontese: traditional, definitely codified between the 1920s and the 1960s by Pinin Pacòt and Camillo Brero
* Ligurian: "Grafîa ofiçiâ" created by the Académia Ligùstica do Brénno;[83]
* Sardinian: "Limba Sarda Comuna" was experimentally adopted in 2006;[84]
* Friulian: "Grafie uficiâl" created by the Osservatori Regjonâl de Lenghe e de Culture Furlanis;[85]
* Ladin: "Grafia Ladina" created by the Istituto Ladin de la Dolomites;[86]
* Venetian: "Grafia Veneta Unitaria", the official manual published in 1995 by the Regione Veneto local government, although written in Italian.[87] It has been recently updated on 14 December 2017, under the name of "Grafia Veneta Ufficiale".[88]

## Gallery

[edit]

* Officially recognised ethno-linguistic minorities of Italy

* Regional languages of Italy according to Clemente Merlo and Carlo Tagliavini in 1939

* Languages and language islands of Italy

* Languages of Italy

* Main dialectal groups of Italy

* Main linguistic groups of Italy

* Percentage of people in Italy having a command of a regional language (Doxa, 1982; Coveri's data, 1984)

## See also

[edit]

* Italy portal
* Languages portal

* Bilingual sign
* Language geography
* Regional Italian

## Notes and references

[edit]

