Introduction
Italian belongs to the Romance branch of the Indo-European language family. Like the other Romance languages, it is a descendant of Vulgar Latin spoken by the Romans and imposed by them on the peoples under their rule. Italy map. Therefore, it shares many characteristics with other Romance languages. It is spoken by 57.7 million people in Italy with a total worldwide 64 million speakers in some 29 countries. Italian dialects form a continuum of intelligibility, with the geographically distant ones being mutually unintelligible. In modern Italy, people communicate mostly in regional dialects, although standard Italian is the only written language. It is estimated that about half of Italy’s population does not speak standard Italian as a native language. Most speakers of the dozens of regional Italian dialects come in contact with standard Italian in elementary school.
If you have always wanted to learn Italian, you’re nowhere near alone; millions of people study the language every day around the world. And it’s no wonder! Italian is a language that captures a rich culture and history. The Italian language can take you around the world, from Europe to Africa to North America and beyond. But you might have a lot of questions about why you should learn Italian or what it takes to get started — or why it’s even worthwhile at all. The good news is you can rest assured that learning the Italian language is an effort worth undertaking. With the right technology to guide you in your journey, you’ll see your effor