The origin of the word “Italy” goes back to Greece. This word meant – “the country of calves”, as a bull was the symbol of Italics, who inhabited the southern part of today’s Italy in those ancient times. Italics themselves, having come here from the North, occupied these territories in the 2nd century BC –the history, which is more ancient, than Roman civilization, only Ancient Egypt and the civilization of the Celestial Empire can boast of.
It’s not hard to relate the origin of the Italian language with these people – Italics, among other languages, have also boosted the development of the Latin language. Latin in particular, which also used to be called Vulgar Latin, and which is now considered a dead language, eventually formed the Italian language.
Italian language – is the Romanic language, which appears to be native to more than 70 million people all over the world, about 150 million people speak Italian as a foreign language. Italian is an official language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino and Vatican. Italian literary language is based on the Tuscan dialect (including the dialects of Florence). Italian is closer to Latin than any other Roman language.
The first text that can be positively related to Italian, rather than to Vulgar Latin dates back to 960-963 AD. It is an embodiment, written in one of the Italian dialects, to the texts of juridical orders, drafted in Latin. The language that later on will gain the name of Italian, took its shape in the beginning of XIV century mainly thanks to the works of Dante Alighieri, who mixed Southern Italian dialects (especially the Sicilian one) with his native Tuscan language in his “Divine Comedy”. Dante’s works were very popular in Italy, and the language, “Divine Comedy” was written in, became “iconic Italian language”. Thus thanks to Dante and economic upswing of Tuscany in the end of medieval times, the Tuscan language became the basis for the official Italian language. For a long time in every Italian city people spoke their own dialect. The Italian language still has a considerable number of dialects.
In XVI century the linguists of Italy held numerous disputes over criteria, which should be the basis of Italian language standardization. As a result in 1612 the De La Kruska Academy, which was an academic institution in Italy, consisted of the experts in philology and the linguistics of Italian, published the first dictionary of the Italian language, which served as lexicographical example for French, Spanish, German and English languages.
The occupation of Italy by monarchal dynasty of Habsburgs (XVI century) and then in a few centuries by Napoleon Bonaparte (XIX century), influenced greatly the development of the Italian language. As a result in XVI century Italian was evolving under the strong influence of Spanish, and in XIX century – under the strong influence of the French language. Nevertheless, the fight against invaders conduced the unification and formation of a sole language.
It ought to be remarked that the Italian language is considered to be one of the most beautiful and melodic languages in the world. And temperamental Italians, who, by the way, love spaghetti, pizza and seafood, surprisingly gracefully speak the language, they are destined to.
Translation agency «Fast translators» offers full spectrum of translation services from Italian. Our translators are ready to translate texts of any complexity in the shortest terms. We have a wide experience of translations from Italilan to Russian and from Russian to Italian in various subjects: medicine, jurisprudence, economy, the finance, the technical equipment and etc. You can make your order by phone +7 495 988 60 64, or e-mail info@gucci-translations.com or fill up Order form, please. Our managers will give you the best quote for your translation project.
