104-539: The 2026 Winter Olympics ( Italian : Olimpiadi invernali del 2026 ), officially the XXV Olympic Winter Games (Italian: XXV Giochi olimpici invernali ) and also known as Milano-Cortina 2026 , is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 6 to 22 February 2026 in three regions, with the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo as main hosts. This will be
208-689: A local language of Italy , most frequently the language spoken at home in their place of origin. Italian is a major language in Europe, being one of the official languages of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and one of the working languages of the Council of Europe . It is the third-most-widely spoken native language in the European Union (13% of the EU population) and it
312-603: A brown stoat, and Tina, a white stoat, are brother and sister "born in the mountains of Italy", who "decided to move to the city". Tina, the main Olympic mascot, symbolizes art, music, and the transformative force of beauty. Milo, the Paralympic mascot, was born without a leg but uses his tail to help him walk, representing ingenuity, willpower, and creativity. During the Sanremo Music Festival 2022 finals,
416-510: 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
520-471: 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
624-658: 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
728-553: A potential reconstruction of the Eugenio Monti track. A bid was won to build a new sliding track instead of rebuilding the Eugenio Monti track, which will be demolished. Despite concerns about the new track not being ready on time, it was confirmed in September 2024 that the new Eugenio Monti track was on schedule, and that homologation of the track is expected by March 2025. The Milano-Cortina 2026 proposal involved many of
832-417: 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
936-522: A result. Starting in late medieval times in much of Europe and the Mediterranean, Latin was replaced as the primary commercial language by languages of Italy, especially Tuscan and Venetian. These varieties were consolidated during the Renaissance with the strength of Italy and the rise of humanism and the arts . Italy came to enjoy increasing artistic prestige within Europe. A mark of
1040-501: 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: Eugenio Monti olympic track The Eugenio Monti Olympic Track ( Italian : Pista olimpica Eugenio Monti ) was a bobsleigh and skeleton track located in Cortina d'Ampezzo , Italy . It
1144-479: 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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#17327805197751248-645: A sub-license agreement with the European Broadcasting Union . On 16 January 2023, the IOC announced that it had renewed its European broadcast rights agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports to last from 2026 through to 2032. The contract covers pay television and streaming rights to the Summer, Winter, and Youth Olympics on Eurosport and Discovery+ in 49 European territories. Unlike the previous contract where corporate precursor Discovery, Inc.
1352-480: A temporary or a permanent ice rink in the pavilions of Fiera Milano , options that would require significant structural work, or move the events to the Oval Lingotto in the city of Turin which required no structural changes. The venue was constructed to host the speed skating during the 2006 Winter Olympics and after the games, hosted a variety of events such as exhibitions, fairs and conferences. The venue
1456-513: 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
1560-544: A year, to be settled through the establishment of €8 million fund. Due to the rising cost of construction materials, the Veneto region president Luca Zaia turned public in February 2023 that the restoring cost for the Eugenio Monti track could be upwards of €120 million. Calling for tenders to award the work, no company came forward with a bid by the 31 July 2023 deadline; even after that, no company interested in carrying out
1664-427: 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
1768-759: 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
1872-690: Is also spoken by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia . Italian is included under the languages covered by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Romania , although Italian is neither a co-official nor a protected language in these countries. Some speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian (either in its standard form or regional varieties ) and
1976-534: 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
2080-460: 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
2184-462: 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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#17327805197752288-594: Is spoken as a second language by 13.4 million EU citizens (3%). Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland, Albania and the United Kingdom ) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is approximately 85 million. Italian is the main working language of the Holy See , serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as
2392-549: 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
2496-509: 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,
2600-991: 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 ),
2704-577: The 134th Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne , Switzerland, on 24 June 2019. Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo were selected as the host cities on 24 June 2019 at the 134th IOC Session in Lausanne , Switzerland. The three Italian IOC members, Franco Carraro , Ivo Ferriani and Giovanni Malagò , and two Swedish IOC members, Gunilla Lindberg and Stefan Holm , were ineligible to vote as stated in
2808-702: 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
2912-674: 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
3016-773: 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