1. ^ Tagliavini, Carlo (1962). Le origini delle lingue neolatine: introduzione alla filologia romanza. R. Patròn. Archived from the original on 26 February 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
2. ^ "La variazione diatopica". Archived from the original on 16 February 2012.
3. ^ [1] Archived 7 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine
4. ^ AIS, Sprach-und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz, Zofingen 1928-1940
5. ^ "Cittadini Stranieri in Italia - 2018".
6. ^ "Italy". Ethnologue. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
7. ^ a b c d Norme in materia di tutela delle minoranze linguistiche storiche, Italian parliament, retrieved 17 October 2015: "1. In attuazione dell'articolo 6 della Costituzione e in armonia con i princípi generali stabiliti dagli organismi europei e internazionali, la Repubblica tutela la lingua e la cultura delle popolazioni albanesi, catalane, germaniche, greche, slovene e croate e di quelle parlanti il francese, il franco-provenzale, il friulano, il ladino, l'occitano e il sardo."
8. ^ Curtis, Matthew C. (2018). "99. The dialectology of Albanian". In Fritz, Matthias; Joseph, Brian; Klein, Jared (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. de Gruyter Mouton. p. 1800\. ISBN 9783110542431. "The Albanian language is spoken natively by approximately 6 million speakers in south- eastern Europe, particularly in Albania and Kosovo where it is an offlcial language, but also in Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Italy where it has the status of a minority language."
9. ^ "Albanians in Italy". Minority Rights Group International.
10. ^ a b "Letture e linguaggio. Indagine Multiscopo sulle famiglie "I cittadini e il tempo libero"" (PDF). ISTAT. 2000. pp. 106–107.
11. ^ «With some 1,6 million speakers, Sardinia is the largest minority language in Italy. Sardinians form an ethnic minority since they show a strong awareness of being an indigenous group with a language and a culture of their own. Although Sardinian appears to be recessive in use, it is still spoken and understood by a majority of the population on the island.» Kurt Braunmüller, Gisella Ferraresi (2003). Aspects of multilingualism in European language history. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: University of Hamburg: John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 238.
12. ^ «Nel 1948 la Sardegna diventa, anche per le sue peculiarità linguistiche, Regione Autonoma a statuto speciale. Tuttavia a livello politico, ufficiale, non cambia molto per la minoranza linguistica sarda, che, con circa 1,2 milioni di parlanti, è la più numerosa tra tutte le comunità alloglotte esistenti sul territorio italiano.» Wolftraud De Concini (2003). Gli altri d'Italia : minoranze linguistiche allo specchio. Pergine Valsugana: Comune. p. 196.
13. ^ «Sebbene in continua diminuzione, i sardi costituiscono tuttora la più grossa minoranza linguistica dello stato italiano con ca. 1.000.000 di parlanti stimati (erano 1.269.000 secondo le stime basate sul censimento del 2001)». Sergio Lubello (2016). Manuale Di Linguistica Italiana. Manuals of Romance linguistics. De Gruyter. p. 499.
14. ^ a b "Lingue di Minoranza e Scuola, Sardo". Archived from the original on 16 October 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
15. ^ a b "What Languages are Spoken in Italy?". 29 July 2019.
16. ^ Loporcaro 2009; Marcato 2007; Posner 1996; Repetti 2000:1–2; Cravens 2014.
17. ^ a b Cravens 2014
18. ^ a b c Domenico Cerrato. "Che lingua parla un italiano?". Treccani.it. Archived from the original on 11 February 2018.
19. ^ Tullio, de Mauro (2014). Storia linguistica dell'Italia repubblicana: dal 1946 ai nostri giorni. Editori Laterza, ISBN 9788858113622
20. ^ Maiden, Martin; Parry, Mair (7 March 2006). The Dialects of Italy. Routledge. p. 2\. ISBN 9781134834365.
21. ^ Repetti 2000, p. 1.
22. ^ Andreose, Alvise; Renzi, Lorenzo (2013), "Geography and distribution of the Romance Languages in Europe", in Maiden, Martin; Smith, John Charles; Ledgeway, Adam (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages, vol. 2, Contexts, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 302–308
23. ^ Bonamore, Daniele (2006). Lingue minoritarie Lingue nazionali Lingue ufficiali nella legge 482/1999, Editore Franco Angeli, p.16
24. ^ Michele Salazar (Università di Messina, Direttore Rivista giuridica della scuola) - Presentazione: (…) La spiegazione datane nell'opera sotto analisi appare nuova e convincente (…) il siciliano (…) il bolognese (…) l'umbro (…) il toscano (…) hanno fatto l'italiano, sono l'italiano \- Bonamore, Daniele (2008). Lingue minoritarie Lingue nazionali Lingue ufficiali nella legge 482/1999, Editore Franco Angeli
25. ^ Caretti, Paolo; Rosini, Monica; Louvin, Roberto (2017). Regioni a statuto speciale e tutela della lingua. Turin, Italy: G. Giappichelli. p. 72\. ISBN 978-88-921-6380-5.
26. ^ "Legge 482". Webcitation.org. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
27. ^ Sergio Lubello (2016). Manuale Di Linguistica Italiana. Manuals of Romance linguistics. De Gruyter. p. 506.
28. ^ "Lingue di Minoranza e Scuola: Carta Generale". Minoranze-linguistiche-scuola.it. Archived from the original on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
29. ^ a b "Tutela delle minoranze linguistiche e articolo 6 Costituzione".
30. ^ "Articolo 6 Costituzione, Dispositivo e Spiegazione".
