123-618: The Institute for the Works of Religion ( Italian : Istituto per le Opere di Religione ; Latin : Institutum pro Operibus Religionis ; abbreviated IOR ), commonly known as the Vatican Bank , is a financial institution that is situated inside Vatican City and run by a Board of Superintendence, which reports to a Commission of Cardinals and the Pope. It is not a private bank, as there are no owners or shareholders; it has been established in
246-851: A Pontifical Commission , often referred to as the CRIOR commission, to review the IOR's status and activities. Its task was to "gather accurate information on the legal status and various activities of the Institute to permit, when necessary, a better harmonization of the said Institute with the universal mission of the Apostolic See". Its five members were Raffaele Farina (President) Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran, Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru , Peter Bryan Wells (secretary) and Mary Ann Glendon . The commission terminated its work in May 2014. In July 2013,
369-682: A class action suit by Holocaust survivors against the Institute for the Works of Religion filed in San Francisco, California on 15 November 1999. The case was dismissed as a political question by the District Court for the Northern District of California in 2003, but reinstated in part by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2005. That ruling has attracted attention as a precedent at the intersection of
492-594: A 10% shareholder of Banco Ambrosiano, denied legal responsibility for the Banco Ambrosiano's downfall but acknowledged "moral involvement", and paid US$ 224 million to creditors. Several works published during the 1980s and 1990s were highly critical of the Institute for the Works of Religion's historical relations with anti-communist governments. In reference other alleged covert activities, Tony Abse, writing in The Weekly Worker , an organ of
615-671: A Swiss anti-money laundering expert, René Brülhart, was appointed director of the AIF. Previously, he had worked for the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in Liechtenstein as well as for the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units . On 15 February 2013, Ernst von Freyberg was appointed the IOR's President. Since the beginning of his tenure at the IOR, von Freyberg has focused on comprehensively reforming
738-565: 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
861-471: 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
984-657: 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
1107-399: A more serious money laundering charge, which involved $ 60 million in transfers, and were sentenced to four months and ten days in prison. They were also forced to return $ 6,000 each. In 2018, Vatican prosecutors indicted former Vatican Bank President Angelo Caloia, and an attorney, Gabriele Liuzzo, for embezzling $ 62 million, using a real estate scam, between 2001 and 2006. The trial
1230-658: 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
1353-444: A political and financial scandal connected with the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano involved the head of IOR from 1971 to 1989, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus , who allegedly had given "letters of patronage" on behalf of the IOR in support of the failed bank. In 1987, an Italian court issued a warrant against Marcinkus, whom they accused of being an accessory to fraudulent bankruptcy. Marcinkus evaded arrest by staying inside Vatican City until
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#17327725519201476-417: 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
1599-605: A report on the Vatican City State, by request of the Vatican itself. This was the first time that the Holy See had submitted its institutions and laws to the judgment of an international external auditor. The Italian news magazine l'Espresso called this "an historic watershed". The Vatican received grades of "compliant" or "largely compliant" on 22 out of 45 guidelines and adhered to international standards in 9 out of
1722-575: 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
1845-750: 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: Franklin National Bank#Collapse Franklin National Bank was a bank based in Franklin Square on Long Island , New York . It was once the United States ' 20th largest bank. On October 8, 1974, it collapsed in obscure circumstances involving Michele Sindona , who
1968-479: 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
2091-513: 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
2214-427: 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
2337-691: 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
2460-759: 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
2583-534: 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
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#17327725519202706-460: 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
2829-504: 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
2952-462: 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
3075-557: Is still pending. In August 2019, the IOR was re-structured by a chirograph of Pope Francis, which established the IOR's present Statutes. According to Article 4 of the Chirograph, the Institute consists of four bodies: A Supervisory Commission of Cardinals, a Board of Superintendence, a Prelate and a Directorate. On 1 January 2010, a renegotiated monetary agreement between the EU and the Vatican City State entered into force, supplementing
3198-648: 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
3321-549: 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
3444-509: 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,
3567-991: 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 ),
