The Altamura Man is a fossil of the genus Homo discovered in 1993 in a karst sinkhole in the Lamalunga Cave near the city of Altamura , Italy. Remarkably well preserved but covered in a thick layer of calcite taking the shape of cave popcorn the find was left in situ in order to avoid damage. Research during the following twenty years was based mainly on the documented on-site observations. Consequently, experts remained reluctant to agree on a conclusive age nor was there consensus on the species it belonged to.
115-616: Apulia ( / ə ˈ p uː l i ə / ə- POO -lee-ə ), also known by its Italian name Puglia ( Italian: [ˈpuʎʎa] ), is a region of Italy , located in the southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Otranto and Ionian Sea to the southeast and the Gulf of Taranto to the south. The region comprises 19,345 square kilometers (7,469 sq mi), and its population
230-689: A local language of Italy , most frequently the language spoken at home in their place of origin. Italian is a major language in Europe, being one of the official languages of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and one of the working languages of the Council of Europe . It is the third-most-widely spoken native language in the European Union (13% of the EU population) and it
345-497: A 2018 Gold Medal New York International Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC) winner, Frantoio , Garganica , La Minuta , Leccino , Moresca , Nocellara Etnea , Nocellara Messinese , Ogliarola , Ogliarola Barese , Ogliara Messinese , Ottobratica , Peranzana , Rotondella , Santagatese , Saracena , Tonda Iblea , and Verdello (subspecies of San Benedetto). Since 2008–2010, the olive oil industry in Apulia has been under threat from
460-480: A deposition age varying between 45,000 and 17,000 BP, with the majority of remains varying between 45,000 and 30,000 years ago. Accumulation of cave deposits were found to begin around 170,000 years ago and ended 17,000 years ago. Researchers associated with the University of Bari have carried out laser scans of the find, obtaining numerical maps, models and three-dimensional videos of the fossil. Results of
575-565: A huge number of civil servants and soldiers recruited from all over the country introduced many more words and idioms from their home languages— ciao is derived from the Venetian word s-cia[v]o ("slave", that is "your servant"), panettone comes from the Lombard word panetton , etc. Only 2.5% of Italy's population could speak the Italian standardized language properly when
690-471: A little over one million people in the United States speak Italian at home. Nevertheless, an Italian language media market does exist in the country. In Canada, Italian is the second most spoken non-official language when varieties of Chinese are not grouped together, with 375,645 claiming Italian as their mother tongue in 2016. Italian immigrants to South America have also brought a presence of
805-658: A poetic and literary origin in the works of Tuscan writers of the 12th century, and, although the grammar and core lexicon are basically unchanged from those used in Florence in the 13th century, the modern standard of the language was largely shaped by relatively recent events. However, Romance vernacular as language spoken in the Italian Peninsula has a longer history. In fact, the earliest surviving texts that can definitely be called vernacular (as distinct from its predecessor Vulgar Latin) are legal formulae known as
920-494: A preliminary paleogenetic characterization. In a 2015 paper published in the Journal of Human Evolution , it was announced that the fossil was a Neanderthal , and dating of the calcite has revealed that the bones are between 128,000 and 187,000 years old. Altamura Man is one of the most complete Paleolithic skeletons ever to be discovered in Europe as "even the bones inside the nose are still there"; as of 2016, it represents
1035-417: A renewed interest in linguistics in the 16th century, sparked a debate that raged throughout Italy concerning the criteria that should govern the establishment of a modern Italian literary and spoken language. This discussion, known as questione della lingua (i.e., the problem of the language ), ran through the Italian culture until the end of the 19th century, often linked to the political debate on achieving
1150-522: A result. Starting in late medieval times in much of Europe and the Mediterranean, Latin was replaced as the primary commercial language by languages of Italy, especially Tuscan and Venetian. These varieties were consolidated during the Renaissance with the strength of Italy and the rise of humanism and the arts . Italy came to enjoy increasing artistic prestige within Europe. A mark of
1265-467: A seven-vowel system, consisting of /a, ɛ, e, i, ɔ, o, u/ , as well as 23 consonants. Compared with most other Romance languages, Italian phonology is conservative, preserving many words nearly unchanged from Vulgar Latin . Some examples: Altamura Man Only after a fragment of the right scapula (shoulder blade) was retrieved was it possible to produce an accurate dating of the individual, an analysis and diagnostic of its morphological features, and
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#17327901382331380-479: A single language is that they have evolved so that they are no longer mutually intelligible ; this diagnostic is effective if mutual intelligibility is minimal or absent (e.g. in Romance, Romanian and Portuguese), but it fails in cases such as Spanish-Portuguese or Spanish-Italian, as educated native speakers of either pairing can understand each other well if they choose to do so; however, the level of intelligibility
1495-601: A sort of morphological bridge between the previous human species such as Homo heidelbergensis and the Neanderthals". Chronological studies on twenty faunal remains retrieved from the Cave of Lamalunga based on Uranium-thorium dating by Maria Elisabetta Branca and Mario Voltaggio of IGAG (Institute of Environmental Geology and Geoengineering) and CNR (Italian National Research Council) in Rome and published in 2010 show
1610-485: A study of the DNA sample taken from the scapula determined that it belongs to the genetic variability of the "Neanderthal of Southern Europe". Between 1998 and 2000, the "Sarastro" project was carried out by Digamma Research Consortium, using integrated tele-operated systems that allowed remote access and observation of the site. More recent research analysis that began in 2009 and based on Uranium-thorium dating revealed that