31. ^ Paolo Coluzzi (2007). Minority Language Planning and Micronationalism in Italy: An Analysis of the Situation of Friulian, Cimbrian and Western Lombard with Reference to Spanish Minority Languages. Peter Lang. p. 97.
32. ^ Silvia Demartini (2010). Dal dialetto alla lingua negli anni Venti del Novecento. Pisa-Roma, Fabrizio Serra Editore; p.78
33. ^ Sentenze Corte costituzionale n. 15 del 1996, n. 62 del 1992, n. 768 del 1988, n. 289 del 1987 e n. 312 del 1983. Dalla sentenza nr. 15 del 1996 : 2.- «La tutela delle minoranze linguistiche è uno dei principi fondamentali del vigente ordinamento che la Costituzione stabilisce all'art. 6, demandando alla Repubblica il compito di darne attuazione "con apposite norme". Tale principio, che rappresenta un superamento delle concezioni dello Stato nazionale chiuso dell'Ottocento e un rovesciamento di grande portata politica e culturale, rispetto all'atteggiamento nazionalistico manifestato dal fascismo, è stato numerose volte valorizzato dalla giurisprudenza di questa Corte, anche perché esso si situa al punto di incontro con altri principi, talora definiti "supremi", che qualificano indefettibilmente e necessariamente l'ordinamento vigente (sentenze nn. 62 del 1992, 768 del 1988, 289 del 1987 e 312 del 1983): il principio pluralistico riconosciuto dall'art. 2 - essendo la lingua un elemento di identità individuale e collettiva di importanza basilare - e il principio di eguaglianza riconosciuto dall'art. 3 della Costituzione, il quale, nel primo comma, stabilisce la pari dignità sociale e l'eguaglianza di fronte alla legge di tutti i cittadini, senza distinzione di lingua e, nel secondo comma, prescrive l'adozione di norme che valgano anche positivamente per rimuovere le situazioni di fatto da cui possano derivare conseguenze discriminatorie.»
34. ^ a b c d "Schiavi Fachin, Silvana. Articolo 6, Lingue da tutelare". 15 June 2017.
35. ^ Tratto dalla “Presentazione” a firma del prof. Tullio De Mauro della prima edizione (31 dicembre 2004) del Grande Dizionario Bilingue Italiano-Friulano – Regione autonoma Friuli-Venezia Giulia – edizione CFL2000, Udine, pag. 5/6/7/8: «Anzitutto occorre rievocare il vasto movimento mondiale che ha segnato la fine dell'ideologia monolinguistica e delle politiche culturali, scolastiche, legislative a essa ispirata. (…) I grandi Stati nazionali europei si sono andati costituendo, a partire dal secolo XV, sull'assioma di una vincolante identità tra Stato-nazione-lingua. (…) Il divergente esempio svizzero a lungo è stato percepito come una curiosità isolata.(…) Le vie percorso dal plurilinguismo (…). In Italia il percorso, come si sa, non è stato agevole.(…) Nella pluridecennale ostilità ha operato un difetto profondo di cultura, un'opaca ignoranza fatta dall'intreccio di molte cose. (…) Finalmente nel 1999, vinte resistenze residue, anche lo Stato italiano si è dotato di una legge che, non eccelsa, attua tuttavia quanto disponeva l'art. 6 della Costituzione (...)»
36. ^ Salvi, Sergio (1975). Le lingue tagliate. Storia della minoranze linguistiche in Italia, Rizzoli Editore, pp. 12–14
37. ^ Camera dei deputati, Servizio Studi, Documentazione per le Commissioni Parlamentari, Proposte di legge della VII Legislatura e dibattito dottrinario,123/II, marzo 1982
38. ^ "Italy's general legislation, Language Laws".
39. ^ [2] Archived 16 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine
40. ^ Bonamore, Daniele (2008). Lingue minoritarie lingue nazionali lingue ufficiali nella legge 482/1999, FrancoAngeli Editore, Milano, p. 29
41. ^ "Lingua Sarda, Legislazione Internazionale, Sardegna Cultura".
42. ^ "Coordinamentu sardu ufitziale, lettera a Consiglio d'Europa: "Rispettare impegni"". 17 April 2017.
43. ^ "Il Consiglio d'Europa: "Lingua sarda discriminata, norme non-rispettate"". 24 June 2016.
44. ^ Gabriele Iannàccaro (2010). "Lingue di minoranza e scuola. A dieci anni dalla Legge 482/99. Il plurilinguismo scolastico nelle comunità di minoranza della Repubblica Italiana" (PDF). p. 82.
45. ^ See the appeal of the attorney Felice Besostri against the Italian electoral law of 2015.
46. ^ "Chambre des députés".
47. ^ "Sentenza Corte costituzionale nr. 215 del 3 luglio 2013, depositata il 18 luglio 2013 su ricorso della regione Friuli-VG".
48. ^ "Anche per la Consulta i friulani non-sono una minoranza di serie B" (PDF).
49. ^ "Chart of signatures and ratifications of Treaty 148". Council of Europe. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
50. ^ What is a regional or minority language?, Council of Europe, retrieved 17 October 2015
51. ^ a b c Statut spécial de la Vallée d'Aoste, Title VIe, Region Vallée d'Aoste, retrieved 17 October 2015
52. ^ "Conseil de la Vallée - Loi régionale 1er août 2005, n. 18 - Texte en vigueur". Retrieved 25 April 2020
53. ^ Puglia, QUIregione - Il Sito web Istituzionale della Regione. "QUIregione - Il Sito web Istituzionale della Regione Puglia". QUIregione - Il Sito web Istituzionale della Regione Puglia. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
54. ^ "Una lingua, un'identità: alla scoperta del griko salentino" (in Italian). 25 May 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
55. ^ Reg. Gen. nn. 159/I 198/I, Norme per lo Studio, la Tutela, la Valorizzazione della Lingua. Napoletana, dei Dialetti e delle Tradizioni Popolari in. Campania (PDF), Consiglio Regionale della Campania, retrieved 17 October 2015