3690-817: The Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). The complaint against the Vatican Bank was dismissed in 2007 on the basis of sovereign immunity . In 22 September 2010, Italian magistrates seized €23 million from the IOR, on the grounds that the anti- money laundering laws in force had been violated. The money was originally to be transferred from the Italian Credito Artigiano to JPMorgan Chase and another Italian bank, Banca del Fucino [ it ] . Both
3813-642: The Communist Party of Great Britain , has said that the CIA used the Institute for the Works of Religion to funnel funds to the Solidarity Polish trade union "as part of the final offensive against the Soviet Union". The organization American Atheists says covert United States funds were channelled in the same way both to Solidarity and to Contra guerrillas . Alperin v. Vatican Bank was
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3936-702: 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
4059-852: 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
4182-674: 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
4305-773: 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
4428-554: 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
4551-528: 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
4674-475: The proposed airfield development at Calverton, New York . Importantly, the bank had several branches on the Bahamas and other tax havens before 1971. In 1970, Roth lost his position as Chairman and was pushed off the board of directors in favor of an influential future promised by Michele Sindona . Gleason then became chairman and chief executive officer, inviting Laurence Tisch to join as vice chairman as he
4797-406: 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
4920-458: 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
5043-485: The 16 core points. Moneyval stated that the Vatican "has come a long way in a very short period of time" and stated that the city state met the international requirements in 9 out of 16 core topics. At the same time, Moneyval requested further reforms to be enacted The Vatican expressed a goal to get into the so-called OECD white list which includes countries that comply with international anti-money laundering standards and regulations against tax offences. In November 2012,
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5166-438: 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
5289-405: The AIF's watchdog function. Overall, the report was rated as the approval of the economic and financial reforms enacted since Pope Francis' taking office. On 22 January 2014, the IOR published a report on the progress of the compliance and transparency program. IOR President Ernst von Freyberg commented on the release, stating that "it is very possible to reform an institution like the IOR" and that
5412-406: The Board, Monsignor Alfred Xuereb , Secretary-General of the Secretariat for the Economy, served as its non-voting Secretary. From January 2017 additional members added to the board were: Scott C. Malpass (USA), Javier Marín Romano [ es ] (Spain), and Georg Freiherr von Boeselager (Germany). In March 2023, a chirograph of Pope Francis was published, whose goal is "to further renew
5535-441: The Catholic Church worldwide", as the Vatican release stated. On 7 April 2014, Pope Francis approved a proposal on the Institute's future, "reaffirming the importance of the IOR’s mission for the good of the Catholic Church, the Holy See and the Vatican City State". The Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR) was founded on 27 June 1942 by Pope Pius XII . It absorbed the Amministrazione per le Opere di Religione (Administration of
5658-492: The Franklin Savings Bond, which later developed into the Certificate of Deposit (1969). In 1955, Franklin National Bank acquired the Roslyn National Bank and Trust Company and the First National Bank of Glen Cove. In 1964, Franklin opened branch offices in New York City, and in 1967 merged with Federation Bank & Trust Company. In 1968, Roth was removed as CEO by his protégé, Harold Gleason, after an alleged conflict of interest real estate scandal involving Donald Roth and
5781-460: The Holy See's Financial Intelligence Authority (AIF), charged with monitoring the monetary and commercial activities of Vatican agencies, was admitted as a full member of the Egmont Group, an international network of financial intelligence units. On 1 October 2013, the IOR published its first ever annual report. The annual report is available for download on the Institute's homepage which was launched in July 2013. The report's figures were audited by
5904-441: The IOR and Pope Francis named Jean-Baptiste de Franssu to replace him. In September 2014, the Cardinals' Commission of the IOR appointed Mauricio Larraín (Chile) and Carlo Salvatori (Italy) as members to the IOR Board of Superintendence. Other members included Jean-Baptiste de Franssu (France), President of the Board, Clemens Boersig (Germany), Mary Ann Glendon (USA) and Michael Hintze (UK). In addition to these six lay members of
6027-486: The IOR had frozen the money in Scarano's accounts. As news agency Reuters reported, Elena Guarino, the Salerno magistrate who led the investigation, told reporters "the Vatican was fully cooperative and gave her much information on Scarano's bank movements.". In January 2016, Scarano was acquitted of allegations of corruption, but was given a two-year sentence after being convicted of lesser charges of making false allegations. His money laundering trial in his hometown of Salerno
6150-409: The IOR is composed of four bodies: A Commission of Cardinals with five members, appointed for renewable five-year terms, who elect their president. As announced on 21 September 2020 the Commission's members, appointed for two years ad experimentum , are: Pietro Parolin 's office of Secretary of State was omitted from the new Commission. The Prelate of the IOR , Mgr. Battista Ricca, appointed by