1725-532: A tunnel about 60 m (200 ft) long in which they found the Altamura Man incorporated into the calcium carbonate concretions that had formed by water dribbling down the cave walls. The finding was reported to researchers at the University of Bari . The fossilized skull of a 35-year-old adult male displays the anthropological features of the hypodigm of Homo neanderthalensis who lived during
1840-466: A type of bread. Typically Apulian pasta shapes are orecchiette , cavatelli , and troccoli . Popular street foods include panzerotti , sgagliozze (fried polenta ), popizze (small fried balls of pizza dough that are sometimes also called pettule), rustici (puff pastries stuffed with tomatoes, béchamel sauce, mozzarella, and black pepper), the famous pasticiotto (a flaky shortbread dough filled with custard), and focaccia barese. A popular snack in Apulia
1955-513: A united Italian state. Renaissance scholars divided into three main factions: A fourth faction claimed that the best Italian was the one that the papal court adopted, which was a mixture of the Tuscan and Roman dialects. Eventually, Bembo's ideas prevailed, and the foundation of the Accademia della Crusca in Florence (1582–1583), the official legislative body of the Italian language, led to
2070-465: Is Taralli . As with the other regions of Italy, the national language (since 1861) is Italian. However, because of its long and varied history, other historical languages have been used in this region for centuries. The local languages of northern and central Apulia (roughly the provinces of Bari , Barletta-Andria-Trani , and Foggia as well as the northwestern parts of the Province of Taranto ) are
2185-740: Is 1st place among Italian grape-growing regions. But in the production of quality DOC and DOCG wines, Apulia has only ranked 12th of 20 with 297.667 hl. There are four DOCG wines: There are an estimated 50 to 60 million olive trees in Apulia, and the region accounts for 40% of Italy's olive oil production. There are four specific Protected designations of Origin (PDO) covering the whole region. Olive varieties include: Baresane , Biancolilla , Brandofino (Castiglione), Buscionetto ( Biancolilla ), Carolea , Cellina di Nardò , Cerasuola (Ogliara), Cerignola ( Bella di Cerignola ), Cima di Bitonto , Cima di Mola , Coratina , also grown in Corning, California,
2300-427: Is 89% with French, 87% with Catalan , 85% with Sardinian , 82% with Spanish, 80% with Portuguese , 78% with Ladin , 77% with Romanian . Estimates may differ according to sources. One study, analyzing the degree of differentiation of Romance languages in comparison to Latin (comparing phonology , inflection , discourse , syntax , vocabulary , and intonation ), estimated that distance between Italian and Latin
2415-474: Is about four million people. It is bordered by the other Italian regions of Molise to the north, Campania to the west, and Basilicata to the southwest. The regional capital is Bari . In ancient times, more precisely at the beginning of the first millennium BC, the region of Apulia was inhabited by the Iapygians , while during the 8th century BC its coastal areas were populated by ancient Greeks . Later,
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#17327901382332530-759: Is also spoken by a minority in Monaco and France, especially in the southeastern part of the country. Italian was the official language in Savoy and in Nice until 1860, when they were both annexed by France under the Treaty of Turin , a development that triggered the " Niçard exodus ", or the emigration of a quarter of the Niçard Italians to Italy, and the Niçard Vespers . Giuseppe Garibaldi complained about
2645-690: Is also spoken by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia . Italian is included under the languages covered by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Romania , although Italian is neither a co-official nor a protected language in these countries. Some speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian (either in its standard form or regional varieties ) and
2760-534: Is higher than that between Sardinian and Latin. In particular, its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian . As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive. Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino and is spoken fluently by the majority of the countries' populations. Italian is the third most spoken language in Switzerland (after German and French; see Swiss Italian ), although its use there has moderately declined since
2875-692: Is located in Taranto . The unemployment rate stood at 14.1% in 2020. The port of Taranto hosts numerous fishing boats. The fleet is mainly made up of about 80 fishing boats, which do not exceed 10 gross tonnage and which practice trawling, while the remaining small-scale fishing boats operate with gillnets. The sea, rich and generous, is populated by dentex , sea bream , glit-head bream , grouper , redfish , mullet , mussels , sea urchin , anchovies , shrimp and squid . Other significant fishing ports are Manfredonia , Trani , Molfetta , Mola di Bari , Monopoli , Castro , and Gallipoli . Today Taranto
2990-548: Is mainly intensive and modern agriculture that allows the region to be among the first in Italy for the production of many products: Vegetable growing ( lettuce , artichoke , fennel , cabbage , celery , barattiere , borage , sweet potato , caper , portulaca , broccoli rabe ) and horticulture ( peach , orange , clementine , lemon , kumquat , fig , pomegranate , persimmon , prickly pear ) are also developed. Vineyards cover 106.715 ha (263.70 acres) in Apulia, which
3105-460: Is markedly lower between Italian-Spanish, and considerably higher between the Iberian sister languages of Portuguese-Spanish. Speakers of this latter pair can communicate with one another with remarkable ease, each speaking to the other in his own native language without slang/jargon. Nevertheless, on the basis of accumulated differences in morphology, syntax, phonology, and to some extent lexicon, it
3220-410: Is not difficult to identify that for the Romance varieties of Italy, the first extant written evidence of languages that can no longer be considered Latin comes from the ninth and tenth centuries C.E. These written sources demonstrate certain vernacular characteristics and sometimes explicitly mention the use of the vernacular in Italy. Full literary manifestations of the vernacular began to surface around
