From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Italy currently has one national language: Standard Italian. Alongside Italian and its inevitable regional varieties are innumerable local Romance languages which pre-date the establishment of Italian, most of which are different enough from Standard Italian to be considered separate languages by most linguists and many speakers. Quite naturally, they are generally not standardized. Thus a distinction can be made between "dialects -- better termed varieties -- of (Standard) Italian" and "dialects and languages of Italy", the latter essentially a geopolitical term, rather than linguistic.

Still other languages spoken in Italy are not closely related to Standard Italian at all. Moreover since the Second World War the Italian language, once spoken by a minority, has undergone a process of homogenisation. Education and mass media, especially television, have rendered the Italian language accessible to the most Italians, on the other hand the same phenomenon has brought about a simplification and banalisation of the language.

Contents 1 Languages spoken in Italy 1.1 Romance languages 1.1.1 Gallo-Italian 1.1.2 Gallo-Rhaetian 1.1.3 Ibero-Romance 1.1.4 Italo-Dalmatian 1.1.5 Judeo-Italian 1.1.6 Rhaeto-Romance 1.1.7 Sardinian 1.1.8 Sicilian 1.2 Albanian languages 1.3 Germanic languages 1.4 Greek languages 1.5 Indo-Aryan languages 1.6 Slavic languages 2 See also 3 External links

• Emiliano-Romagnolo
  • Emiliano
  • Romagnolo
• Ligurian
• Lombard
  • Insubric
  • Orobic
• Piedmontese
• Venetian

• Franco-Provençal
  • Faeto
  • Valdôtain (Valdoten)
• French

• Alguerese
• Occitan
• Provençal

• Central Italian
  • Laziale
  • Marchigiano
  • Romanesco
  • Umbrian
  • Tuscan -- the base of Standard Italian
• Corsican
  • Gallurese (considered by some authors as a variety of Sardinian)
  • Sassarese (considered by some authors as a variety of Sardinian)
• Neapolitan (Inner Southern Italian)
  • Neapolitan of Campania
  • Abruzzese Neapolitan
  • Molisano Neapolitan
  • Lucano Neapolitan
  • Pugliese Neapolitan
  • Cosentino
• Sicilian (Extreme Southern Italian)
  • Sicilian of Sicily
  • Pugliese Sicilian
  • Calabro

• Italkian (Jewish language form; term coined in the mid-20th C. Spoken by the small minority of Jews in Italy.)

• Friulian
• Ladin
• Nones
• Solardo

• Gallurese (considered by some authors as a variety of Corsican)
• Sassarese (considered by some authors as a variety of Corsican)
• Sardo campidanese
• Sardo logudorese

• Southern Calabrian
• Salentino
• Siciliano

• Arbëresh

• Standard German
  • Bavarian
  • Cimbrian
  • Walser German

• Griko

• Rom
• Sinti

• Molise Slavic dialect
• Slovenian

• Demographics of Italy
• Italian dialects
• European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
• Regional language

• An interactive map of languages and dialects in Italy
• Ethnologue - Languages of Italy