Italian Language

Is a Romance language, the second closest to Latin in terms of vocabulary, after the Sardinian.

Italian is the official language of Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican and Istria (in Slovenia and in Croatia). It is used as co-official in Albania, Malta and Monaco, where it is still widely spoken, as well as in the former Italian East Africa and the regions of North Africa where Italian plays a significant role in various sectors.

The language is also spoken by large expatriate communities in the Americas and by small minorities in places like Crimea, France (especially in Corsica), Montenegro and Tunisia.

The present Italian language derives largely from Vulgar Latin. Initially, there were two types of Latin spoken until the Middle Ages: the classical Latin spoken by the most cultured and influential Romans or by the inhabitants of the original, more complex Roman area, and the vulgar Latin spoken by the Roman soldiers and the dominated peoples by these.