3335-594: Is spoken as a second language by 13.4 million EU citizens (3%). Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland, Albania and the United Kingdom ) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is approximately 85 million. Italian is the main working language of the Holy See , serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as
3450-495: Is the largest metallurgical work ILVA Acciaierie di Taranto (8,200 empl.) in Europe with a full iron and steel production cycle. It will be sold to Arcelor Mittal . In Brindisi , there is a chemical industrial park with an ENI power station, ENI oil refinery, Syndial chemical factory, and Versalis chemical factory (basic chemistry, intermediates, polyethene, styrenics and elastomers). LyondellBasell polypropylene plant, Sanofi plant (antibiotics). Another ENI oil refinery
3565-474: Is the world's largest producer of farmed mussels : with 1,300 employees, around 30,000 tons of mussels are processed per year. Mussel farming has characterized the city's economy for centuries, making the mussel the gastronomic symbol of Taranto. It is said that the first mussel gardens in La Spezia , Pula , Olbia and Chioggia were established by mussel farmers who emigrated from this city. The workplace of
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3680-549: Is used, and the town of Chipilo near Puebla, Mexico; each continues to use a derived form of Venetian dating back to the 19th century. Other examples are Cocoliche , an Italian–Spanish pidgin once spoken in Argentina and especially in Buenos Aires , and Lunfardo . The Rioplatense Spanish dialect of Argentina and Uruguay today has thus been heavily influenced by both standard Italian and Italian regional languages as
3795-509: The Il Globo (Australia) and the La gazzetta del Sud Africa (South Africa). Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world, but rarely as the first foreign language. In the 21st century, technology also allows for the continual spread of the Italian language, as people have new ways to learn how to speak, read, and write languages at their own pace and at any given time. For example,
3910-991: The La Voce del Popolo ( Croatia ), the Corriere d'Italia (Germany), the L'italoeuropeo (United Kingdom), the Passaparola ( Luxembourg ), the America Oggi (United States), the Corriere Canadese and the Corriere Italiano (Canada), the Il punto d'incontro (Mexico), the L'Italia del Popolo ( Argentina ), the Fanfulla (Brazil), the Gente d'Italia ( Uruguay ), the La Voce d'Italia ( Venezuela ),
4025-559: The A14 highway ( Bologna – Taranto ), which connects the region's capital, Bari , to Taranto , the second most populous city in the region. The A14 also connects Foggia and points further north along the Adriatic coast to Pescara , Ancona , Rimini and eventually Bologna . The only other highway in the region is the A16 (Naples–Canosa), which crosses the Italian peninsula east–west and links
4140-714: The Appian Way and, in the imperial era, of the Via Traiana along which cities such as Troia , Ordona , Gravina , Canosa , Ruvo and Bitonto prospered. The region occupied leading positions in the production of grain and oil, becoming the largest exporter of olive oil in the East. At the Fall of the Western Roman Empire , Apulia also went through a long period of suffering. Heruli and Ostrogoths invaded
4255-568: The Barletta province, and wood and furniture in the Murge area to the west. Between 2007 and 2013 the economy of Apulia expanded more than that of the rest of southern Italy. Such growth, over several decades, is a severe challenge to the hydrogeological system. Apulia's thriving economy is articulated into numerous sectors boasting several leading companies, but most of them produce materials or components, not finished goods: In Taranto , there
4370-628: The Democratic Party has served as President of the Apulian region. Apulia is divided into six provinces: Important locally produced ingredients include olive oil, artichokes, tomatoes, eggplant, asparagus, and various kinds of seafood. Local specialties include the carosello , a variety of muskmelon which is often consumed when unripe. Apulian Protected designation of origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical indication (PGI) products included cheeses, olive oils, fruits and vegetables, and
4485-607: The Franco-Provençal language called Faetar is spoken in the mountain villages of Faeto and Celle di San Vito , in the Province of Foggia . It is sometimes classified as a pair of dialects of Franco-Provençal, Faetar and Cellese. The Arbëreshë dialect of the Albanian language has been spoken by a small community since refugees settled there in the 16th century. Apulia is home to several national football, water polo , volleyball, basketball and tennis clubs. Across
4600-702: The Gallo-Italic linguistic panorama of Northern Italy , the Italo-Dalmatian , Neapolitan and its related dialects were largely unaffected by the Franco- Occitan influences introduced to Italy mainly by bards from France during the Middle Ages, but after the Norman conquest of southern Italy , Sicily became the first Italian land to adopt Occitan lyric moods (and words) in poetry. Even in
4715-776: The Gargano promontory extends out into the Adriatic sea like a "sperone" ("spur"), while in the south, the Salento peninsula forms the "tacco" ("heel") of Italy 's boot. The highest peak in the region is Monte Cornacchia 1,152 m (3,780 ft) above sea level) within the Daunian Mountains , in the north along the Apennines . It is home to two national parks, the Alta Murgia National Park and Gargano National Park . Outside national parks in
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4830-674: The Kingdom of Italy in the Dodecanese ). Italian is widely spoken in Malta , where nearly two-thirds of the population can speak it fluently (see Maltese Italian ). Italian served as Malta's official language until 1934, when it was abolished by the British colonial administration amid strong local opposition. Italian language in Slovenia is an officially recognized minority language in