56. ^ Norme per la tutela, valorizzazione e promozione della lingua friulana, Regione Autonoma Friuli-Venezia Giulia, retrieved 17 October 2015
57. ^ Norme regionali per la tutela della minoranza linguistica slovena, Regione Autonoma Friuli-Venezia Giulia, retrieved 17 October 2015
58. ^ Norme di tutela e promozione delle minoranze di lingua tedesca del Friuli Venezia Giulia, Regione Autonoma Friuli-Venezia Giulia, retrieved 24 July 2024
59. ^ "L.R. 25/2016 - 1. Ai fini della presente legge, la Regione promuove la rivitalizzazione, la valorizzazione e la diffusione di tutte le varietà locali della lingua lombarda, in quanto significative espressioni del patrimonio culturale immateriale, attraverso: a) lo svolgimento di attività e incontri finalizzati a diffonderne la conoscenza e l'uso; b) la creazione artistica; c) la diffusione di libri e pubblicazioni, l'organizzazione di specifiche sezioni nelle biblioteche pubbliche di enti locali o di interesse locale; d) programmi editoriali e radiotelevisivi; e) indagini e ricerche sui toponimi. 2. La Regione valorizza e promuove tutte le forme di espressione artistica del patrimonio storico linguistico quali il teatro tradizionale e moderno in lingua lombarda, la musica popolare lombarda, il teatro di marionette e burattini, la poesia, la prosa letteraria e il cinema. 3. La Regione promuove, anche in collaborazione con le università della Lombardia, gli istituti di ricerca, gli enti del sistema regionale e altri qualificati soggetti culturali pubblici e privati, la ricerca scientifica sul patrimonio linguistico storico della Lombardia, incentivando in particolare: a) tutte le attività necessarie a favorire la diffusione della lingua lombarda nella comunicazione contemporanea, anche attraverso l'inserimento di neologismi lessicali, l'armonizzazione e la codifica di un sistema di trascrizione; b) l'attività di archiviazione e digitalizzazione; c) la realizzazione, anche mediante concorsi e borse di studio, di opere e testi letterari, tecnici e scientifici, nonché la traduzione di testi in lingua lombarda e la loro diffusione in formato digitale."
60. ^ Ordine del Giorno n. 1118, Presentato il 30/11/1999, Consiglio Regionale del Piemonte, retrieved 17 October 2015
61. ^ Ordine del Giorno n. 1118, Presentato il 30/11/1999 (PDF), Gioventura Piemontèisa, retrieved 17 October 2015
62. ^ Legge regionale 7 aprile 2009, n. 11. (Testo coordinato) "Valorizzazione e promozione della conoscenza del patrimonio linguistico e culturale del Piemonte", Consilio Regionale del Piemonte, retrieved 2 December 2017
63. ^ a b c "Legge Regionale 15 ottobre 1997, n. 26". Regione autonoma della Sardegna – Regione Autònoma de Sardigna.
64. ^ "Legge Regionale 3 Luglio 2018, n. 22". Regione autonoma della Sardegna – Regione Autònoma de Sardigna.
65. ^ Gazzetta Ufficiale della Regione Siciliana - Anno 65° - Numero 24
66. ^ a b Statuto speciale per il Trentino-Alto Adige (PDF), Regione.taa.it, archived from the original (PDF) on 26 November 2018, retrieved 17 October 2015
67. ^ Legge regionale 13 aprile 2007, n. 8, Consiglio Regionale del Veneto, retrieved 17 October 2015
68. ^ ISTAT Report "Use of Italian language, dialects, and foreign languages" (English version), ISTAT, 2017, retrieved 18 November 2020 ; "L'uso della lingua italiana, dei dialetti e di altre lingue in Italia (Italian version)". ISTAT. 2017.
69. ^ a b c d e Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, UNESCO's Endangered Languages Programme, retrieved 17 October 2015
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71. ^ "La straordinaria rinascita dello Yiddish. Chi lo studia, chi lo parla e chi si nutre delle sue radici (anche italiane)" (in Italian). 4 July 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
72. ^ "Endangered languages in Europe: report". Helsinki.fi. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
73. ^ Loporcaro 2009
74. ^ Pellegrini 1977
75. ^ Note that Loporcaro uses the term dialetto 'dialect' throughout the book, intended as 'non-national language'. Since dialect has a different connotation in English, we avoid it here.
76. ^ Note that Maiden & Parry 1997:273 separates Emilian and Romagnol, with Bolognese characterized as transitional between the two.
77. ^ Maiden & Parry 1997
78. ^ "Albanians in Italy". Minority Rights Group International.
79. ^ Hull, Geoffrey, PhD thesis 1982 (University of Sydney), published as The Linguistic Unity of Northern Italy and Rhaetia: Historical Grammar of the Padanian Language. 2 vols. Sydney: Beta Crucis, 2017.
80. ^ "Linguistic diversity among foreign citizens in Italy". Statistics of Italy. 25 July 2023. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
81. ^ "Stranieri residenti e condizioni di vita : Lingua madre". Istat.it. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
82. ^ Andreose, Alvise; Renzi, Lorenzo (2013), "Geography and distribution of the Romance Languages in Europe", in Maiden, Martin; Smith, John Charles; Ledgeway, Adam (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages, vol. 2, Contexts, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 303
83. ^ Grafîa ofiçiâ, Académia Ligùstica do Brénno, retrieved 17 October 2015
84. ^ Limba sarda comuna, Sardegna Cultura, retrieved 17 October 2015
85. ^ Grafie dal O.L.F., Friûl.net, retrieved 17 October 2015
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88. ^ "Grafia Veneta ufficiale – Lingua Veneta The modern international manual of the Venetian spelling". Lingua Veneta. Retrieved 20 June 2019.

