The Royal Sardinian Army (also the Sardinian Army , the Royal Sardo-Piedmontese Army , the Savoyard Army , or the Piedmontese Army ) was the army of the Duchy of Savoy and then of the Kingdom of Sardinia , which was active from 1416 until it became the Royal Italian Army on 4 May 1861.
111-619: The Royal Italian Army ( Italian : Regio Esercito , lit. 'Royal Army') ( RE ) was the land force of the Kingdom of Italy , established with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy . During the 19th century Italy started to unify into one country, and in 1861 Manfredo Fanti signed a decree creating the Army of the Two Sicilies . This newly created army's first task
222-454: A dagger secured to the body with a leather strap, as well as a bandolier for the rifle. The officers did not have firearms; they only carried melee weapons. New models of rifles were adopted in 1844, with a first attempt at using percussion rifles . However, the transition from the firearms which used fire strikers to more modern weapons that fired using an "Eggs" capsule was completed only in 1859. All rifles were equipped with bayonets with
333-598: A flag rather than the arms of their individual commanders. Seven years later, in 1671, the army was also given a uniform, which was light grey for almost all units, much like that which had recently been adopted by the French Royal Army , which the Ducal army had frequently encountered (as opponents and allies) in the frequent wars of the era. In this period, the Piedmontese army was very open to innovations and
444-565: 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
555-471: 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
666-657: 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
777-658: 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
888-417: 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
999-575: 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
1110-408: 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: Royal Sardinian Army Generally, the term "Savoyard Army" is used for the period when the rulers of Savoy held only the title of Duke, while "Sardinian Army"
1221-479: 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
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#17327726645571332-829: A three-year campaign was fought against the Austro-Hungarian Kaiserjäger and the German Alpenkorps . In World War II , the Alpini fought alongside Axis forces in the Eastern Front as well as the Balkans Campaigns . The Regio Esercito dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy , following the unification of Italy in 1861 after most of the Papal States were seized. On 4 May 1861, Manfredo Fanti signed
1443-513: 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
1554-466: A very long time, which had a deleterious impact on the army. There was little or nothing in the way of training and the resulting force left a lot to be desired on the campaign. In the seventeenth century, the Piedmontese army underwent notable reforms. The cause of these substantial changes was the foreign policy undertaken by the Savoyard government and new internal conditions. During the first half of
1665-427: 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
1776-691: 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 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
1887-759: 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
1998-534: 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
2109-460: 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
2220-504: 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 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
2331-462: 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
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#17327726645572442-630: Is preferred for the period after they obtained the title of King of Sardinia in 1720. The Savoyard Army was officially established in the 15th century when the Duchy of Savoy was created. During this period, the army of the Savoyard lands was concentrated at bases in Piedmont and the Aosta Valley , where it was maintained by the local feudal lords who in exchange for the command of some regiments, maintained them for state service and stationed them on
2553-648: Is the main working language of the Holy See , serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as 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
2664-549: 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
2775-509: 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,
2886-991: 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 ),
2997-744: The Allied armistice with Italy in September 1943 . The Kingdom was ultimately replaced by the Italian Republic in the 1946 Italian institutional referendum , and the Royal Army accordingly changed its name to become the Esercito Italiano ( Italian Army ). Italian language Italian ( italiano , pronounced [itaˈljaːno] , or lingua italiana , pronounced [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna] )
3108-702: 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
3219-852: 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 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
3330-588: The Interwar period , the army was initially focused on border security in the Alps and on the Italian-Yugoslav border . It supported Benito Mussolini 's Fascist regime because of its expansionist ideology and reversal of previous governments' defense cuts. In the 1930s, the army participated in the final subjugation of Libya , participated in the invasion of Ethiopia , provided troops and materials for
3441-620: 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
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3552-773: 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
3663-1073: The Macedonian Front as part of the Allied Army of the Orient . Some Italian divisions were also sent to the Western Front . In 1918, Italian troops saw intense combat during the German spring offensive. Italian soldiers also saw action in campaigns against the Ottoman Empire in Africa and the Middle East such as in the Senussi campaign . Overall, the Royal Italian Army suffered 460,000 to 709,000 killed and 947,000 to 1,050,000 wounded during World War I. During
