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Italian

Also known as Italian language, Italiana

Romance language

AI overview

Italian is a Romance language spoken primarily in Italy and by millions of people around the world. It matters as a major European language with significant cultural, historical, and economic importance, and as a direct descendant of Latin that influences how linguists understand language evolution.

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Wikidata facts

Image: Bartolomé de las Casas (1643) Istoria, ò, Breuissima Relatione della distruttione dell'Indie Occidentali.png

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Commons category: Italian language
native label: italiano
short name: ital
Wikimedia language code: it
exact match: data.linguistik.de/bll/bll-ontology#bll-133070670
Stack Exchange site URL: italian.stackexchange.com
P10369: Gdynia
number of speakers, writers, or signers: 3026000
P8168: Border Gateway Protocol
P11012: Boeing 747
entry in abbreviations table: итал.
hashtag: italian
Stack Exchange tag: linguistics.stackexchange.com/tags/italian
social media followers: 16588
P13311: monarch
female form of label: la langue italienne
NCI Thesaurus ID: C123788

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Article

Italian (italiano, pronounced [itaˈljaːno] , or lingua italiana, pronounced [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna]) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It is a standardised form of literary Florentine Tuscan and, together with Sardinian, is the least differentiated language from Latin. Current estimates indicate that between 68 and 85 million people speak Italian, including approximately 64 million native speakers as of 2024.

Italian is an official language in Italy, San Marino, Switzerland (Ticino and part of the Grisons), and Vatican City, and it has official minority status in Croatia, Slovenia (Istria), Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in 6 municipalities of Brazil. It is also spoken in other European and non-EU countries, most notably in Malta (by 66% of the population), Albania (upwards of 70%), and Monaco, as well as by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas, Australia, and on other continents.