Italian language

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• Indo-European languages Italic languages Romance Languages Italo Romance Languages Italian

It

Ita

Ita

Italian (Italian lingua italiana, italiano [ ITALIA ː no] ) is a language of the Roman branch of the Indo-European languages ​​. Within this branch of the Italian language belongs to the group of Italo- Romance languages.

• 4.2.1 plosives
• 4.2.2 Nasal
• 4.2.3 vibrants
• 4.2.4 fricatives
• 4.2.5 Lateral

• 5.1 semi-vowels and consonants as phonemes half
• 5.2 Literature

Dissemination

Italian is spoken by about 70 million people as a native language, the Italians, of which the vast majority lives in Italy. As a second and learned foreign language Italian among the many minorities or ethnic groups in Italy is used: the German-speaking Alto Adige, Ladin, the Slovenes in Friuli- Venezia Giulia, the Frankoprovenzalen in the Aosta Valley and the Occitans in Piedmont, the Friuli, the Sardinians, the Albanian and Greek-speaking minorities of Southern Italy, the Moliseslawen.

Italian is the official language in the following countries:

In addition, Italian is the official language of Malta.

The status of a regional official language enjoys the Italian in Slovenia and Croatia, in the fields of historical Venezia Giulia region. The Slovenian municipalities Koper / Koper, Isola d'Istria / Izola and Piran / Piran and the Croatian Istria County are officially bilingual.

In the former Italian colonies in Africa, Libya, Somalia and Eritrea, Italian served alongside English as the language of commerce, but has lost much of its importance since decolonization: It is spoken mainly by the older population, or at least understood. In Somalia, the Transitional Constitution of 2004 provides that Italian should be next to the English secondary language.

Many Italian -born emigrants around the world continue to dominate Italian. In Buenos Aires was formed temporarily cocoliche, a mixed language with the Spanish, strong out.

Italian words were incorporated into various terminologies, such as in music, design, technology, kitchen or banking.

Blue: The official language Light Blue: lingua franca Green squares: Italian minorities.

History

Like all Romance languages ​​is derived from the Italian from Latin. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, after the fall of the Roman Empire in Europe were Latin as the official language and the language of the Church. The Latin asserted, moreover, as a written language. Was spoken, however - even when the Roman Empire still existed - a different font from the standard form of language, which is also known as Vulgar Latin or speaking Latin. From this developed the proto- Romanesque Romanesque vernacular and finally the individual languages ​​.

Thus, in Italy and its neighboring countries new languages, such as the Oïl languages ​​in northern France, the Oc - languages ​​in the South of France and the Sì languages ​​in Italy, so named by Dante Alighieri on the respective name for created "yes".

The first written evidence of the Italian vernacular date back to the late 8th or early 9th century. The first is a riddle which was found in the Biblioteca Capitular di Verona and is referred to as indovinello Veronese ( Verona puzzle):

The distribution of the vernacular was favored by practical needs. Documents related to legal matters between persons who dominated not know Latin, had to be written to understand. So one of the oldest documents of the Italian language is the Placito Cassinese from the 10th century: " Sao ko kelle terre, per kelle fini que ki contene, trenta anni le possette parte Sancti St. Benedict. » ( Capua, March 960). The Council of Tours 813 recommended to use the vernacular instead of Latin in the sermon. Another factor was the emergence of cities around the turn of the millennium, because the municipalities had to write their decisions in a form understandable to all citizens.

Lived for centuries, both the Italian vernacular languages ​​as well as Latin, which was still used by the educated side by side on. It was only in the 13th century begins an independent Italian literature, first in Sicily at the court of Frederick II ( Scuola siciliana ). Writers influenced the further development of the Italian crucial since they only created a national standard to overcome the language differences between the various dialects. Dante Alighieri, who used a slightly modified form of the Florentine dialect, in his works, was particularly influential here. Great influence on the Italian language in the 14th century also had Francesco Petrarca and Giovanni Boccaccio, known together with Dante as the tre corone ( three crowns) of Italian literature.

