Compared to many other major languages in Europe Italian is spoken by a relatively small number of people. Primary Italian speakers add up to about sixty five million native speakers, with an additional fourteen million who speak the language secondarily. While other European languages are spoken by massive populations outside of Europe, Italian only receives an additional twenty million speakers, adding up to a total of about 80-85 million speakers these days.
The vast majority of these speakers live in Italy, though Switzerland and a few other countries feature statistically significant Italian speaking populations. When looking for an individual to perform Italian translation for you it's a good idea to have an understanding of where this language came from and how it reached its modern standing.
Many people make the mistake of assuming that Italian is essentially the modern form of the Latin language, due to the identical geographic base of the two. This assumption holds some merit, but isn't entirely true. Like other Romance languages (including French) the Italian language is primarily rooted in Vulgar Latin, yet a distinct language closely resembling modern Italian wasn't developed and identified until the beginning of the 1300's.
It was Dante Alighieri who actually, in many ways, formulated and systematized the Italian language. Dante combined a number of languages from the south of Italy, including heavy influences from Florence and Sicily, to write what would later be known as his Divine Comedy. It's hard to overstate or express the importance of Dante's writing when it came to systematizing the modern Italian language. Dante's works were incredibly widely read throughout the country, especially among the wealthy and educated members of society. Because they were read by all of the decision makers of the time the language Dante used in his poetry became the most common formulation and dialect understood by the largest number of influential people at the time.
While Dante's writing essentially made the speech patterns of Florence the standard for the entire country, Italy continued to utilize a wide variety of dialects in every day speech. Part of this had to do with the political nature of Italian society and culture, with each city considered to be its own semi-antonymous city-state. With the standardization of the Italian language these dialects retained many of their regional inflections, though for the most part these differences are cosmetic (relating to pronunciation) and not structural. While French influences entered northern Italy through both conquest (the Normans) and culture (the bards), overall it was Dante who is created with the formation of the modern Italian language more than anyone else.
Most of the resulting history of the Italian language is little more than a further standardization of the speech and writing, often through adoption by the nation's legal and religious institutions. The lyrical nature of Italian should make more sense now when you realize that it was primarily designed by a poet, making it obvious that you require a true specialist when it comes to understanding and navigating the tricky nature of Italian translation.
Charlene Lacandazo is a marketing executive for Rosetta Translation, a leading full-service translation agency in London, UK.
Rosetta Translation specialises in Italian translation, as well as interpreting services worldwide.