4945-773: The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia ), although the masses kept speaking primarily their local vernaculars. Italian was also one of the many recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire . Italy has always had a distinctive dialect for each city because the cities, until recently, were thought of as city-states . Those dialects now have considerable variety . As Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian . The most characteristic differences, for instance, between Roman Italian and Milanese Italian are syntactic gemination of initial consonants in some contexts and
5060-1033: The Middle Ages , the established written language in Europe was Latin, although the great majority of people were illiterate, and only few were well versed in the language. In the Italian Peninsula , as in most of Europe, most would instead speak a local vernacular. These dialects, as they are commonly referred to, evolved from Vulgar Latin over the course of centuries, unaffected by formal standards and teachings. They are not in any sense "dialects" of standard Italian, which itself started off as one of these local tongues, but sister languages of Italian. Mutual intelligibility with Italian varies widely, as it does with Romance languages in general. The Romance languages of Italy can differ greatly from Italian at all levels ( phonology , morphology , syntax , lexicon , pragmatics ) and are classified typologically as distinct languages. The standard Italian language has
5175-574: The Napoleonic era , provided the modernization of Apulia with the abolition of feudalism and judicial reforms until the return of the Bourbons and the birth of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies . Liberal movements were formed throughout the region in 1820 with the spread of Freemasonry and Carbonari . With the Kingdom of Italy established in 1861, Apulia was administratively divided into
5290-554: The Placiti Cassinesi from the province of Benevento that date from 960 to 963, although the Veronese Riddle , probably from the 8th or early 9th century, contains a late form of Vulgar Latin that can be seen as a very early sample of a vernacular dialect of Italy. The Commodilla catacomb inscription is also a similar case. The Italian language has progressed through a long and slow process, which started after
5405-401: The Principality of Taranto , which extended across the entire Terra di Otranto . In 1043 the Normans founded the county of Apulia which in 1059 merged into the vast County of Apulia and Calabria , whose borders progressively extended up to in Principality of Salerno . From 1130 it became part of the Kingdom of Sicily . In the 13th century the name Apulia was used by some authors to indicate
5520-442: The Sahara Desert . On some days in spring and autumn/fall, it can be warm enough to swim in Gallipoli and Porto Cesareo on the Ionian coast while at the same time, cool winds warrant jackets and jumpers/sweaters in Monopoli and Otranto on the Adriatic coast. The area between Otranto and Santa Maria di Leuca is part of the Regional Natural Coastal Park of "Costa Otranto — Santa Maria di Leuca e Bosco di Tricase " wanted by
5635-415: The Salento Peninsula was known as Calabria in that period), but the occupation of the region, in the third century BC, was not easy, especially for the resistance of Tarentum and Brundisium. In 216 BC in Cannae the Roman army suffered its worst defeat against Hannibal 's Carthage . The Roman Province of Apulia and Calabria was then established, which also included Irpinia . With the construction of
5750-406: The Western Roman Empire's fall in the 5th century. The language that came to be thought of as Italian developed in central Tuscany and was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri , written in his native Florentine . Dante's epic poems, known collectively as the Commedia , to which another Tuscan poet Giovanni Boccaccio later affixed
5865-406: The 111 Italian lecturer sections belonging to foreign schools where Italian is taught as a language of culture. As of 2022, Australia had the highest number of students learning Italian in the world. This occurred because of support by the Italian community in Australia and the Italian Government and also because of successful educational reform efforts led by local governments in Australia. From
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#17327901382335980-458: The 13th century in the form of various religious texts and poetry. Although these are the first written records of Italian varieties separate from Latin, the spoken language had probably diverged long before the first written records appeared since those who were literate generally wrote in Latin even if they spoke other Romance varieties in person. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the use of Standard Italian became increasingly widespread and
6095-438: The 1970s. It is official both on the national level and on regional level in two cantons : Ticino and Grisons . In the latter canton, however, it is only spoken by a small minority, in the Italian Grisons . Ticino, which includes Lugano , the largest Italian-speaking city outside Italy, is the only canton where Italian is predominant. Italian is also used in administration and official documents in Vatican City . Italian
6210-443: The Adriatic Sea and in the southern Salento peninsula, are frequently exposed to winds of varying strengths and directions, strongly affecting local temperatures and conditions, sometimes within the same day. The Northerly Bora wind from the Adriatic Sea can lower temperatures, humidity and moderate summer heat while the Southerly Sirocco wind from North Africa can raise temperatures, and humidity and occasionally drop red dust from
6325-412: The Apulia Region in 2008. This territory has numerous natural and historical attractions such as Ciolo , which is a rocky cove. In 2010 the Ministry of Health declared 98.6% of the Apulian coasts suitable for bathing. Human settlement in Apulia dates back to at least 250,000 years ago, as evidenced by the fossil remains of the Altamura Man , an archaic form of Neanderthal . There are numerous finds from
6440-407: The Apulian Southern Italo-Romance dialects, including Bari dialect and Tarantino dialect . In the southern region of Salento , an extreme Southern Italo-Romance language, the Salentino dialect is widely spoken. There is also an Italiot Greek language found in Salento called Griko , which is still spoken by a few thousand Griko people in some areas. In addition, a rare daughter language of
