Editing Italian language (section)

== Classification ==
Italian is a [[Romance language]], a descendant of [[Vulgar Latin]] (colloquial spoken Latin). Standard Italian is based on [[Tuscan language|Tuscan]], especially its [[Florentine dialect]], and is, therefore, an [[Italo-Dalmatian languages|Italo-Dalmatian language]], a classification that includes most other central and southern Italian languages and the extinct [[Dalmatian language|Dalmatian]]. As in most Romance languages, [[stress (linguistics)|stress]] is distinctive in Italian.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pdx.edu/multicultural-topics-communication-sciences-disorders/italian|title=Portland State Multicultural Topics in Communications Sciences & Disorders {{!}} Italian|website=www.pdx.edu|access-date=5 February 2017|archive-date=6 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206105028/https://www.pdx.edu/multicultural-topics-communication-sciences-disorders/italian|url-status=dead}}</ref>

According to ''[[Ethnologue]]'', [[lexical similarity]] is 89% with French, 87% with [[Catalan language|Catalan]], 85% with [[Sardinian language|Sardinian]], 82% with Spanish, 82% with [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], 78% with [[Ladin language|Ladin]], 77% with [[Romanian language|Romanian]].<ref name=e25/> Estimates may differ according to sources.<ref name="ezglot.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.ezglot.com/most-similar-languages.php?l=ita|title=Similar languages to Italian|website=ezglot.com|access-date=14 May 2021|archive-date=30 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210430213746/https://www.ezglot.com/most-similar-languages.php?l=ita|url-status=live}}</ref>

A 1949 study by the linguist [[Mario Pei]] concluded that out of seven Romance languages, Italian's stressed vowel phonology was the second-closest to that of Vulgar Latin (after Sardinian).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pei |first=Mario |author-link=Mario Pei |date=1949 |title=A New Methodology for Romance Classification |journal=WORD |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=135–146 |doi=10.1080/00437956.1949.11659494 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The study emphasized, however, that it represented only "a very elementary, incomplete and tentative demonstration" of how statistical methods could measure linguistic change, assigned "frankly arbitrary" point values to various types of change, and did not compare languages in the sample with respect to any characteristics or forms of divergence other than stressed vowels, among other caveats.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pei |first=Mario |author-link=Mario Pei |date=1949 |title=A New Methodology for Romance Classification |journal=WORD |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=135–146 |doi=10.1080/00437956.1949.11659494 |doi-access=free }} Demonstrates a comparative statistical method for determining the extent of change from the Latin for the free and checked stressed vowels of French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Rumanian, Old Provençal, and Logudorese Sardinian. By assigning 3½ change points per vowel (with 2 points for diphthongization, 1 point for modification in vowel quantity, ½ point for changes due to nasalization, palatalization or umlaut, and −½ point for failure to effect a normal change), there is a maximum of 77 change points for free and checked stressed vowel sounds (11×2×3½=77). According to this system (illustrated by seven charts at the end of the article), the percentage of change is greatest in French (44%) and least in Italian (12%) and Sardinian (8%). Prof. Pei suggests that this statistical method could be extended not only to all other phonological but also to all morphological and syntactical phenomena.</ref><ref>See [[Classification of Romance languages|Koutna ''et al.'' (1990: 294)]]: "In the late forties and in the fifties some new proposals for classification of the Romance languages appeared. A statistical method attempting to evaluate the evidence quantitatively was developed in order to provide not only a classification but at the same time a measure of the divergence among the languages. The earliest attempt was made in 1949 by Mario Pei (1901–1978), who measured the divergence of seven modern Romance languages from Classical Latin, taking as his criterion the evolution of stressed vowels. Pei's results do not show the degree of contemporary divergence among the languages from each other but only the divergence of each one from Classical Latin. The closest language turned out to be Sardinian with 8% of change. Then followed Italian — 12%; Spanish — 20%; Romanian — 23,5%; Provençal — 25%; Portuguese — 31%; French — 44%."</ref>