3774-554: 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
3885-528: 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
3996-648: The monarchy ended in 1946, the army changed its name to become the modern Italian Army ( Esercito Italiano ). Within the Italian Royal Army were the elite mountain military corporals, the Alpini . The Alpini , which remain in existence today, are the oldest active mountain infantry in the world. Their original mission was to protect and secure Italy's northern mountain border that aligns with France and Austria . This group emerged in World War I when
4107-406: 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
4218-458: 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
4329-438: 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
4440-421: The Corps of Volunteer Troops ( Corpo Truppe Volontarie ) to fight in the Spanish Civil War , and participated in the Italian invasion of Albania . The Regio Esercito (Royal Army) was one of the largest ground forces in World War II, during which it was one of the pioneers of the use of paratroopers . Many Italian divisions were reinforced by a MVSN Gruppo di Assalto of two battalions due to
4551-415: The IV Corps captured Rome , which had remained under Papal control up until then. On 8 February 1885, a corps of fewer than 1,000 soldiers landed at Massaua , Eritrea , starting the creation of an Italian colonial empire . The Italian advance of the First Italo-Ethiopian War was halted at the Battle of Adwa by overwhelming Ethiopian forces. The following year, as part of the Italian collaboration with
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4662-417: 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
4773-439: 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,
4884-400: The Kingdom of Italy and then also in the Republic. On 19 March 1852, a general reorganisation of the cavalry came into force which led to the following arrangement: Every regiment had a general staff, 4–6 active squadrons and 1 reserve squadron. Each squadron contained 5 officers, 6 junior officers, 2 trumpeters, 2 blacksmiths, 1 saddler, 130 soldiers and 100 horses. The Sardinian artillery
4995-415: The Laukart attachment system, which meant that they could be clipped onto the rifle without obstructing fire. The musket developed in parallel with this. The first nineteenth-century models appeared in 1833 and they were modified in 1844 to make them more like actual infantry rifles, except shorter and more manageable on account of their lighter weight. The carbine was mainly given to sharpshooters, but
5106-497: 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
5217-458: The Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy . After the restoration of the kingdom in 1815, Victor Emmanuel I ordered the reconstruction of the Piedmontese army, organised into ten brigades of infantry and supported by cavalry and artillery. These were divided into two large armies, each of which contained two divisions and a reserve division. Under Victor Emmanuel II , the Royal Sardinian Army was changed in many respects, with an increase in numbers and in
5328-471: The Royal carabinieri , the armourers, the musicians, the musketeers, and the volunteers, while the second consisted of all the other soldiers who were obliged to remain in the army for 8 years unless the government ordered otherwise. In this reform, criminals condemned to forced labour, imprisonment, and exile were excluded from military service, as were those guilty of crimes relating to the penal code, men condemned by foreign courts to similar punishments, and
5439-427: The Swedes still had a third of their infantry equipped with pikes in 1720. Also important, somewhat later, was the Regulation of 1709, which was inspired by the discipline of the Prussian army observed during the Siege of Turin and by the firing tactics of the English and Dutch forces. Thus, the fire of platoons in serried ranks was adopted instead of files in open ranks. The difference was that when firing in files,
5550-400: The army by desertion from the Austrian army (largely during the first and second Italian wars of independence) were given the same rank they had had in the Austrian army, while older soldiers who deserted from the Austrians were promoted to junior officer class. The law regulating the officers was approved on 25 May 1852 by Victor Emmanuel II. As for the junior officers, officers deserting from
5661-470: The average soldier in peacetime was 15 centesimi , rising to 25 in wartime, in addition to a ration of bread, 830g of wood in summer and 1660g in winter (double for junior officers), and a daily subsidy for the wives of the soldiers and two rations of bread per day. The infantry were the backbone of the Sardinian army and were subdivided into different types: National Service Infantry, Light legion, infantry for external security, provincial infantry, legions of
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#17327726645575772-444: 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
5883-455: 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
5994-405: 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
6105-408: 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
6216-446: 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
6327-415: 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
6438-452: The creation decree, by which the new army was to replace the previous Royal Sardinian Army and the Army of the Two Sicilies . The first two tasks of the new organization were the repression of brigandage in southern Italy against irregular and hit and run forces (mixed with bands of various criminals), who refused to accept the suppression of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies , and the Third War of Italian Independence . On 20 September 1870,
6549-464: 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
6660-420: 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