3120-1033: The Middle Ages , the established written language in Europe was Latin, although the great majority of people were illiterate, and only few were well versed in the language. In the Italian Peninsula , as in most of Europe, most would instead speak a local vernacular. These dialects, as they are commonly referred to, evolved from Vulgar Latin over the course of centuries, unaffected by formal standards and teachings. They are not in any sense "dialects" of standard Italian, which itself started off as one of these local tongues, but sister languages of Italian. Mutual intelligibility with Italian varies widely, as it does with Romance languages in general. The Romance languages of Italy can differ greatly from Italian at all levels ( phonology , morphology , syntax , lexicon , pragmatics ) and are classified typologically as distinct languages. The standard Italian language has
3224-586: The Olympic Charter . During the bid process, the bidding Committee proposed that the speed skating events could be held at the existing Ice Rink Piné in Baselga di Piné . However, despite the infrastructure being ready, it required a roof which impact and cost studies indicated would be very expensive, potentially breaking the budget. So instead, the Committee deliberated over three choices: building
2026 Winter Olympics - Misplaced Pages Continue
3328-554: 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
3432-528: 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
3536-592: The fourth Olympic Games hosted in Italy , which previously hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome , and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin . It will be the first Olympic Games officially featuring multiple host cities and will be the first Winter Olympics since Sarajevo 1984 where the opening and closing ceremonies will be held in different venues. These games will become
3640-532: 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
3744-510: 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
3848-582: The 1956 Winter Olympics was 1720 metres long with 16 turns and an elevation drop of 152 metres. When a bobsleigh track was not built for the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California in the United States, the track in Cortina was used to host the world championships that year in place of being excluded from the Winter Olympic Games . The track played a key role in improving bobsleigh safety when West Germany 's Toni Pensperger
3952-562: 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
4056-580: The 20th anniversary of the Winter Olympics in Turin , also the 70th anniversary of the Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo. This also the first time that Milan will host the Olympic Games. These games will mark the first Winter Olympics under a new IOC President , who is expected to be elected in 2025 at the 143rd IOC Session . The joint bid from the two cities beat also another joint bid from Swedish cities Stockholm – Åre by 47–34 votes at
4160-515: The IOC and the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation have studied possibilities to hold the event in another place. The track used for the 1956 Winter Olympics had 16 curves that was 1,700 meters long with an elevation difference of 152 meters. Turns 3 and 5 were not named. Following the 1981 FIBT World Championships , the track was shortened to 1350 meters in length with 13 curves, an elevation drop of 120.45 meters,
4264-417: 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
2026 Winter Olympics - Misplaced Pages Continue
4368-489: 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,
4472-556: 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
4576-689: The Olympics through to 2032. Italian language Italian ( italiano , pronounced [itaˈljaːno] , or lingua italiana , pronounced [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . Italian is the least divergent language from Latin , together with Sardinian (meaning that Italian and Sardinian are
4680-444: 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
4784-466: The city of Cortina, the track withdrew its winning bid to host the 2011 championships, leading the FIBT to award the event instead to Königssee , Germany . The track is now artificially refrigerated . On October 16, 2023, it was reported that the track will not be rebuilt to host the 2026 Winter Olympics , which will be hosted by Cortina D'Ampezzo, along with Milan, as no qualifying construction bids were submitted. The Organizing Committee, along with
4888-455: 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
4992-466: The competition venues used during the 2013 Winter Universiade , held in the province of Trentino and the existing venues used during 1956 Winter Olympics also held in Cortina D'Ampezzo . All the ice events in Milan and their metropolitan region,with the exception of curling.The opening ceremony is scheduled for the 6 February in San Siro Stadium and the closing ceremony is scheduled for 22 February in Verona Arena . Numbers in parentheses indicate
5096-405: 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
5200-408: 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
5304-446: 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
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#17327805197755408-415: 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
5512-406: The course to its current configuration. The week following the 1981 championships, the track was filmed as part of the movie For Your Eyes Only ; one of the stuntmen involved, Paolo Rigon, was killed during the first day of filming. By 1989 the track was deemed safe enough by the FIBT to host another world championship. Following the death of Eugenio Monti in 2003, the Olympic Bobrun Cortina
5616-464: 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
5720-420: 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