6555-417: The Italian dialects has declined in the modern era , as Italy unified under Standard Italian and continues to do so aided by mass media from newspapers to radio to television, diglossia is still frequently encountered in Italy and triglossia is not uncommon in emigrant communities among older speakers. Both situations normally involve some degree of code-switching and code-mixing . Notes: Italian has
6670-439: The Italian language into a lingua franca used not only among clerks, nobility, and functionaries in the Italian courts but also by the bourgeoisie . Italian literature's first modern novel, I promessi sposi ( The Betrothed ) by Alessandro Manzoni , further defined the standard by "rinsing" his Milanese "in the waters of the Arno " ( Florence 's river), as he states in the preface to his 1840 edition. After unification,
6785-497: The Mediterranean. The increasing political and cultural relevance of Florence during the periods of the rise of the Medici Bank , humanism , and the Renaissance made its dialect, or rather a refined version of it, a standard in the arts. The Renaissance era, known as il Rinascimento in Italian, was seen as a time of rebirth, which is the literal meaning of both renaissance (from French) and rinascimento (Italian). During this time, long-existing beliefs stemming from
6900-406: The Middle-Upper Pleistocene between 170,000 and 130,000 BP. Yet a number of phenetic peculiarities exist, such as the shape of the brow ridges, the relative dimension of the mastoids and the general architecture of the cranial vault, which according to the research team of the Sapienza University of Rome support accepted speciation chronology. "It shows archaic traits, making the Altamura Man
7015-568: The North and West, most of Apulia particularly the Salento peninsula is geographically flat with only moderate hills. The climate is typically Mediterranean with hot, dry and sunny summers and mild and rainy winters. Snowfall, especially on the coast is rare but has occurred as recently as January 2019 (following on from snow in March 2018 and January 2017). Apulia is among the hottest and driest regions of Italy in summer, with temperatures sometimes reaching and exceeding 40 °C (104 °F) in Lecce and Foggia . The coastal areas, particularly on
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#17327901382337130-463: The Taranto mussel farmers is the boat; every detail of the working method has improved over time. 10 m long structures made of wood or metal, called "pali" (piles), are attached to the seabed, to which ropes and nets are then attached, on which the mussels are grown. The mussels farmed here are particularly tasty and valued because they grow in a special environment, a mixture of salt seawater and karst freshwater. These special environmental conditions of
7245-441: The calcite was formed 172,000 to 130,000 years ago during the penultimate quaternary glaciation period. The Altamura man remains embedded in a matrix of limestone to this day. As such, a running challenge exists among experts to devise a way to remove the fossil intact. The remaining skeleton is in an excellent state of preservation and is unaffected by weather and disarticulation (dispersion of skeletal structure by scavengers),
7360-444: The case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are careful not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages. The economic might and relatively advanced development of Tuscany at the time ( Late Middle Ages ) gave its language weight, although Venetian remained widespread in medieval Italian commercial life, and Ligurian (or Genoese) remained in use in maritime trade alongside
7475-455: The colonial period. In the early 19th century, Eritrea was the country with the highest number of Italians abroad, and the Italian Eritreans grew from 4,000 during World War I to nearly 100,000 at the beginning of World War II. In Asmara there are two Italian schools, the Italian School of Asmara (Italian primary school with a Montessori department) and the Liceo Sperimentale "G. Marconi" (Italian international senior high school). Italian
7590-405: The country (some 0.42% of the total population). Their numbers dropped dramatically after World War II following the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus , which caused the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians. Italian was the official language of the Republic of Ragusa from 1492 to 1807. It formerly had official status in Albania due to the annexation of
7705-408: The country to the Kingdom of Italy (1939–1943). Albania has a large population of non-native speakers, with over half of the population having some knowledge of the Italian language. The Albanian government has pushed to make Italian a compulsory second language in schools. The Italian language is well-known and studied in Albania, due to its historical ties and geographical proximity to Italy and to
7820-446: The country. A few hundred Italian settlers returned to Libya in the 2000s. Italian was the official language of Eritrea during Italian colonisation . Italian is today used in commerce, and it is still spoken especially among elders; besides that, Italian words are incorporated as loan words in the main language spoken in the country (Tigrinya). The capital city of Eritrea, Asmara , still has several Italian schools, established during
7935-415: The country. The official census, carried out in 2002, reported 2,258 ethnic Italians ( Istrian Italians ) in Slovenia (0.11% of the total population). Italian language in Croatia is an official minority language in the country, with many schools and public announcements published in both languages. The 2001 census in Croatia reported 19,636 ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians ) in
8050-464: The design and fashion industries, in some sports such as football and especially in culinary terms. In Italy, almost all the other languages spoken as the vernacular —other than standard Italian and some languages spoken among immigrant communities—are often called " Italian dialects ", a label that can be very misleading if it is understood to mean "dialects of Italian". The Romance dialects of Italy are local evolutions of spoken Latin that pre-date
8165-420: The diffusion of Italian television in the country. Due to heavy Italian influence during the Italian colonial period , Italian is still understood by some in former colonies such as Libya. Although it was the primary language in Libya since colonial rule , Italian greatly declined under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi , who expelled the Italian Libyan population and made Arabic the sole official language of
