Languages of Italy - (NOT just dialects!)

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Special thanks to Giuseppe Addeo, Cristina Casti, and Maddalena Milan for their voice recordings and answers to my questions! :)

Brandon Gonzalez, Rafael Seher, Trevor Lawrence, Patrick Batchelder, Pomax, Виктор Павлов, Mark Thesing, Auguste Fields, Jiajun "Jeremy" Liu, иктор Павлов, Guillermo Jimenez, Sidney Frattini Junior, Bennett Seacrist, Ruben Sanchez, Michael Cuomo, Eric Garland, Brian Michalowski, Sebastian Langshaw, Scott Russell, Florian Breitwieser, Lorraine Inez Lil, FRANCISCO, Mohammed A. Abahussain, Fred, UlasYesil, JL Bumgarner, Rob Hoskins, Thomas A. McCloud, Ian Smith, Maurice Chow, Matthew Cockburn, Raymond Thomas, Simon Blanchet, Ryan Marquardt, Sky Vied, Romain Paulus, Panot, Erik Edelmann, Bennet, James Zavaleta, Ulrike Baumann, Ian Martyn, Justin Faist, Jeff Miller, Stephen Lawson, Howard Stratton, George Greene, Panthea Madjidi, Nicholas Gentry, Sergios Tsakatikas, Bruno Filippi, Sergio Tsakatikas, Qarion, Pedro Flores, Raymond Thomas, Marco Antonio Barcellos Junior, David Beitler, Rick Gerritzen, Sailcat, Mark Kemp, Éric Martin, Leo Barudi, Piotr Chmielowski, Suzanne Jacobs, Johann Goergen, Darren Rennels, Caio Fernandes, Iddo Berger, Peter Nikitin, Brent Werner, Fiona de Visser, Carl Saloga, Edward Wilson, Kevin Law, David Lecount, Joshua Philgarlic, Thomas Mitchell, Mahmoud Hashemi, and Fatimahl for their generous Patreon support.

Music:

Intro and outro: "Take That Back" by Silent Partner.
Main: "Sunday" by Otis McDonald.

[Langfocus]

(Full disclosure: if you sign up for a premium account, Langfocus receives a small referral fee. But if I didn't like it, I wouldn't recommend it!)

[clochard]

As an Italian, I am impressed because this video is very well researched and accurate. This is a sign of the reliability of this channel, therefore I must subscribe.

[aixPenta]

For three years in high school, I followed an italian class without really listening because I hatedmy teacher. But I still badly wanted to learn italian, so I went one month in Turino in a host family. Turned out that the "family" was just an 94 years old woman who didn't know italian and only spoke Piemontese. Since I'm not that social, apart for small chat, I only spoke with this woman and quite a lot actually. When I came back from Italy in France, I went to chat with my italian teacher, but she couldn't understand anything. Turned out that my italian didn't improve at all, but now I know some piemontese vocabulary I'll never use

[MRbkkk]

I remember I once visited my friend in Napoli (Naples). We were out drinking and eating all night (although the next day was supposed to be a working day) with 10 other locals. At some point I said, "Wow, Italian sounds lovely." Then all 11 of them got offended and started waving their hands in disbelief and yelling, "We are speaking Napoletano!! How can you not tell?" I guess I must have committed some crime there...

[mblede]

As an Italian living abroad, I had to explain many times this languages "thing" we have. Next time someone will ask, I'll answer with "wait I have a video to show you". Good work!

[SirLoinDeRes]

Sono messicano e ho imparato l'italiano perchè il bel paese mi piace tantissimo e spero che qualche giorno possa visitarlo!

[thulx]

"[...] and (Italy) shares borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and San Marino."

Vatican City: *sad pope noises*

[guidamauro]

I'm Neapolitan and I would say that Italian is the language I've used at school and I use to comunicate with other Italian but Neapolitan is the language of my heart, it comes out when emotions are strong. Neapolitans are very proud of our language and I think that will never die but rather transform like any other language in the world because is a living language and, as I said our preferred language among standard Italian

[uccio]

Sono un professore di Italiano e ti dico: MOLTO BRAVO!!!

[rodrigorodrighi]

I am Italian and I can’t help but be amazed by the details and accuracy of this video.
I was born and raised in Veneto and I can assure that virtually all of us, assuming they are actually Venetian and not some kind of immigrants, are able to understand our dialect and use it to communicate to some extents.
The problem is that someone who speaks dialect is considered ignorant, since Italian is the official language. This mindset comes from our recent history: not many years ago ( prolly 50?) only highly educated people spoke Italian ( like lawyers doctors etc) and poorly educated people spoke dialect instead.
Nowdays elderly are bilingual but they tend to speak dialect only(my grandmother can’t speak proper Italian but she is able to read and understand it perfectly), most people under 60 tend to speak dialect with their parents and with their siblings and friends.
The same situation can be found for younger generations but less and less people are really fluent outside small town in the countryside. Most people in big cities are prone to use only a handful of words of dialect fearing to be classified as poorly educated. For example when taking some kind of job interview or oral exam at schooI you would speak 100% Italian in order to make a good impression.
That being said it’s interesting to notice how people who can barely speak their dialect will still have a super strong accent that can be easily recognised.

The sad true that our dialects are dying: I am in my twenty’s and when my generation will be gone, our language will soon follow us. This is the very same situation for most northern dialects, they should be taught in school like they do in Ireland with Gaeilge.

We should be proud of our origins dammit!

Ps Wrote in a rush sorry for the spelling mistakes

[iilcesco]

As a friulian speaker: i live in Trieste, and in the group of friends there are friulian, venetian, apulian and napolitan speakers. We refuse to use standard italian to communicate, so everyone taks to each other in is own language. Then of course nobody is able to understand anything. In these situations we use to suspend the talk and go to drink togheter. After drinking, we still speak our own language but the dialects unexplainably have now become perfectly mutually intellegible to each other. That's the way we defend our identity in North-East!

[varandilITA]

As a Friulian I want to thank you, because usually even Italians don't know our existence

[miles_kharmushir]

I am from China and I am enthusiastic about Italian culture especially its languages. Similar to Romance languages in Italy, Chinese has more than ten distinctive Sinitic branches, most of which have historically considered dialects. I find it truly exciting to learn a sister language of one you are fluent in, and I hope Italian people can preserve your mother togues better 👍

[gi]

I'm venetan and once I heard a Brazilian speaking Tałian: it was like hearing a neighbor!! amazing emotion. And they protect the language more than we do, it's absolutely a shame. Tanti basi to our Brazilian brothers 🇧🇷🇮🇹💪

[NotOrdinaryInGames]

So THAT is why all the hand gestures were invented...

[stefanox]

I'm italian (from abruzzo!) and you're the first person that has been able to track and explain clarely to other people italian dialects origins.
You gained a subscriber❤️🇮🇹

[antoniorigodanzo]

*regional languages are spoken amongst the elderly*
Me: *laughs in Veneto*

[andreamazzon]

i have to say that is the best video in english about italian languages for foreign people.... it's very accurate... good job man

[adreeanah]

I'M ITALIAN AND THIS IS THE BEST VIDEO I'VE EVER SEEN, CONGRATULATIONS, I SUBSCRIBED

[ΑντώνηςΠετράκης-ωη]

I believe I should mention that there is also a dialect of Greek spoken in South Italy since the ancient times.