6273-451: The IOR's management and by Australian Cardinal George Pell , head of the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy. The decision was interpreted as a "backing" of the process of reform that had been intensified under Pope Francis and von Freyberg. The IOR itself stated that the Pope's decision "represents a powerful endorsement of our very mission and the hard work accomplished over the past 12 months." Von Freyberg stepped down in July as head of
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#17327725519206396-404: The Institute has "used the past year to create the system and to analyse our customers for possible irregularities". Von Freyberg also stated much work needs to be done as regards transparency and compliance. On 7 April 2014, Pope Francis ruled the IOR will stay operative and approved recommendations on the Institute's future, which were drawn up jointly by the papal commissions CRIOR and COSEA, by
6519-493: The Institute launched its own website. On 1 October 2013, it also published its first-ever annual report. On 24 June 2013, Pope Francis created a special investigative Pontifical Commission (CRIOR) to study IOR reform. On 7 April 2014, Pope Francis approved respective recommendations on the IOR's future which were jointly developed by the CRIOR and COSEA commissions and the IOR's management. "The IOR will continue to serve with prudence and provide specialized financial services to
6642-476: The Institute to international standards. On 24 May 2012, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi was ousted as Head of the Vatican Bank because of his alleged "failure to fulfill the primary functions of his office". In July 2013, the money laundering case against Gotti Tedeschi was dropped. In March 2014, he was again acquitted by the Roman court that followed the public prosecutor's position and relieved Gotti Tedeschi from any responsibility in that operation. On 15 June 2013, with
6765-435: The Institute, stating he would focus on transparency and a "zero tolerance" approach to any suspicious transactions. In May 2013, the international consulting and auditing firm Promontory was assigned a forensic review and screening of the Institute's client relationships. In this context, all accounts of the IOR's 19,000 customers were being checked if they meet the respective criteria. On 24 June 2013, Pope Francis created
6888-417: 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
7011-439: 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,
7134-418: The Mafia as well as the secret P2 , a bogus "Masonic" lodge that the Italian Parliament branded as a subversive organization. The 1974 failure of Sindona's Franklin National Bank and the subsequent collapse of his financial empire, into which he had channeled part of the Holy See's investments, entailed losses for the Vatican estimated by one source at 35 billion Italian lire (£20 million). In 1982,
7257-497: 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
7380-460: The Nixon administration to ensure that his background did not inhibit his ability to become vice chairman and largest stockholder in the bank. Unfortunately Sindona began to suffer huge losses in the foreign exchange markets, and decided to defraud the bank of $ 30,000,000 to cover his losses, which brought the bank below its capital needs to operate. In mid-1974, management revealed huge losses, and depositors started taking out large withdrawals, causing
7503-503: The Statute of the Institute for the Works of Religion to make it consistent with the most modern organizational requirements as well as with the operational needs that arise daily in the Institute's activities". 41°54′14″N 12°27′24″E / 41.90378°N 12.45669°E / 41.90378; 12.45669 Italian language Italian ( italiano , pronounced [itaˈljaːno] , or lingua italiana , pronounced [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna] )
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#17327725519207626-413: The Supervisory Commission of Cardinals with the Pope's approval, acts as secretary of the Commission and attends meetings of the Board of Superintendence. A Board of Superintendence , defining the strategy and ensuring oversight of operations. A Directorate , in charge of operational activities and accountable to the Board of Superintendence. Table with a comparison of IOR's financial performance over
7749-441: The Vatican officially confirmed the IOR's mission as provider of "specialized financial services to the Catholic Church worldwide." Furthermore, it was affirmed by the Vatican that the "valuable services that can be offered by the Institute assist the Holy Father in his mission as universal pastor and also aid those institutions and individuals who collaborate with him in his ministry". According to its Statutes, in effect since 2023,
7872-551: The Works of Religion), which had originated in the Commission for Works of Charity ( Commissione ad pias causas ) established by Pope Leo XIII on 11 February 1887. The IOR is not a department of the Roman Curia , the central administrative structure of the Roman Catholic Church , nor is it a central bank . The purpose of the IOR is "to provide for the safekeeping and administration of movable and immovable property transferred or entrusted to it by physical or juridical persons and intended for works of religion or charity". In 2014,
7995-408: The approval of Pope Francis, the Cardinals' Commission appointed Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca as the Institute's Prelate ad interim. There was also speculation that opponents of reform might have withheld information about possible scandals in Ricca's past or that they might have made up unfounded rumours about Ricca's past. It was reported that Ricca had offered his resignation because of
