Facts about Italian language

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Italy is a land that is famous for it's food culture and it’s rich hithe story. Italian is the national language of country and is now spoken many countries around the world. Here are some facts about the Italian language!

1. It was adopted as the official language of Italy in 1861

Prior 1861, Italy was divided into different states with different foreign leaders. The Tuscan dialect was made the official language after Unification of Italy.

2. Has only 21 letters

J,K,W,X and Y aren’t used in the Italian language.

3. Is considered as one of the closest language to Latin

It has a lot of similarities with Latin when it comes to vocabulary and pronunciations of words.

4. Some of the Italian words are misused in English

For example, the word “panini" in English is referred to as type of sandwich but in Italian it means more than 1 sandwich/roll.

5. 66 million Italian speakers worldwide

It has around 63 million native speakers and 3 million who speak Italian as their second language.

6. Greater than 700,000 Americans speak Italian

This is primarily because of the large immigration from Italy to US in the 19th Century. Majority of these Americans reside in New York and New Jersey.

7. The word “Volt” is Italian in origin

Volt was derived from the Italian scientist Alessandro Volta who was known for the creation of Voltaic pile.

8. Longest word contains 30 letters

The word is “psiconeuroendocrinoimmunologia” (Psycho Neuro Endocrino Immunology). However, the longest word used in casual speech is “precipitevolissimevolmente” which means very hastily.

9. Contains a lot of words with double consonants 

However, the words with double q are not as prevalent. One example of the word with double q is “soqquadro" which mean disarray.