Editing Lombard language (section)

=== Speakers ===
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Pietro speaking Lombard.webm|thumb|A Lombard speaker]]
Historically, the vast majority of [[Lombards]] spoke only Lombard, as "Italian" was merely a literary language, and most Italians were not able to read or write.<ref>{{Cite book |last=De Mauro |first=T. |date=1970 |title=Storia linguistica dell'Italia unita |language=it |trans-title=Linguistic history of unified Italy |edition=Second |location=Laterza, Berkeley}}</ref> After the [[Italian economic miracle]], Standard Italian arose throughout Italy and Lombard-speaking Switzerland, wholly-[[monoglot|monolingual]] Lombard-speakers became a rarity as time went by, but a small minority may still be uncomfortable speaking Standard Italian. Surveys in Italy find that all Lombard-speakers also speak Italian, and their command of both two languages varies according to their [[geography|geographical]] position as well as their [[sociology|socio]]-[[economics|economic]] situation. The most reliable predictor was found to be the speaker's age. Studies have found that young people are much less likely to speak Lombard as proficiently as their grandparents.<ref>2006 [http://portal-lem.com/images/it/Italie/Lingue_e_dialetti_e_lingue_straniere_in_Italia.pdf report] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704234603/http://portal-lem.com/images/it/Italie/Lingue_e_dialetti_e_lingue_straniere_in_Italia.pdf |date=2010-07-04 }} by the Italian institute for national statistics. ([[Istituto Nazionale di Statistica|ISTAT]])</ref> In some areas, elderly people are more used to speaking Lombard than Italian even though they know both.