8118-457: The bank to have to borrow over $ 1 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank . On October 8, 1974, the bank was declared insolvent due to mismanagement and fraud , involving losses in foreign currency speculation and poor loan policies. In 1975, Peter Shaddick, the former executive vice-chairman of the bank's international division, pleaded guilty to fraud. Following their 1979 trial in Federal District Court in New York , Gleason, Paul Luftig ,
8241-481: The bank's former president and chief administrative officer, and J. Michael Carter , a former senior vice president, were convicted of falsifying financial records. The Italian lawyer and liquidator of Sindona's Italian financial empire, Giorgio Ambrosoli , provided the US Justice Department with evidence to convict Sindona for his role in the collapse of the Bank. Ambrosoli was killed by a Mafia hitman commissioned by Sindona in July 1979. In 1980, "mysterious Michele"
8364-444: 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
8487-455: 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
8610-402: The controversy, but the head of the Holy See's Press Office declared the accusations as "not credible" and Pope Francis himself informed journalists that an inquiry "found nothing". On 28 June 2013, three persons were arrested by the Italian police on suspicion of corruption and fraud. Allegedly, they had planned to smuggle €20 million in cash from Switzerland into Italy. One of the arrested
8733-405: 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
8856-518: 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
8979-446: 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
9102-525: 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
9225-616: The county seat. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. Arthur T. Roth joined the bank in 1934 as head teller and became president in 1946. Under his leadership, Franklin National Bank introduced many banking innovations, including junior savings accounts (1947), the drive-up teller window (1950), the bank credit card (1951), a no-smoking policy on banking floors (1958), and outdoor teller machines at branch banks (1968) – along with
9348-464: 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
9471-588: 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
9594-478: 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
9717-462: 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
9840-433: 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
9963-448: The five categories of clients the IOR is legally allowed to have. The closures are said to be a result of the review process conducted by Promontory. On 12 December 2013, Moneyval published its Progress Report that assessed the Holy See's progress made on measures to combat money laundering. It was stated that the IOR has made significant progress but at the same time needed more institutionalized internal controls, especially with regard to
10086-527: The form of a juridical canonical foundation, pursuant to its statutes. Since 9 July 2014, its president is Jean-Baptiste de Franssu . The IOR is regulated by the Vatican's financial supervisory body ASIF ( Autorità di Supervisione e Informazione Finanziaria ). The Institute was founded in June 1942 by papal decree of Pope Pius XII . In June 2012, the IOR gave a first presentation of its operations. In July 2013,
10209-476: 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
10332-427: The global accounting firm KPMG. According to the report, the Institute in 2012 had a net profit of €86.6 million, of which it has transferred €54.7 million to the budget of the Holy See to help the pope carry out the church's global mission. Both measures – the annual report's publication and the launch of the website – were reviewed as remarkable signs of enhanced transparency and compliance: The Guardian called
10455-489: 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
10578-577: 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
10701-640: 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
10824-430: The last years. (million €) (million €) (million €) (million €) ( AUM products ) When the Holy See, whose tax-exempt status on income from Italian investments was revoked in 1968, decided to diversify its holdings, it employed as financial adviser Michele Sindona . Once among the country's most powerful businessmen, subsequent investigations into his business affairs brought to light questionable associations with
10947-498: 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
11070-534: 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
11193-567: 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
11316-593: The matter. As a result of his acquisition of a controlling stake in Franklin, Sindona finally had a money laundering operation to aid his ties to Vatican Bank and the Sicilian drug cartel. Sindona used the bank's ability to transfer funds, produce letters of credit, and trade in foreign currencies to begin building a banking empire in the U.S. Allegedly Sindona used his influence in the Republican Party and
11439-571: The monetary agreement between the Vatican City State and Italy from the year 2000. Having signed the agreement, the Vatican transposed EU legislation on euro counterfeiting and money laundering by the end of 2010 and accepted the European Court of Justice as the only jurisdiction responsible for settling disputes under the agreement. On 30 December 2010, Pope Benedict XVI established the Vatican's independent Financial Intelligence Authority ( Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria , AIF) to oversee
11562-517: The monetary and commercial activities of all Vatican-related institutions, including the IOR. The Vatican's so-called "financial watchdog" monitors all Vatican financial operations and ensures they conform with international norms against money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. In June 2011, the Roman prosecutors ordered the release of the seized €23 million that should have been transferred via an IOR account at Credito Artigiano. According to