8280-478: The educated gentlemen was to make the Grand Tour , visiting Italy to see its great historical monuments and works of art. It was expected that the visitor would learn at least some Italian, understood as language based on Florentine. In England, while the classical languages Latin and Greek were the first to be learned, Italian became the second most common modern language after French, a position it held until
8395-462: The establishment of Italian, and as such are sister languages to the Tuscan that was the historical source of Italian. They can be quite different from Italian and from each other, with some belonging to different linguistic branches of Romance. The only exceptions to this are twelve groups considered " historical language minorities ", which are officially recognized as distinct minority languages by
8510-433: The fact that it was linguistically an intermediate between the northern and the southern Italian dialects. Thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the official language of Italy. Italian was progressively made an official language of most of the Italian states predating unification, slowly replacing Latin, even when ruled by foreign powers (such as Spain in the Kingdom of Naples , or Austria in
8625-476: The free website and application Duolingo has 4.94 million English speakers learning the Italian language. According to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , every year there are more than 200,000 foreign students who study the Italian language; they are distributed among the 90 Institutes of Italian Culture that are located around the world, in the 179 Italian schools located abroad, or in
8740-489: The island of Corsica (but not in the neighbouring Sardinia , which on the contrary underwent Italianization well into the late 18th century, under Savoyard sway: the island's linguistic composition, roofed by the prestige of Spanish among the Sardinians , would therein make for a rather slow process of assimilation to the Italian cultural sphere ). The rediscovery of Dante's De vulgari eloquentia , as well as
8855-640: The language to that continent. According to some sources, Italian is the second most spoken language in Argentina after the official language of Spanish, although its number of speakers, mainly of the older generation, is decreasing. Italian bilingual speakers can be found scattered across the Southeast of Brazil as well as in the South. In Venezuela , Italian is the most spoken language after Spanish and Portuguese, with around 200,000 speakers. In Uruguay , people who speak Italian as their home language are 1.1% of
8970-498: The late 18th century when it tended to be replaced by German. John Milton , for instance, wrote some of his early poetry in Italian. Within the Catholic Church , Italian is known by a large part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and is used in substitution for Latin in some official documents. Italian loanwords continue to be used in most languages in matters of art and music (especially classical music including opera), in
9085-534: The late 19th to the mid-20th century, millions of Italians settled in Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Brazil and Venezuela, as well as in Canada and the United States, where they formed a physical and cultural presence. In some cases, colonies were established where variants of regional languages of Italy were used, and some continue to use this regional language. Examples are Rio Grande do Sul , Brazil, where Talian
9200-567: The law. On the other hand, Corsican (a language spoken on the French island of Corsica ) is closely related to medieval Tuscan , from which Standard Italian derives and evolved. The differences in the evolution of Latin in the different regions of Italy can be attributed to the natural changes that all languages in regular use are subject to, and to some extent to the presence of three other types of languages: substrata, superstrata, and adstrata . The most prevalent were substrata (the language of
9315-620: The most conservative Romance languages). Spoken by about 85 million people, including 67 million native speakers (2024), Italian is an official language in Italy , San Marino , Switzerland ( Ticino and the Grisons ), Corsica , and Vatican City . It has official minority status in Croatia , Slovenian Istria , and the municipalities of Santa Tereza and Encantado in Brazil . Italian
9430-412: The nation was unified in 1861. Italian is a Romance language , a descendant of Vulgar Latin (colloquial spoken Latin). Standard Italian is based on Tuscan , especially its Florentine dialect , and is, therefore, an Italo-Dalmatian language , a classification that includes most other central and southern Italian languages and the extinct Dalmatian . According to Ethnologue , lexical similarity
9545-408: The number of printing presses in Italy grew rapidly and by the year 1500 reached a total of 56, the biggest number of printing presses in all of Europe. This enabled the production of more pieces of literature at a lower cost and Italian, as the dominant language, spread. Italian became the language used in the courts of every state in the Italian Peninsula , as well as the prestige variety used on
9660-590: The official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta . Italian has a significant use in musical terminology and opera with numerous Italian words referring to music that have become international terms taken into various languages worldwide. Almost all native Italian words end with vowels , and the language has a 7-vowel sound system ('e' and 'o' have mid-low and mid-high sounds). Italian has contrast between short and long consonants and gemination (doubling) of consonants. During
9775-530: The oldest sample of Neanderthal DNA to have been sequenced successfully. The skull was discovered in October 1993 by speleologists of CARS (Centro Altamurano Ricerche Speleologiche) in the cave of Lamalunga in Altamura , Italy . While exploring the cave, the researchers stumbled upon a 10 m (33 ft) deep karst sinkhole, formed by the action of running water on limestone. The sinkhole merges into
