Italian

Dialects: Abruzzese, Central Marchigiano, Cicolano-Reatino-Aquilano, Laziale, Molisano, Pugliese, Tuscan, Umbrian. Regional varieties coexist with the standard language; some are inherently unintelligible. Aquilano, Molisano, and Pugliese are very different from other Italian varieties. Piemontese , and Sicilian , are distinct enough to be separate languages (1982 F. Agard). Venetian , and Lombard , are also very different (1981 P. Cousson). The Napoletano dialect of Napoletano-Calabrese , is reportedly unintelligible to standard Italian. Northern varieties are more similar to French and Occitan , than to standard or southern varieties (1982 F. Agard; Vincent 1987). Lexical similarity: 89% with French ,, 87% with Catalan ,, 85% with Sardinian ,, 82% with Spanish ,, 78% with Ladin ,, 77% with Romanian ,.

Demographics: 57,700,000 in Italy (ELDIA 2012). Population total all countries: 63,655,047.

Language Use: 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 3% of Italy’s population could speak standard Italian when the nation unified in 1861. 16,670,000 also use English [eng]. 8,050,000 also use French [fra].

Language Development: Fully developed. Bible: 1471–1985.

Typology: SVO.

Spoken In: Switzerland, Italy, San Marino, Somalia, Vatican State

Writing System: Braille, Latin

Nation of Origin: Italy, Monaco