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Italian Dialects
Considered a single language with numerous dialects, Italian, like other Romance languages, is the direct offspring of Latin spoken by the Romans and imposed by them on the peoples under their domination. Of all the major Romance languages, Italian retains the closest resemblance to Latin.In modern Italian the Latin qualities of the Florentine dialect are preserved, but the vocabulary of Latin has been made to meet the changing conditions of Italian life. The simplicity of the phonetic changes from Latin, along with an almost perfect phonetic orthography, makes learning Italian easy for a person who knows Latin or any of its modern Romance forms.
The dialects of Italian identified by the Ethnologue are Tuscan, Piemontese, Sardinian, Abruzzese, Pugliese (Apulian), Umbrian, Laziale, Central Marchigiano, Cicolano-Reatino-Aquilano, and Molisan. Other dialects are Milanese, Brescian, Bergamasc, Venetian, Modenese, Bolognese, Sicilian and so on, essentially one per city.
Many of the so-called dialects of Italian spoken around the country are different enough from standard Italian to be considered separate languages by most linguists and some speakers themselves. Thus a distinction can be made between "dialects of (standard) Italian" and "dialects (or languages) of Italy".
There are two major groups of Italian dialects, excepting the Sardinian group which is considered another language entirely. These two groups are separated by the Spezia-Rimini line, named for the two cities near which it passes; the line runs east-west across the peninsula, for the most part following the border between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, then cutting into the Marches. Above the divide lie the Northern (Settentrionale) dialects; below it the Central-Southern (Centro-Meridionale) dialects.
- The Septentrional or Northern dialects are divided into two main groups: the largest of these geographically is the Gallo-Italic group, enclosing the regions of Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy, and Emilia-Romagna, as well as parts of Trentino-Alto Adige. Next largest is the Venetic group, whose borders loosely follow the region of Veneto.
- The Central-Meridional dialects are of four distinct groups. The Tuscan group occupies an area roughly approximating that of the region of Tuscany. To the south are the Latin-Umbrian-Marchegian dialects, which occupy the northern half of Latium (including Rome), most of Umbria and some of the Marches. These two are also sometimes grouped together as the Central dialects. Directly below these are the Meridional dialects, of two major types. The Intermediate Meridional dialects occupy the bottom half of the peninsula, including the regions of southern Lazio, Abruzzi, Molise, Campania, Basilicata, and parts of Apulia. The tips of Calabria and Apulia, however, together with Sicily, delineate the Extreme Meridional dialects.
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