9890-630: The openness of vowels, the length of the consonants, and influence of the local language (for example, in informal situations andà , annà and nare replace the standard Italian andare in the area of Tuscany, Rome and Venice respectively for the infinitive "to go"). There is no definitive date when the various Italian variants of Latin—including varieties that contributed to modern Standard Italian—began to be distinct enough from Latin to be considered separate languages. One criterion for determining that two language variants are to be considered separate languages rather than variants of
10005-584: The original inhabitants), as the Italian dialects were most probably simply Latin as spoken by native cultural groups. Superstrata and adstrata were both less important. Foreign conquerors of Italy that dominated different regions at different times left behind little to no influence on the dialects. Foreign cultures with which Italy engaged in peaceful relations with, such as trade, had no significant influence either. Throughout Italy, regional varieties of Standard Italian, called Regional Italian , are spoken. Regional differences can be recognized by various factors:
10120-458: The other hand, almost everyone still speaks the Corsican idiom , which, due to its linguistic proximity to the Italian standard language, appears both linguistically as an Italian dialect and therefore as a carrier of Italian culture, despite the French government's decades-long efforts to cut Corsica off from the Italian motherland. Italian was the official language in Monaco until 1860, when it
10235-446: The pathogen Xylella fastidiosa , a disease that inhibits the trees' uptake of water and nutrients. The epicentre of the epidemic is the southeastern part of the region. Apulia has many small and picturesque villages, 14 of them have been selected by I Borghi più belli d'Italia (English: The most beautiful Villages of Italy ), a non-profit private association of small Italian towns of strong historical and artistic interest, that
10350-406: The population of Italy could speak Standard Italian. He reports that in 1951 that percentage had risen to 87%. The ability to speak Italian did not necessarily mean it was in everyday use, and most people (63.5%) still usually spoke their native dialects. In addition, other factors such as mass emigration, industrialization, and urbanization, and internal migrations after World War II , contributed to
10465-814: The prehistoric era, including several menhir and dolmen . Around the 1st millennium BC, the Iapygians settled in the territory with the tribes of the Daunians , the Peucetians and the Messapians , as well as the populations of the Calabri and the Sallentini (both settled in Salento ); later, in the Hellenic era, the Magna Graecia colonies were quite numerous, especially in the southern part of
10580-440: The progressive decline of the latifundium, the ancient Apulian farms, properties of medium agricultural size, also decayed. During fascism , Apulia was affected by numerous land reclamations in vast areas and, following the post-war agrarian reform, the region enjoyed strong agricultural development. In the 1970s and 1980s the economy of the region moved from the primary sector to the tertiary one, with notable development coming from
10695-523: The proliferation of Standard Italian. The Italians who emigrated during the Italian diaspora beginning in 1861 were often of the uneducated lower class, and thus the emigration had the effect of increasing the percentage of literates, who often knew and understood the importance of Standard Italian, back home in Italy. A large percentage of those who had emigrated also eventually returned to Italy, often more educated than when they had left. Although use of
10810-528: The pronunciation of stressed "e", and of "s" between vowels in many words: e.g. va bene "all right" is pronounced [vabˈbɛːne] by a Roman (and by any standard Italian speaker), [vaˈbeːne] by a Milanese (and by any speaker whose native dialect lies to the north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line ); a casa "at home" is [akˈkaːsa] for Roman, [akˈkaːsa] or [akˈkaːza] for standard, [aˈkaːza] for Milanese and generally northern. In contrast to
10925-547: The provinces of Foggia, Bari and Lecce; to these were added in the twentieth century the provinces of Brindisi and Taranto. In the period following the unification of Italy, various brigand gangs arose, especially in Capitanata and Terra di Bari; among the major exponents are Michele Caruso, Antonio Angelo Del Sambro and Giuseppe Schiavone, the latter a faithful lieutenant of the Lucanian brigand leader Carmine Crocco . With
11040-415: The publication of Agnolo Monosini 's Latin tome Floris italicae linguae libri novem in 1604 followed by the first Italian dictionary in 1612. An important event that helped the diffusion of Italian was the conquest and occupation of Italy by Napoleon in the early 19th century (who was himself of Italian-Corsican descent). This conquest propelled the unification of Italy some decades after and pushed
11155-542: The referendum that allowed France to annex Savoy and Nice, and a group of his followers (among the Italian Savoyards ) took refuge in Italy in the following years. Corsica passed from the Republic of Genoa to France in 1769 after the Treaty of Versailles . Italian was the official language of Corsica until 1859. Giuseppe Garibaldi called for the inclusion of the " Corsican Italians " within Italy when Rome
11270-743: The region was conquered by the ancient Romans . It was then conquered by the Byzantines , followed by the Normans , the Aragonese and the Spanish . Subsequently, it became part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies , to then be annexed to the unified Kingdom of Italy after the Expedition of the Thousand . Apulia's coastline is longer than that of any other mainland Italian region. In the north,
11385-855: The region with Naples . There are two international airports, Karol Wojtyła Airport in Bari ( IATA : BRI ) and Brindisi Airport (IATA: BDS ), which serve as the principal logistical hub for the United Nations Global Service Center headquartered in Brindisi . With the approval of a redevelopment project in 2018, the Grottaglie Airfield (IATA: TAR ) will host a spaceport for the Italian Space Agency and Virgin Galactic . Emigration from
11500-466: The region's depressed areas to northern Italy and the rest of Europe was very intense in the years between 1956 and 1971. Subsequently, the trend declined, as economic conditions improved, to the point where there was net immigration in the years between 1982 and 1985. Since 1986, the stagnation in employment has led to a new inversion of the trend caused by a decrease in immigration. Since 1 June 2015, former judge and mayor of Bari Michele Emiliano of