In the 16th century has been discussed in the Questione della lingua on the form and status of the Italian language, had significant influence here Niccolò Machiavelli, Baldassare Castiglione and Pietro Bembo. It finally sat down a historicist form of the language by which. Onto the Tuscan of 13-14 Century back.

The real unification, especially of spoken language, however, took place only as a result of national unification. As Italian language unit sat in the 19th century in the united Italy, the Florentine dialect through. This is thanks to, among others, the second version of the novel I Promessi Sposi by Alessandro Manzoni.

Dialects and languages

The individual dialects of the Italian partly very different from each other; occasionally some dialects also be classified as independent languages. All Italian dialects and languages ​​spoken in Italy Romance languages ​​go directly back to the ( vulgar ) Latin. Putting it - somewhat exaggerated - even all Romance dialects of Italy called " Latin dialects ".

A distinction Northern, Central and Southern Italian languages ​​or dialects. The northern Italian share in galloitalische and venezische dialects. The dialect boundaries lie along a line between the coastal towns of La Spezia and Rimini and Rome and Ancona. The Northern Italian languages ​​are historically associated with the French and the Occitan language used as a Gallo-Roman languages ​​closer than with the Central and Southern Italy.

Some Italian dialects such as Sicilian or Venetian can also refer to its own literary tradition ( the so-called Scuola siciliana the time of Frederick II ), which is why sometimes a classification of these ( and other dialects ) is postulated as a separate language. Also in phonation and vocabulary, the Sicilian so many peculiarities that it is more of a Italian language closely related.

However, the classification of the Sardinian, Ladin and Friulian is now recognized as a separate language in linguistics.

Phonetics and phonology

Vowels

Haupttonvokale

The Italian has 7 Haupttonvokale.

• [i ]: The front tongue is on the front hard palate ( palate ) and the tip of the tongue to the alveoli of the lower incisors. The lips are spread. Example: isola - [i ː zola ].
• [e ]: The tongue is not quite as high as in [i] and the tip of the tongue touches the lower teeth. The lips are less spread and the mouth is opened wider than in the [i]. Example: mela - [me ː la ].
• [ ɛ ]: The tongue is moderately elevated and slightly arched forward. The tip of the tongue touches the lower incisors. The lips are less spread than in [e ] and the mouth is slightly open. Example: bella - [ bɛl ː a].
• [a ]: The Italian [A] is between [A ] (" light " A ), and [ ɑ ] (" dark " a). The tongue is in the rest position, the lips and mouth open. Example: pane - [ pa ː ne].
• [ ɔ ]: The Italian [ ɔ ] is spoken quite openly. It is a rear tongue sound. The tongue is pulled back and arched against the soft palate ( velum ). The tip pointing down. The lips in the form of a vertical ellipse. Example: pink - [ rɔ ː za].
• [o ]: The Italian [o ] is roughly in the middle between [ ɔ ] and [ o]. It is thus realized relatively open. The tongue is retracted and lowered slightly. The lips are laid inside out and rounded. Example: sotto - [ sot ː o].
• [u ]: The Italian [ u] is a back vowel. The posterior dorsum of the tongue is curled to the soft palate. The lips are rounded and strongly pre inside out. Example: fuga - [ fu ː ɡa ].

Nebentonvokale

The Italian has 5 Nebentonvokale. In the unstressed vowels omitted the open vowels [ ɛ ] and [ ɔ ]. The result is compared to the Haupttonvokalismus (7 vowels ) in a reduced sub ​​sound system with 5 vowels.

Consonants

A consonant ( consonant ) is a speech sound is interrupted or concentrated at the formation of the air flow. The Italian has 43 consonants can be classified by the following articulatory parameters:

For the Italian subsequent articulations of meaning: plosive, nasal, fricative, approximant and Lateral.

