It’s well known that the standard Italian in use today comes from the Florentine dialect that was first formalized in 14th century through the works of Dante Alighieri. It was later adopted as the language of the newly unified Italy in 1861. But what about other dialects of Italy?

1. Dialects are not dialects! They are languages in their own right.  

2. Dialects are not a lesser or dumber version of Italian. They have a rich cultural history.

3. Dialects derive from Latin. Dialects are not a derivative of Italian but they both descend from Latin.  

4. There is no such thing as a regional dialect (i.e. Abruzzese or Ligurian). All dialects are local.

5. After the fall of Western Roman Empire in 476AD, Latin as the main language of the territories started to erode. Continuous invasions in the Middle Ages meant that people became isolated and confined to their local areas so dialects began to flourish.

6. Dialects are not immutable or pure (i.e. there is no such thing as the ‘real’ dialect). Dialects like all languages change and innovate over time.

7. 32.2% of the Italian population aged six years of age and older expressed themselves in both Italian and dialect in the household.

8. Dialects have influenced Italian. Words such as pizza (Neapolitan), ciao (Venetian origin ‘s’ciavo’) and mafia (of northern origin) have come into the Italian vernacular from dialects.

9. Article 6 of the Italian Constitution safeguards linguistic minorities

10. The belief (promoted by UNESCO) that a single language is spoken throughout southern Italy (South Italian) is scientifically unfounded.

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This information has been sourced from the excellent course Dialetti in Italia (Dialects in Italy) offered by University of Naples Federico II on the Edx online learning platform. It’s a 6 week self paced course in Italian. You can do the course for free or upgrade to get a certificate.