11615-627: The region, including the city of Taras , now Taranto . During the second Samnite war (326–304 BC), the Roman army , in an attempt to provide relief to Lucera , besieged by the Samnites, suffered a serious defeat in the Battle of the Caudine Forks , in 321 BC. Rome soon understood the strategic importance of Apulia (corresponding only to the central-northern part of present-day Apulia, while
11730-541: The seas of Taranto are ideal not only for the mussels but also for the fish and crustaceans that find food and shelter between the piles. While there are around 18 submarine freshwater springs, called "Citri", in the Mar Piccolo, there is only one large one in the Mar Grande, which is called "Anello di San Cataldo " in honour of the patron saint of the city. Agriculture plays a prominent economic role in Apulia. It
11845-411: The separation of the island of Sicily from the rest of the south of the peninsula, Apulia was under the rule of the Kingdom of Naples , from that moment the power of the landowners began to take root in the territory. From the middle of the 18th century the region of Apulia experienced a period of strong economic prosperity and excellent development of trade and agriculture. Between 1806 and 1815, during
11960-467: The southern part of the Italian peninsula. During the Sicilian domination Apulia achieved great material and civil progress, which reached its peak with Frederick II , who was responsible for the construction of a series of secular and religious buildings, some of high artistic value, including Castel del Monte , near Andria . During this period Foggia became one of his residences. From 1282, following
12075-473: The teachings of the Roman Catholic Church began to be understood from new perspectives as humanists —individuals who placed emphasis on the human body and its full potential—began to shift focus from the church to human beings themselves. The continual advancements in technology play a crucial role in the diffusion of languages. After the invention of the printing press in the 15th century,
12190-533: The territory, but in the end it became the dominion of the Eastern Roman Empire , from the 6th to the 11th century except for a brief partial occupation of the region by the Emirate of Bari . Bari became the capital of a territory extending up to present-day Basilicata and subjected to the authority of a Catepanate . With the advent of the Normans in the 11th century, Taranto became the capital of
12305-469: The title Divina , were read throughout the peninsula and his written dialect became the "canonical standard" that all educated Italians could understand. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language. In addition to the widespread exposure gained through literature, the Florentine dialect also gained prestige due to the political and cultural significance of Florence at the time and
12420-676: The top three levels of Italian football , the clubs in Apulia include: Italian language Italian ( italiano , pronounced [itaˈljaːno] , or lingua italiana , pronounced [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . Italian is the least divergent language from Latin , together with Sardinian (meaning that Italian and Sardinian are
12535-542: The total population of the country. In Australia, Italian is the second most spoken foreign language after Chinese, with 1.4% of the population speaking it as their home language. The main Italian-language newspapers published outside Italy are the L'Osservatore Romano ( Vatican City ), the L'Informazione di San Marino ( San Marino ), the Corriere del Ticino and the laRegione Ticino ( Switzerland ),
12650-553: The tourism sector. The region's contribution to Italy's gross value added was around 4.6% in 2000, while its population was 7% of the total. The per capita GDP is low compared to the national average and represents about 68.1% of the EU average. The share of gross value added by the agricultural and services sectors was above the national average in 2000. The region has industries specialising in particular areas, including food processing and vehicles in Foggia ; footwear and textiles in
12765-561: Was also introduced to Somalia through colonialism and was the sole official language of administration and education during the colonial period but fell out of use after government, educational and economic infrastructure were destroyed in the Somali Civil War . Italian is also spoken by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. Although over 17 million Americans are of Italian descent , only
12880-525: Was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy , but King Victor Emmanuel II did not agree to it. Italian is generally understood in Corsica by the population resident therein who speak Corsican , which is an Italo-Romance idiom similar to Tuscan. Francization occurred in Nice case, and caused a near-disappearance of the Italian language as many of the Italian speakers in these areas migrated to Italy. In Corsica, on
12995-543: Was founded on the initiative of the Tourism Council of the National Association of Italian Municipalities. The region has a good network of roads, but the railway network is less comprehensive, particularly in the south. There are no high-speed lines, but a high-speed line between Naples and Bari is under construction, which should be completed in 2027. The region is crossed northwest to southeast by
13110-443: Was mirrored by a decline in the use of the dialects. An increase in literacy was one of the main driving factors (one can assume that only literates were capable of learning Standard Italian, whereas those who were illiterate had access only to their native dialect). The percentage of literates rose from 25% in 1861 to 60% in 1911, and then on to 78.1% in 1951. Tullio De Mauro , an Italian linguist, has asserted that in 1861 only 2.5% of
13225-658: Was replaced by the French. This was due to the annexation of the surrounding County of Nice to France following the Treaty of Turin (1860) . It formerly had official status in Montenegro (because of the Venetian Albania ), parts of Slovenia and Croatia (because of the Venetian Istria and Venetian Dalmatia ), parts of Greece (because of the Venetian rule in the Ionian Islands and by
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