Source: SAMPA for Italian ( English )

Plosives

[b, d, g] be emphasized voiced and [ p, t, k] not spoken aspirated.

• [p, b] bilabial plosive ( between the upper and lower lip ): pasta, basta
• [t, d] - coronal alveolar plosive ( with the tongue tip against the tooth rear surfaces / tooth vaginal ): tassa, nudo
• [k, g] palatal / velar -dorsal plosive ( with hard / soft palate and the dorsum of the tongue ): campo, gamba

Nasal

For nasals in the oral cavity, a closure is formed, so that the flow of air escapes through the nose.

• [m ] bilabial: mum
• [n ] adental - coronal or coronal - alveolar in certain cases, dental coronal: nonno
• [ ɱ ] labiodental; before [f, v]: inferno, inverno
• [ ŋ ] velar - dorsally; before [k, g]: ome, dunque
• [ ɲ ] palatal: vigna, campagna

Vibrants

Trills are sounds which are formed by a three to five times flutter of the tongue tip at the upper dental dam ( " rolled R").

• [r ]: treno, re

Fricatives

For fricatives, the air flow is concentrated using the articulation organ. The result is a friction rub.

• [ ʒ ] is in Italian language only in foreign words or the affricate [ dʒ ].
• [f, v] labiodental Tight sound ( between the lower lip and upper incisors ): fino vino
• [ ʃ ] post- alveolar Tight sound: sciare, sciopero
• [j ] palatal - dorsal: nazione, dizionario

Lateral

Lateral are sounds in which the edges of the tongue and the back teeth a boundary is formed.

• [ l] denti - coronal: lusso, velo
• [ ʎ ] apico - alveolar or apico - dental: gli, figlio

Affricates

A is an oral affricate consonant, in which the closure is achieved in the second stage to such an extent that a fricative arises. They are either monophonematic counted (ie, as a phoneme ) or biphonematisch (two successive phonemes ). Moreover, a distinction between homorganic (formation of closure and friction with the same articulation organ ) and heterorganen (formation with different articulation organs) affricates. The affricates are in Italian lute [ dz ], [ ts ] ( homorgan ) and [ dʒ ] and [ tʃ ] ( heterorgan ).

• [ dz, ts ] zero, canzone
• [ dʒ ] [ tʃ ] giapponese, cinese

Geminates

The Italian distinguishes between short and long consonants. Geminates (from the Latin Geminare = double ) are usually written as double consonants and very elongated. The difference between single - and long consonants is meaningful in the distinctively Italian. example:

• Fato - [' fa: to] ' fate, destiny '
• Fatto - [' fat ː o] ' made ​​, created '

The preceding vowel is shortened there.

Certain phonemes such as [ ʎ ː ], [ ɲ ː ], [ ʃ ː ], [ ts ] and [ dz ] occur between vowels as geminates always on, even if they simply occur in Scripture. example:

• Figlio - [' fiʎ ː o]
• Ragno - [' raɲ ː o]
• Lasciare - [ laʃ'ʃa: re]
• Azione - [ at'tsjo: ne ]
• Mazurca - [ mad'dzurka ]

Relationship According Letter

The Italian spelling reflects the sound level similar to the Spanish or Romanian resist reasonably accurate. The present Italian needed 21 letters of the Latin alphabet. The letters k, j, w, x, y occur only in Latinisms, Gräzismen or foreign words. The j is found in historical texts sometimes for a (now no longer written ) i double Unlike in Spanish, Italian knows no continuous marking the stressed syllable. Only in endbetonten words a grave (`) is set ( example: martedì, città ciò, più ) - e depending on the pronunciation an acute (') or grave accent (`): piè [ pjɛ ː ], perché [ perke ː ] ). In very rare cases, is also set at a and o acute. The circumflex is sometimes found in texts to show the fusion of two i, for example, i principi ( the princes of principe ) as opposed to i Principi ( the principles of principii of principio ). For clarity, the accent is now and again to the importance of distinctive hand (s - " and " è " he is " ), partly in dictionaries or on maps.

