From
sauntering at the Piazza Saint Marco in Venice to wine tasting at the hill town
of San Gimignano, there are perhaps thousands of fun pastime itineraries for
both tourists and locals alike to indulge in Italy. The Italian culture, which
revolves a whole lot around art, music, and food, all depend on its fascinating
language (Italiano) as a medium to
express and convey these cultural elements. But how well do we know about this
expressive language?

This
post attempts to illuminate readers about the many fascinating facts of this
beautiful language for interest groups that seek to harness the potentials
laden in this region.

A brief overview of the Italian
language

Italiano
origin dates back to a few thousand years ago, belonging to the Romance
language family — a group of languages that stems from the now-defunct Vulgar
Latin. It is one of the most-spoken languages worldwide with well over 60
million native speakers and also one of the official languages of Italy,
Switzerland, San Marino, and Vatican City. 

Besides
being an official and co-official language for several nations, a number of
international organizations such as the United Nations and NATO use the
language on an official basis. It is also worth noting that another 4-5 million
people speak Italian as a second or foreign language.

Fascinating facts about Italiano

1. Italian exists in several forms and dialects

Besides the
standard Italian, which although, originated from Florence, and has undergone
some modifications to what we have today, there are many other dialects of
Italian that are common in specific geographical regions in Italy. Some of the
most common Italian dialects include; Tuscan, Sicilian, Neapolitan, Apulian,
Sardinian, Ligurian, and Venetian. Some of these dialects are even recognized
by international organizations as real languages.

1. The language only has 21 alphabets

 Unlike the English
language that consists of 26 alphabets, Italiano has only 21 alphabets
consisting of 5 vowels and 16 consonants. Although, five additional consonants
which were not originally in its vocabulary were also imported from other
foreign languages.

Visually,
the Italian alphabets bear striking similarities to their English counterparts,
but in reality, there are significant disparities in the way they sound.

1. Italiano was shaped by a Poet

Dante
Alighieri. Does that name ring a bell?

If
it does, it is because that was the author of the famous poem’ The Divine
Comedy (Divinia Commedia). Dante’s
form of writing and language, which took after the Tuscan dialect of Florence,
the city where he was born, gained widespread readership across Italy and thus
ushered in a significant level of mass adoption. Today, Dante Alighieri is
often called the Father of the Italian language.

1. The official language of music

Although
just a street saying, Italiano is often referred to as the language that sings
by some, or the language of music by
others. And this is due to the influence many Italians have exerted on
classical music. Today, many musical terms, notations, and instruments have
Italian origins.

Some
also say that the language sounds similar to a singing person since most
Italian words end with a vowel.

Fun Fact: Did you know that the word Piano comes from the Italian word
Pianoforte?

1. Influences on other languages

Like
with many other languages we have touched on in the past, Italian has also left
its mark on many of the world’s languages, with English being a prime example.
Words like influenza, casino, final, spaghetti, magenta, etc., all originate
from Italian diction.

And
the reverse is also the case. Several loan words from foreign languages have
also made their way into the Italian vocabulary.

1. America came from Italiano

The
name America does not come from its
founding fathers or even the natives as one might speculate. Interestingly, the
name’ America, came from the Latin version of Amerigo (full name: Amerigo
Vespucci), an explorer from Florence, Italy. He was the initial person to
recognize that both North and South America were two distinct continents.

1. The language also contains untranslatables

Words without a direct
translation are becoming more prominent in several languages, and Italiano
is no different. Words like; Mamma mia, Baffona, Pantofolaio, and many others,
all have no equivalent translation to other languages, especially the English
language.

There
you have it! Italiano originates from a civilization that greatly influenced
the modern era, from art to science and even the global cuisine. But most
importantly, it is a language infused with the local culture, making it require
careful navigation for foreign entities who seek to dominate in the region.

Gaining
success in Italy and among Italian speakers involves overcoming the language
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