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Cravens, Thomas D. (2014). "Italia Linguistica and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages". Forum Italicum. 48 (2): 202–218. doi:10.1177/0014585814529221. S2CID 145721889.
* Loporcaro, Michele (2009). Profilo linguistico dei dialetti italiani (in Italian). Bari: Laterza.
* Maiden, Martin; Parry, Mair (1997). The dialects of Italy. London New York: Routledge.
* Marcato, Carla (2007). Dialetto, dialetti e italiano (in Italian). Bologna: Il Mulino.
* Posner, Rebecca (1996). The Romance languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Pellegrini, Giovan Battista (1977). Carta dei dialetti d'Italia (in Italian). Pisa: Pacini.
* Repetti, Lori, ed. (2000). Phonological theory and the dialects of Italy. Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, Series IV Current Issues in Linguistic Theory. Vol. 212\. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing.

## External links

[edit]

* NavigAIS Archived 11 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine Online version of the Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz (AIS) (Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland)
* An interactive map of languages and dialects in Italy
* Ethnologue - Languages of Italy
* Rivista Etnie, linguistica

* v
* t
* e

Languages of Italy

Historical linguistic minorities: Albanian, Catalan, Croatian, French, Franco-Provençal, Friulian, Germanic, Greek, Ladin, Occitan, Romani, Sardinian, Slovene, Wenzhounese

| Italo-Romance|

| Italian|

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|

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|

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Others|

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1. ^ Venetian is either grouped with the rest of the Italo-Dalmatian or the Gallo-Italic languages, depending on the linguist.

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* Genoa
* Pisa
* Amalfi
* Kingdom of Sardinia
* Grand Duchy of Tuscany
* Duchy of Savoy
* Renaissance
* Italian Wars
* Early Modern period
* Napoleonic Italy
* Austrian occupation and Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia
* Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

Late modern|

* Unification
* First War of Independence
* Second War of Independence
* Niçard exodus
* Expedition of the Thousand
* Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy
* Third War of Independence
* Capture of Rome
* Monarchy and the World Wars
* Kingdom of Italy
* Colonial Empire
* World War I
* Fourth War of Independence
* Fascist Italy
* World War II
* Fall of the Fascist regime
* Resistance and Social Republic
* Civil War

Contemporary|

* Republic
* Institutional referendum
* Istrian–Dalmatian exodus
* Economic Boom
* Years of Lead
* Maxi Trial
* Mani pulite
* Coronavirus pandemic

Geography|

* Italian geographical region
* Peninsula
* Climate
* Climate change
* Geology
* Fauna
* Flora
* Mountains
* Prealps
* Alps
* Apennines
* Volcanism
* Volcanoes
* Beaches
* Canals
* Caves
* Earthquakes
* Islands
* Lakes
* Marine protected areas
* National parks
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* Rivers
* Valleys