5824-486: The earth and covered with turf to allow for track freezing. The track made its international debut in 1928 at the International University Winter Games (forerunner of the Winter Universiade , under administration by the International University Sports Federation ), giving the track first notice, increasing its growth. Rebuilding of the track occurred in 1936 to meet the standards of other tracks such as St. Moritz , Switzerland and Garmisch-Partenkirchen , Germany with
5928-420: 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
6032-409: 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
6136-433: 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
6240-462: The finish of the track moving down to the bank of the Boite River. This extended the track length to 1500 metres with 15 turns and a vertical drop of 152 metres. The track hosted its first FIBT World Championships in 1937 in the two-man event. Two years later , it hosted the four-man event of the FIBT World Championships though it would lead to the death of Swiss bobsledder Reto Capadrutt during competition. Another renovation occurred with
6344-406: The first of two consecutive Winter Olympic Games to be hosted (at least partially) in the European Alps , followed by the French Alps in 2030 . The Organizing Committee received the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing , China. Along the main host cities, events will also take place in seven other north-northeastern Italian cities. The games will mark
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#17327805197756448-410: 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
6552-400: The host regions of Lombardy and Veneto. Fiera Milano was confirmed as the speed skating venue on 19 April 2023. During the bidding process, the joint Committee proposed to restore the iconic Eugenio Monti olympic track in Cortina, to be relaunched as a federal centre also for sledding and skeleton. The minimum cost of restoring the closed track was initially estimated at €14 million, while in
6656-412: The ice hockey tournament with Russia provisionally holding another spot. However, its participation is uncertain due to the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine starting in 2022. Russian athletes were not permitted to enter team events at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The final decision on Russia in ice hockey is expected in early 2025. Other NOCs have had at least one male or female competitor meet
6760-431: 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
6864-531: 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
6968-434: 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
7072-424: 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
7176-514: 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
7280-645: The minimum alpine skiing requirements. United Arab Emirates is expected to make its Winter Olympics debut. The first version of the schedule was released in March 2024. Competition will begin two days before the opening ceremony on 4 February, and end on 22 February 2026. For the first time, the emblem of an Olympic Games was determined via a public vote. On 6 March 2021 during the Sanremo Music Festival finals, two candidate designs titled "Dado" and "Futura" were unveiled by former Italian Olympic gold medallists Federica Pellegrini and Alberto Tomba . They were both designed by Landor Associates . On 30 March 2021, "Futura"
7384-409: The most conservative Romance languages). Spoken by about 85 million people, including 67 million native speakers (2024), Italian is an official language in Italy , San Marino , Switzerland ( Ticino and the Grisons ), Corsica , and Vatican City . It has official minority status in Croatia , Slovenian Istria , and the municipalities of Santa Tereza and Encantado in Brazil . Italian
7488-412: 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
7592-460: The number of medal events contested in each discipline. On 18 June 2021, the International Olympic Committee proposed that ski mountaineering be included as a sport for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The proposal was approved on 20 July. On 24 June 2022, the IOC announced the final 2026 program. The alpine mixed team parallel event was removed due technical issues, while the alpine combined event will now feature two athletes from same NOC. Along with
7696-408: 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
7800-560: The official Milan-Cortina bid dossier the cost indicated was €100 million (similar budget needed to build the Cesana Pariol track used at the 2006 Winter Olympics). After initially forecasting an expenditure of €40-50 million, the Veneto Region allocated funding up to €85 million to build the new Olympic venues. An annual expenditure of €400,000 was also planned for the management of the facility, which would be open four months
7904-590: The official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta . Italian has a significant use in musical terminology and opera with numerous Italian words referring to music that have become international terms taken into various languages worldwide. Almost all native Italian words end with vowels , and the language has a 7-vowel sound system ('e' and 'o' have mid-low and mid-high sounds). Italian has contrast between short and long consonants and gemination (doubling) of consonants. During
8008-630: 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
8112-584: 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:
8216-511: 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
8320-406: 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
8424-523: 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
8528-528: 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
8632-415: 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
8736-542: 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
8840-539: The second night of the Sanremo Music Festival 2024 on 7 February 2024. Their names were revealed to be Tina and Milo (derived from the names of the host cities), and are portrayed as sister and brother. The choice of stoats has been explained as being due to these animals' embodiment of "the contemporary Italian spirit" of curiosity, ability to change according to the seasons, and capacity of adaptation to challenging habitats. The two main mascots are additionally accompanied by six snowdrop flowers, called "The Flo". Milo,
