Italian Language

language · Europe · Latin roots · communication

Born from Florence. Italian developed from Latin spoken in the Tuscany region of Italy, especially in the city of Florence. It became standardized as a literary language during the Renaissance.

Closest to Latin. Along with Sardinian, Italian is the Romance language that stayed most similar to ancient Latin. This makes it easier to understand how languages change over time.

Millions of speakers. Between 68 and 85 million people speak Italian today, with about 64 million native speakers. It's an official language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, and Vatican City.

Romance language family. Italian belongs to the Romance languages, which all evolved from Latin spoken throughout the Roman Empire. Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Romanian are its cousins.

Renaissance treasure. Italian became a written standard during the Italian Renaissance when great writers and artists used it. This helped spread the language across Europe as their work became famous.