Easy-to-Learn
"Talk sometimes in a foreign language, not to forget how bad you know it."
- Boleslav Paszkowski
Languages
ITALIAN
The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest.
The National Emblem
of the Italian Republic
The Emblem of Italy was formally adopted by the newly formed Italian Republic on 5 May 1948.
"Belladonna: in Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison. A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues."
- Ambrose Bierce
A few Funny Facts about
the Italian Republic
and the Italian language
1. Although Italian is the closest language to Latin, its alphabet doesn’t have the letters J, K, W, X or Y.
2. Pizza is one of the very few words which is understood all over the world.
3. In Milan, it is a legal requirement to smile at all times, except during funerals or hospital visits.
4. More than one third of single Italian men between the ages of 30 and 35 live with their parents.
5. The surname "Ferrari" in Italy is as common as "Smith" in English speaking countries.
Content
Pronunciation
of Italian Vowels and Consonants
A Table of Vowels with pronunciations
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A Table of Consonants with ronunciations (from b to m)
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A Table of Consonants with ronunciations (from n to z)
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Italian (Italiano)
Italian is the official language of Italy and is spoken by about 70 million people, primarily in this country. It's the official language of San Marino as well, and one of the official languages of Switzerland, spoken mainly in Ticino and Grigioni cantons.
Italian is a Romance language, which means that Italian, just like Spanish, French, and Portuguese, is a child of Latin. Latin was once the official language in a large part of Europe because the Romans ruled so much of the area. Before the Romans came, people spoke their own languages, and the mixture of these original tongues with Latin produced many of the languages and dialects that are still in use today.
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