I started learning Italian back when I was in 9th grade. It was the first language I started on my own, with a language course for self-studies, instead of at school. Later, in vocational school, I joined an Italian class for one and a half year but soon noticed that I was already ahead of the class. Still, it gave me an opportunity to study and use Italian once a week at least (as I was very busy with all my other school stuff too at home).
Italian
Geographical Extension
Italian is spoken in Italy, Switzerland (as one of four official languages), San Marino and the Vatican City as well as by minorities in Malta, Croatia and Slovenia as official language.
Spoken by
Italian is spoken by about 62 million native speakers.
Language Family and History
The first records of what might be called "modern Italian" date from 960-963 and are legal papers from the region Benevento. The actual development of today's Italian came through writing. It was a poet from the Florentine region, Dante Alighieri, who standardized the many different Italian languages through his epic poems known as the Commedia in the early 14th century. Thus, his dialect became the basis of Italy's official language.
Even though Italy was ruled by foreign powers in the past, their languages didn't leave many traces in the Italian language. The various dialects of the many Italian cities, though, differed (and still differ) greatly. However, with Dante's poems in the 14th century and Florence gaining political and cultural relevance over the next centuries, a refined version of the Florentine dialect became a standard throughout Italy.
Finally, after a heated debate between different factions, the idea of an Italian language based on the great literary classics became prevalent and led to the publication of the first Italian dictionary (1612). Already 30 years before that, however, the Accademia della Crusca in Florence was founded as official legislative body of the Italian language.
At last, it was the influence of two other Romance languages which brought a more regular grammar (through Spanish invaders in the 16th century) and a unification of Italy as one country with one Italian language as a result of Napoleon's invasion (early 19th century).
Grammar Difficulty
Italian grammar is similar to Spanish and French grammar as those languages are closely related. It is more complex than the English grammar. Italian conjugates all verbs, for example, and changes adjectives depending on number and gender of the corresponding noun. It has both male and female nouns (and different articles for male and female). Like the Spanish language, the Italian language doesn’t need the personal pronouns and only uses them for clarification or stressing. The subject is usually clear from the conjugated verb.
Pronunciation Difficulty
My greatest issue with Italian pronunciation is the rolling "r". I simply can't get it right. For me as a German native, the other sounds aren't really difficult; it's only this one which doesn't exist in German. The spelling vs. pronunciation is quite easy to learn. Unlike English, the Italian language usually spells their words in accordance with their pronunciation, meaning that you can derive the pronunciation directly from the spelling.
Special Facts
What we know as Italian nowadays is a mixture of various Italian dialects from different cities. Although the Florentine dialect became the base for modern Italian, many words come from different cities. Civil servants and soldiers from all parts of Italy enriched the standardised Italian language with words and idioms from their homes and helped forge the language we know as Italian. At the time the various city-states unified to one nation in 1861, only about 2.5 % of Italians speak the "standard" Italian language.
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