6771-418: The dragoons had expanded to 5 regiments. With respect to numbers, we know that in 1774, the total number of Savoyard troops reached 100,000 individuals. In that year a regulation was introduced concerning the length of permanent military service. The king maintained control of the troops, supported by a defence staff, composed of adjutants and 28 experienced generals, all of aristocratic origin (nobles held 78% of
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#17327726645576882-409: The early nineteenth century, the soldiers of the Sardinian army had the following social composition: 65% farmers, 25% labourers and artisans, 10% bourgeois and aristocrats. Only 20% were literate and a mere 5% had received secondary education. In the regiments, there was a school for the soldiers in which they could learn to read, write, and keep accounts. According to the regulations of 1853, the pay of
6993-420: 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
7104-536: The eighteenth century, the cavalry were armed with carbines which were very accurate over short distances. The horses were mostly bay-coloured animals imported from German and they served for 4–6 years. A sixth were female. In the nineteenth century, the carabinieri were introduced and they formed the main cavalry force, especially distinguishing themselves in the First Italian War of Independence with their splendid sabre charges. The dragoons were equipped very differently – with long bayonetted rifles (although they retained
7215-415: The encampments, French corps, and the territorial militia. To improve the quality of the operations of the infantry, there was a training system in Piedmont with training camps, modelled on the armed forces of France and Germany. The most important of these training camps was located in Briga Alta and was commanded by a General Inspector. The Sardinian cavalry, particularly noted for its valour in battle,
7326-409: 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
7437-405: The executors of justice, including judges, magistrates, their children, their adjutants and the children of their adjutants. The Piedmontese army in this period had a total force of 79,000 men (roughly 22,000 of which were officers and 56,000 were regular troops), in addition to around 20,000 officers and soldiers in non-Piedmontese volunteer forces, like the Hunters of the Alps . The volunteers in
7548-544: The face of direct war violence. In total, 4,028 death sentences were passed in the Royal Italian Army whereas 2,967 were issued absentia where 750 were followed through and completed and 311 were not. The Royal Italian Army's first experience with modern warfare was in World War I , from 1915–1918. The war was fought mostly on the Italian Front in Northern Italy , costing the Italian Army serious casualties, including 246,133 killed, 946,640 wounded, 569,210 captured and 70,656 missing. The Italian 35th Division served on
7659-433: 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
7770-410: 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
7881-411: The international pacification program after the revolt against the Turkish domination in Cyprus , another corps disembarked at Candia . On 14 July 1900, another expeditionary force was constituted to suppress the Boxer Rebellion in China in defense of the European protectorates. On 3 October 1911, Italy invaded Libya as part of the Italo-Turkish War . The war against the Ottoman Empire ended with
7992-489: 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
8103-534: The land in the meantime. It was Duke Emmanuel Philibert who was largely responsible for the radical reforms of the army which made it a stable component of the state and disconnected it from the local feudatories at the same time. As part of this, he created the "peasant militia" on 5 July 1566. With this, the command of the army officially passed into the hands of the Duke of Savoy. Since there were no limits on age or length of service, many soldiers remained in service for
8214-577: 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 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
8325-640: 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
8436-498: 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
8547-534: 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
8658-567: 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
8769-412: 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
8880-408: 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
8991-630: 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
9102-584: 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:
9213-458: 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
9324-406: 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
9435-676: The positions in the officer ranks), while in the various ranks of the infantry and cavalry forces, the bourgeois formed 20%. The rest of the army was manned by the proletariat. After the Armistice of Cherasco in 1796 and the failure of the Kingdom of Sardinia's attempt to prevent the Napoleonic invasion, the Sardinian Army was gradually demobilised and was converted into the forces of the Subalpine Republic and then of
9546-523: 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
9657-528: 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
9768-415: 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
9879-537: The quality of the forces. In 1858, before the outbreak of the Second Italian War of Independence , a new military code was introduced by the king, which regularised the period of military service , establishing it as five years of active service, then 6 years in reserve, up to the age of thirty, with 50 days of obligatory training and instruction per year. The active service was divided into two kinds: ordinanza and provinciale . The first included service in
9990-542: 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
10101-475: The regular army numbered around 20,000 men. The conscripts were chosen by lot and could escape by making a payment or substituting a relative. The division took place on the basis of age and the oldest soldiers (provided they were literate) were made corporals . From these, the sergeants were chosen on the basis of merit. After the unification of Italy the army became the Royal Italian Army . In
