Editing Italian language (section)

== Languages and dialects ==
{{See also|Languages of Italy|Regional Italian}}
[[File:Dialetti Italia 1939.png|thumb|Linguistic map of Italy according to Clemente Merlo and Carlo Tagliavini (1937)]]
[[File:Minoranze linguistiche it.svg|thumb|Italy's ethno-linguistic minorities<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.minoranze-linguistiche-scuola.it/carta-generale/|title=Lingue di Minoranza e Scuola: Carta Generale|website=Minoranze-linguistiche-scuola.it|access-date=8 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010152621/http://www.minoranze-linguistiche-scuola.it/carta-generale/|archive-date=10 October 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>]]

In Italy, almost all the [[Languages of Italy|other languages spoken as the vernacular]]—other than standard Italian and some languages spoken among immigrant communities—are often called "[[Languages of Italy|Italian dialects]]", a label that can be very misleading if it is understood to mean "dialects of Italian". The Romance dialects of Italy are local evolutions of spoken Latin that pre-date the establishment of Italian, and as such are [[sister language]]s to the Tuscan that was the historical source of Italian. They can be quite different from Italian and from each other, with some belonging to different linguistic branches of Romance. The only exceptions to this are twelve groups considered "[[Minority languages of Italy|historical language minorities]]", which are officially recognised as distinct [[minority language]]s by the law. On the other hand, [[Corsican language|Corsican]] (a language spoken on the French island of [[Corsica]]) is closely related to medieval [[Tuscan dialect|Tuscan]], from which standard Italian derives and evolved.

The differences in the evolution of Latin in the different regions of Italy can be attributed to the natural [[Language change#Causes|changes]] that all languages in regular use are subject to, and to some extent to the presence of three other types of languages: [[Stratum (linguistics)|substrata, superstrata, and adstrata]]. The most prevalent were substrata (the language of the original inhabitants), as the Italian dialects were most probably simply Latin as spoken by native cultural groups. Superstrata and adstrata were both less important. Foreign conquerors of Italy that dominated different regions at different times left behind little to no influence on the dialects. Foreign cultures with which Italy engaged in peaceful relations with, such as trade, had no significant influence either.{{r|":0"|page=19–20}}

Throughout Italy, regional varieties of standard Italian, called [[Regional Italian]], are spoken. Regional differences can be recognised by various factors: the openness of vowels, the length of the consonants, and influence of the local language (for example, in informal situations ''{{Wikt-lang|it|andà}}'', ''{{Wikt-lang|it|annà}}'' and ''{{Wikt-lang|it|nare}}'' replace the standard Italian ''{{Wikt-lang|it|andare}}'' in the area of Tuscany, Rome and Venice respectively for the infinitive 'to go').

There is no definitive date when the various Italian variants of Latin—including varieties that contributed to modern standard Italian—began to be distinct enough from Latin to be considered separate languages. One criterion for determining that two language variants are to be considered separate languages rather than variants of a single language is that they have evolved so that they are no longer [[mutually intelligible]]; this diagnostic is effective if mutual intelligibility is minimal or absent (e.g. in Romance, Romanian and Portuguese), but it fails in cases such as Spanish-Portuguese or Spanish-Italian, as educated native speakers of either pairing (particularly Spanish-Portuguese) can understand each other well if they choose to do so; however, the level of intelligibility is markedly lower between Italian-Spanish, and considerably higher between the Iberian sister languages of Portuguese-Spanish. Speakers of this latter pair can communicate with one another with remarkable ease, each speaking to the other in his own native language, without slang/jargon.

Nevertheless, on the basis of accumulated differences in morphology, syntax, phonology, and to some extent lexicon, it is not difficult to identify that for the Romance varieties of Italy, the first extant written evidence of languages that can no longer be considered Latin comes from the 9th and 10th centuries CE. These written sources demonstrate certain vernacular characteristics and sometimes explicitly mention the use of the vernacular in Italy.

Full literary manifestations of the vernacular began to surface around the 13th century in the form of various religious texts and poetry.{{r|":0"|page=21}}Although these are the first written records of Italian varieties separate from Latin, the spoken language had probably diverged long before the first written records appeared since those who were literate generally wrote in Latin even if they spoke other Romance varieties in person.

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the use of standard Italian became increasingly widespread and was mirrored by a decline in the use of the dialects. An increase in literacy was one of the main driving factors (one can assume that only literates were capable of learning standard Italian, whereas those who were illiterate had access only to their native dialect). The percentage of literates rose from 25% in 1861 to 60% in 1911, and then on to 78.1% in 1951. [[Tullio De Mauro]], an Italian linguist, has asserted that in 1861, only 2.5% of the population of Italy could speak standard Italian. He reports that in 1951, that percentage had risen to 87%. The ability to speak Italian did not necessarily mean that it was in everyday use, and most people (63.5%) still usually spoke their native dialects. In addition, other factors such as mass emigration, industrialization, and urbanization, and internal migrations after [[World War II]], contributed to the proliferation of standard Italian. The Italians who emigrated during the [[Italian diaspora]] beginning in 1861 were often of the uneducated lower class, and thus the emigration had the effect of increasing the percentage of literates, who often knew and understood the importance of standard Italian back home in Italy. A large percentage of those who had emigrated also eventually returned to Italy, often more educated than when they had left.{{r|":0"|page=35}}

Although use of the Italian dialects has declined in the [[modern era]], as Italy unified under standard Italian and continues to do so aided by mass media from newspapers to radio to television, [[diglossia]] is still frequently encountered in Italy and [[triglossia]] is not uncommon in emigrant communities among older speakers. Both situations normally involve some degree of [[code-switching]] and [[code-mixing]].{{sfnp|Prifti|2014|}}