11685-412: 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
11808-408: 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
11931-630: 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
12054-468: The origin and destination of the funds were accounts under the control of the IOR. It was furthermore declared that Gotti Tedeschi and another IOR manager were under investigation for money laundering charges. On 31 May 2011, Rome's attorney general released the €23 million in assets which had been seized in September, apparently in acknowledgment of the steps taken in the following months to conform
12177-504: The original 1929 one-story Colonial Revival style building; a 1939 expansion; a 1946/47 expansion which included the addition of a second floor, pediment, partial hipped roof, cupola , rear four-story addition and a two-story banking hall; and a 1955 four-story rear office addition and drive-through teller . The building remained the bank's headquarters until 1960, when a new headquarters was built about 4 miles away in Mineola, New York ,
12300-584: 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:
12423-458: 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
12546-406: 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
12669-469: 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
12792-528: 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
12915-585: The prosecutors, this request of release was due to the newly instituted mechanisms that should help the Institute to conform to international anti-money laundering and antiterrorist financing standards, such as the AIF's establishment. In July 2012, Moneyval , the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism, published and issued
13038-415: 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
13161-542: 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
13284-473: 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,
13407-469: 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
13530-542: 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 ),
13653-484: The warrant was dismissed in 1991, whereupon he returned to his home country, the United States. Chairman of the Banco Ambrosiano and member of the illegal Masonic lodge P2 , Roberto Calvi was convicted of violating Italian currency laws and fled on a false passport to London where he was found murdered under Blackfriars Bridge in London some days after he went missing from Milan. The Istituto per le Opere di Religione, then
13776-496: The way for Sindona to take over Franklin. Sindona paid more than Tisch had paid for the stock. Tisch was later sued by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for breach of fiduciary duty with respect to the sale of his shares to Sindona. Tisch had bought the shares in a gradual accumulation as a favor for Sindona. It would appear the sudden need to sell the shares and Sindona sitting in
13899-456: The website launch a "giant leap" and Reuters named it a "transparency drive". On 12 June 2017 IOR published its fifth annual report, showing net gains of €36 million for the year 2016. Also in October 2013, newspapers reported that the IOR had requested around 1,300 customers to close their IOR accounts. Allegedly, this request was directed at lay account holders, who do not fit into any of
14022-654: The wings allowed the purchase of shares by Sindona to appear as a golden angel to the rescue. Harold Gleason orchestrated the situation by appointing Tisch as a board member, creating the conflict of interest circumstance which would allow Tisch to make the sale to Sindona for other than investment quality reasons. Neither the Comptroller of the Currency, the FDIC, or the Security and Exchange Commission showed any interest in
14145-611: 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
14268-604: Was Monsignore Nunzio Scarano, previously senior accountant at APSA, the Vatican's Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See . Subsequently, he was indicted with corruption and slander and set under house arrest. On 21 January 2014, he was further charged with money laundering through IOR accounts in yet another investigation. According to a police statement, millions of euros in "false donations" from offshore companies had moved through Scarano's accounts. Already in July 2013,
14391-599: Was a 22% shareholder. In 1972, Michele Sindona , a banker with close ties to the Mafia , the masonic lodge P2 , and the Nixon administration , purchased a controlling interest in Long Island 's Franklin National Bank from Laurence Tisch , Chairman of Loews Corporation , which owned hotels in Italy. Later the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency declared Tisch an unqualified director for reasons of conflict of interest, paving
14514-593: Was a renowned Mafia -banker and member of the irregular freemasonic lodge Propaganda Due . It was at the time the largest bank failure in the history of the country. The bank was founded as Franklin Square National Bank in 1926 and changed its name to Franklin National Bank in 1947. Its original location was built in 1929 in Franklin Square , a suburban hamlet in Nassau County. It was subsequently expanded in stages through 1955. It consists of
14637-561: 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
14760-525: 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
14883-443: 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
15006-658: 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
15129-464: Was still pending at this time. The other person arrested was a bank person and a former secret service agent. In February 2017, a court in Rome convicted two former top Vatican Bank officials Paolo Cipriani and Massimo Tulliof for omissions in communications involving three small transfers. Cipriani was a former Vatican bank director and Tulliof was Cipriani's former deputy. They were, however, acquitted of
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