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This site is about the Italian language, past and present:
www.italian-language-study.com
It begins at the very start, discussing Latin and other ancient
languages of the Italic Peninsula; the relationship of the
Latin with modern Italian and other modern Romance languages.
This is not a study in linguistics, but rather a presentation
of the language for the general reader. It tries to understand
what makes Italian Italian, trying to gain an insight normally
lacking in other studies.
Latin is not discussed in depth: only those characteristics
which made their way into modern Italian and the changes which
took place in the transition between ancient and modern language
are examined.
Although the main subject of this site, it is not only Italian
which is under the spotlight, but also most of the languages
and dialects spoken in Italy, only ignoring those spoken by
recent migrant communities which cannot be considered as settled
in Italy as separate groups. They are, in any case, non-Italians.
Among these are Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Romanians, Albanians
(recent arrivals), Brazilians and Moroccans.
Pronunciation plays an important part in any language. I
have tried to give a rough idea how Italian letters sound,
but bear in mind these will only be approximations. It is
slight nuances in the pronunciation of each single letter
which makes people aware their interlocutor is or not a native
speaker. Recently I was at a concert and behind me there was
a girl who spoke Italian almost perfectly, using turns of
phrase a native would have used, but I could tell she was
foreign, because when she said “molto”, the “l”
was stronger than in Italian. She was in fact half-Italian,
her mother being Polish, and she and her mother lived in Warsaw.
I have made a comparative table with the approximate Italian
sounds of in a number of other languages.
I also try to find common ground between Italian and other
modern languages, using comparative tables, which should make,
for example, clear to a Russian or a German, what is common
between Russian or German and Italian.
This site is open to your contributions. If you, dear reader,
find any error or you would like to see your language included,
please feel free to send me your comments.
www.italian-language-study.com
©2006 Richard Willmer. All rights reserved
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