Politics|

* Constitution
* Elections
* Foreign relations
* Government
* Human rights
* LGBT rights
* Judiciary
* Law
* Law enforcement
* Military
* Nationality
* Parliament
* Political parties
* President (List)
* Prime Minister (List)
* Council of Ministers
* Regions
* Provinces
* Metropolitan cities
* Cities
* Comune
* Municipalities
* Security and intelligence

Economy|

* Economy
* Italian regions by GDP
* Agriculture
* Automotive industry
* Banking
* Banks
* Central Bank
* Brands
* Companies
* Energy
* Exports
* Science and technology
* Southern question
* Stock exchange
* Taxation
* Telecommunications
* Tourism
* Trade unions
* Transport
* air
* rail
* road
* Welfare
* Wine

Society|

* Aristocracy
* Censorship
* Corruption
* Crime
* Demographics
* Education
* Emigration and diaspora
* Gambling
* Health
* Healthcare
* Immigration
* Inventions and discoveries
* Italians
* People
* Languages
* Italian
* Regional
* Life expectancy
* Orders, decorations, and medals
* Poverty
* Prostitution
* Public administration
* Racism
* Religion
* Social class
* Terrorism
* Water supply and sanitation
* Women

Culture|

* Duecento
* Trecento
* Quattrocento
* Cinquecento
* Seicento
* Settecento
* Ottocento
* Anthem
* Architecture
* Art
* Castles
* Cathedrals
* Cinema
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* Cuisine
* Design
* Fashion
* Flag
* Folklore
* Gardens
* Internet
* Italophilia
* Libraries
* Literature
* Media
* Museums
* Music
* Mythology
* National symbols
* Palaces
* Philosophy
* Public holidays
* Sport
* Television
* Theatre
* Traditions
* World Heritage Sites

* Italy portal
* Category

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Languages of Europe

Sovereign states|

* Albania
* Andorra
* Armenia
* Austria
* Azerbaijan
* Belarus
* Belgium
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Bulgaria
* Croatia
* Cyprus
* Czech Republic
* Denmark
* Estonia
* Finland
* France
* Georgia
* Germany
* Greece
* Hungary
* Iceland
* Ireland
*   * Italy
* Kazakhstan
* Latvia
* Liechtenstein
* Lithuania
* Luxembourg
* Malta
* Moldova
* Monaco
* Montenegro
* Netherlands
* North Macedonia
* Norway
* Poland
* Portugal
* Romania
* Russia
* San Marino
* Serbia
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Turkey
* Ukraine
* United Kingdom
* England
* Northern Ireland
* Scotland
* Wales
* Vatican City

States with limited
recognition|

* Abkhazia
* Kosovo
* Northern Cyprus
* South Ossetia
* Transnistria

Dependencies and
other entities|

* Åland
* Faroe Islands
* Gibraltar
* Guernsey
* Isle of Man
* Jersey
* Svalbard

Other entities|

* European Union
* Sovereign Military Order of Malta

* v
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Minority languages of Europe

European
Union|

* Austria
* Belgium
* Bulgaria
* Croatia
* Cyprus
* Czech Republic
* Denmark
* Estonia
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Greece
* Hungary
* Ireland
* Italy
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Luxembourg
* Malta
* Netherlands
* Poland
* Portugal
* Romania
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* Spain
* Sweden

Other
European states|

* Albania
* Andorra
* Armenia
* Azerbaijan
* Belarus
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Georgia
* Iceland
* Kazakhstan
* Liechtenstein
* Moldova
* Monaco
* Montenegro
* North Macedonia
* Norway
* Russia
* San Marino
* Serbia
* Switzerland
* Turkey
* Ukraine
* United Kingdom
* Vatican City

States with limited
recognition|

* Abkhazia
* Kosovo
* Nagorno-Karabakh
* Northern Cyprus
* Transnistria
* South Ossetia

Dependencies and
other territories|

* Akrotiri and Dhekelia
* Åland
* Faroe Islands
* Gibraltar
* Guernsey
* Isle of Man
* Jersey
* Svalbard

* Languages of Europe
* European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
* Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
* European Day of Languages
* Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights

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