S.KRAUSE

Italian

Italian is a Romance language spoken by over 50 million people in Italy, a country in southern Europe. Other Romance languages include Spanish, Portugese, French, Rheto-Romansch, and Romanian. All trace their roots back to Latin. Languages such as English have numerous Latin borrowings. There are also a variety of Italian words borrowed into English (many food items, for example); the influence of Italian can also be seen in Istria and Dalmatia in Croatia. Standard Italian is an abstraction; spoken Italian in many parts of Italy differs in numerous ways from the “standard.” For example, use of the futuro remoto varies between north and south, and in addition, there are regional differences in accent, etc. What is presented in these pages is “standard Italian” as taught to American learners of the language.

Knowledge of Italian can be useful in a variety of ways. It provides tourists a way to more easily navigate Italy. Students of music are helped significantly by a knowledge of Italian, do to the language's influence on classical music. In addition, due greatly to the Italian Renaissance, there are many works of literature available in Italian.

This project will focus mainly on on verb conjugations and other grammatical items. Ths is an ongoing project; please have patience.

• Italian verbs: a list of Italian verbs, each fully conjugated