10212-438: The same time, followed by the other platoons at a regular interval. This system remained the standard for all units throughout the first half of the 18th century. Throughout the century, there was a general tendency to the expansion of the army. In 1691, it contained 12 regiments of infantry, 3 of dragoons and 2 of cavalry; in 1747, it exceeded 32 regiments of infantry, but the cavalry continued to be formed of 2 regiments, while
10323-411: The seventeenth century, the Savoyard army was not a solid force, but varied significantly in periods of peace and war and was essentially composed of regiments recruited from the nobility in the pay of the Duke, regiments of mercenaries, and Protestant regiments (mostly consisting of French Huguenots ). In 1664, "proprietary" regiments of the Duke were first created, which bore the Duke's coat of arms as
10434-697: The signing of the First Treaty of Lausanne in Ouchy , near Lausanne, Switzerland . In the Italian Royal Army, military justice was applied on the based on the 1870 Military Penal Code regulations. This regulation structure was very similar to the 1859 version which was inspired by the Royal Sardinian Army penal code of 1840 which preceded the Albertine Statute of 1848. These regulations and factors were determined to be inadequate in
10545-755: The small size of the divisions. In 1943, Italy surrendered and split into the Italian Social Republic , which fielded its own army, the Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano ( National Republican Army ). On the other side was the Esercito Cobelligerante del Sud ( Italian Co-Belligerent Army ), the army of the Italian Royalist forces, fighting on the side of the Allies in southern Italy after
10656-407: The soldiers were deployed in four or more files separated by four metres and all the soldiers in one file fired at the same time, with a set interval between the fire of each file, making a more constant fire possible. However, with the fire in platoons, the soldiers were separated into three close files and their front was divided into platoons, in each of which the soldiers of the three files fired at
10767-473: 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,
10878-469: 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
10989-542: 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 ),
11100-570: The use of the sabre as traditional). The typical artillery cannon of the Sardinian army was the mod.704 rear-load saker , which was regularly used until 1848. The heavy artillery was characterised by long cannons (8-16-32 pound culverins ). The junior officers were drawn largely from the ordinary soldiers on the basis of merit and ability. Some of them were trained in various regimental schools, while others were sent to specialist schools for their particular branch. The junior officers who came into
11211-659: 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 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
11322-561: 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
11433-445: Was also the distinctive weapon of the carabinieri. The Sardinian army was first equipped with pistols in 1847 (although some were already in use from 1844). These included the large cavalry pistol which was considered a weapon of last resort as an unsatisfactory compromise between a pistol and a musket. The pistol and cavalry pistol bullets were spherical and hollow with a diameter of 16.6 mm and an explosive payload of 2.5 g. From
11544-525: 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
11655-445: Was based at Casale Monferrato and consisted of two battalions, each containing 5 companies, which each contained: 4 officers, 6 junior officers, 2 trumpeters, and 88 men. The companies were assigned in various arrangements to the divisions and were given various tasks, including the construction of telegraph links. Civilian companies also came to be involved in the work of these engineers. The infantry were armed with bayonet rifles and
11766-508: Was constantly modernising, especially during the reign of Victor Amadeus II . The two most important reforms of these years were probably the creation of a specialised group of grenadiers and the abolition of the pikemen , both of which took place in 1685. The second of these reforms in particular anticipated the motion of travel throughout Europe – in fact, the French and the Spanish only abolished their pikemen some fifteen years later, while
11877-570: Was entirely of Savoyard extraction. The force which distinguished itself in the War of the Spanish Succession had 2,420 horsemen at its disposal in peacetime, but could rapidly double its numbers in times of war. The Sardinian cavalry included 3 corps of bodyguards to the sovereign (120 in peacetime and 260 during wars) and 6 regular regiments, including the famous "Piemonte Reale Cavalleria" and "Savoia Cavalleria" which were retained during
11988-443: 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
12099-658: 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
12210-406: Was to defend its territorial gains against Legitimists in southern Italy, who remained loyal to Francis II of the Two Sicilies . The Army of the Two Sicilies also waged what many modern historians now consider a civil war against outlaws and Bourbonist guerrillas , such as the famous Michelina Di Cesare , and against other Italian states' armies during the continuing wars of unification . After
12321-565: Was very similar to that of the French, organised in brigades each of which contained 4/6 pieces moved by 300 horses and assembled on-site by soldiers. The artillery was divided into field and mountain artillery, as well as siege artillery (mortars and howitzers). A large number of the artillery personnel were recruited from Biella , which was also where the industry that produced the artillery was located. In battle, five pieces of artillery were assigned to each infantry brigade and four pieces for each cavalry brigade. The regiment of military engineers
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