One of the main characteristics tnat is above all amazing for foreigners that visit or live in Italy is the awful lot of dialects currently spoken here.
Of course, there’s a standard language, Italian, that’s spoken and understood everywhere (or almost everywhere, to be completely honest).
Standard Italian directly derives from Tuscan or, better, from Dante’s Inferno (La Divina Commedia/The Divine Comedy in Italian). The present Tuscan is the dialect that most of all is similar to Italian. My dear Tuscan followers, I know that now you are preparing to stab me (and most of all the Sienese Tumblers, because they say its language is the purest Tuscan, and as a consequence the purest Italian of all, but you know this claim isn’t entirely true).
Anyway, Italian dialects are so different from each other than an average Southern Italian can’t understand at all a Northern one, if he speaks its own dialect, even if they all are clearly Romance languages. They are different from each other not only for their accents, but for grammar, words, sayings, and so on.
Also, there are some linguistic islands, mainly in Southern Italy, where the locals speak a sort of ancient Greek (Apulia and Calabria), Albanian (Central and Southern Italy), Catalan (North-West of Sardinia), some Medieval German dialects (Piedmont, Veneto, and Trentino), a French dialect (Patois), in Val d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste, and so on.
Another issue is the South Tyrol (
Alto Adige / Südtirol), just south of Austria, that ruled that area until 1918 (end of World War One), when it was annexed to Italy. Most of its population is currently German speakers, with a significant proportion of Italian speakers, immigrated after the annexion, and a minoriy of Ladin speakers (another Neolatin language).
Is it difficult to understand? I know, it’s difficult also for us Italians. But no fear, standard Italian is spoken everywhere, and
There is a strong trend towards the use of
English, as international language.