8944-473: 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,
9048-508: The three ski mountaineering events, five new events have been added to the Olympic program in four sports that were already on the program rising from 109 to 116 events.Therefore, 7 more events will be played than in Beijing, 4 years earlier. The following 38 National Olympic Committees have qualified athletes. Seven qualifiers and the hosts, Italy, were confirmed as qualified by the IIHF into
9152-469: 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
9256-542: 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 ),
9360-639: The track after World War II in 1948, when all of the turns were rebuilt and the track lengthened to 1700 metres and 16 turns. When the International Olympic Committee awarded the 1956 Winter Olympics to Cortina, the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) took over all operations and improvement of the track at considerable expense. Following the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo , track officials added large scoreboards , and electronic timing and scoring . The track used for
9464-636: The track was closed. Bobsleigh at Cortina d'Ampezzo was introduced in 1905-6 using a snow -covered road on the Dolomite Road between Cortina and Pocol . An attempt was made in 1911 to build an artificial bobsleigh run near the centre of Cortina, but that failed due to funding issues. By 1923, a new track 1200 metres in length, was constructed in Ronco, a village near Cortina on the Dolomite Road laid with special water piping constructed into
9568-437: The track will not be rebuilt to host the 2026 Olympic Winter Games, and the sliding events could be held outside of Italy. However, the current Italian government wanted the sliding events to remain in Italy, so they studied the possibility to revamp the Cesana Pariol track which hosted the events at the 2006 Winter Olympics, which has been dormant since 2011. Since then, several construction companies have submitted bids to study
9672-618: The two final candidates for the official anthem of the event were presented, with a poll opening afterward. On 7 March 2022, "Fino all'alba" ("Until the dawn")—composed by the youth music group La Cittadina of the San Pietro Martire in Seveso , and performed during Sanremo by Arisa — was announced as the winner. In Italy, domestic pay-TV rights are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery , with free-to-air coverage and digital rights owned by RAI under
9776-566: The work could be found, both for economic reasons and because of the difficulty to complete all works before the start of the Olympics. Due to critical issues, costs and prohibitive times for the total renovation of Cortina track, the mayor of Innsbruck , Austria made a proposal for the use of the Igls Olympic Sliding Centre in Innsbruck. On 16 October 2023 the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) announced that
9880-561: 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
9984-468: Was also used at 2007 Winter Universiade to host the same sport and also will host the same event in 2025 . In April 2023, it was estimated that the temporary ice rink in Fiera Milano would cost nearly €20 million, which would be paid for with private funds. The proposal to use Turin's Oval Lingotto received opposition from Milan-area officials, including Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala and officials from
10088-525: 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
10192-490: Was announced as the winning emblem. The emblem consists of a stylized "26" written in a single stroke, representing the impact of "small gestures", and "sport, solidarity, and sustainability". An online vote closing on 28 February 2023 was held among a list of candidates to select the two mascots of the event. The winning candidates, designed by the students of a school in Taverna and inspired by stoats , were presented during
10296-516: Was killed during the four-man event at the 1966 World Championships . Because of Pensperger's death, the world championships did not take place at the track until safety improvements were made satisfactory to the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT). This was not until 1981 , though the death of American bobsledder James Morgan during the four-man event on February 8 led to track officials shortening
10400-443: 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
10504-521: Was named after Eugenio Monti (1928–2003), who won six bobsleigh medals at the Winter Olympic Games between 1956 and 1968 and ten medals at the FIBT World Championships between 1957 and 1966 . It was featured in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only , held after the 1981 FIBT World Championships , before the track was shortened to its current configuration. In January 2008, after one last bobsleigh race tournament,
10608-527: Was renamed the Eugenio Monti Track ( Italian : Eugenio Monti pista ) early the following year. The track was awarded the 2011 World Championships in June 2007 over Winterberg , Germany, and was to have undergone homologation to involve skeleton (last competed in 1992) as well, though that was not done during the 2007-08 Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Cup season . Following some issues with
10712-658: 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
10816-457: Was responsible for sub-licensing them to broadcasters in each country, free-to-air rights packages were concurrently awarded to the EBU and its members to cover at least 100 hours of each Winter Olympics. EBU member RAI then signed a sub-licensing deal for Italian free-to-air TV and digital rights. In the United States, NBC will again broadcast the event as part of its US$ 7.75 billion contract to air
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