The letters g, c, and letter combinations with sc

The following letter combinations of the Italian spelling for attention:

• Follows the letter g an e or an i, so this g as dsch ( IPA: [ ʤ ] ) is pronounced.
• Follows the letter c an e or an i, so this c as ch ( IPA: [ ʧ ] ) is pronounced.
• Should immediately follow an unstressed i another vowel, it remains silent - it leads to the above-described change in the g and the c, but is itself not spoken, eg Giove [ ʤɔ.ve ] and ciabatta [ tʃabat ː a ].
• The h is always silent, thus, for example, described the effect of e or i are repealed: that is, spaghetti is [ spaɡɛt ː i] pronounced. Spaghetti (without h) would like [ spaʤɛt ː i] are pronounced.
• U pronounced as [ ɡ ] g and c before a, o or or [ k].
• The stated rules also apply in the case of double consonants (see there) gg and cc: bocca [' bok ː a], baccello [ baʧ ː ɛl ː o] bacchetta [ bak ː ɛt ː a], leggo [' lɛg ː o], maggio [' madʤo ].
• The situation is similar with the letter combination sc (h): scambio [' skambjo ], scopa [ sko ː pa ] scuola [ skwɔla ], schema [ skɛma ], schivo [ ski ː vo ], but: scienza [ ʃɛnʦa ], sciagura [ ʃagu ː ra ]. [ ʃ ], the German letter combination sh.

¹ For these cases, there are exceptions where the i is not dumb, eg farmacia [ farmatʃi.a ], magia [ ma'ʤia ], leggio [ io lɛ'ʤ ː ] or sciare [ ʃ'ʃiare ].

Letter combinations with gl and gn

• The letters gl corresponds to a palatalized "l" (equivalent to the Spanish "ll" ), a close fusion of the sounds [l ] and [ j] ( IPA: [ ʎ ] ), such as "brilliant ", " film ".
• The letters gn corresponds to a palatalized "n" ( "ñ" in Spanish ( señora ), " нь / њ " in Cyrillic script, " ń " in Polish, " ň " in Czech (DAN ), the same as " gn " in French ( AA ), or in Hungarian "ny", a narrow fusion of sounds [n ] and [ j] ( IPA: [ ɲ ] ), as in " cognac," Champagne.

The phoneme inventory of the Italian

Semi-vowels and consonants as phonemes half

In view of the existing in Italian semi-vowels [i ] and [u ] or semi- consonants [j ] and [w ], the question arises to what extent these can be considered as independent phonemes. Researchers such as Castellani and Fiorelli are of the view that this was indeed the case. The comparison of word pairs, in which even the vocal and even the semi-vowel / Halbkonsonant is at the same place, is the only way to clarify this question. As examples thus serve:

• Piano - [ pi'a: no] ( Pio ) and piano [ ' pia ː no]
• Spianti [ spi'anti ] (verb spiare ) and spianti - [' spjanti ] (verb spiantare )
• Lacuale [ laku'a: le] and la quale - [ la ' kwa ː le]
• Arcuata - [ arku'a: ta ] and Arquata - [ ar'kwa ː ta ].

The observed in these word pairs opposition between the vowel and the semi-vowel / consonant, however the half faces the problem of the individual language realization. To start from the semi-vowels / consonants as separate phonemes, these word pairs must always be pronounced differently and thus can also be understood independently of the context in their particular importance. However, this can not be assumed, as the voice realization of factors such as " speaking rate, individual idiosyncrasies or the phonetic environment in the neighborhood word " depends. For example, vary the pronunciation in the poetry of rhythmic reasons. Based on these findings, researchers such as Liechem and Bonfante come to the conclusion that the respective semi-vowels and semi- consonants in Italian " in a position- related changes with each other " and " that the Italian semi-vowels are combinatorial variants of the corresponding vowel phonemes, so no separate phonemes ".