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Esercizio 1a

Work in a group of 3 or 4 students to find at least 10 Italian words Americans use everyday.

You have 5 minutes, then you will share your findings with the class. These images should help:

Italian pronunciation is very consistent, and follows few simple rules. Vowels have only one possible sound, independently from their position, or with which letters they combine. The only exception is that some of them may have an open or closed pronunciation, but this is not relevant at this point of your learning.

One important tip is that when a C is followed by an H, it will always be pronounced like a K. The same is true for the letter G.

Where In The World Is Italian Spoken?

Italian is the official language of Italy, San Marino and Vatican City. It’s also the official language of some parts of Switzerland, Croatia and Slovenia. There is a relatively sizable number of Italian speakers in Albania, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Croatia, Malta, Egypt, Eritrea, France, Germany, Israel, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Paraguay, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, the United States and Venezuela.

How Many People In The World Speak Italian?

Approximately 63 million people in the world speak Italian as their first language. An additional 3 million speak Italian as a second language. Various sources differ slightly, but Italian is around the 20th most-spoken language in the world. Recent studies show that Italian is the 4^th most studied language in the world after English, Spanish and Chinese.

How Many People In The U.S. Speak Italian?

Large numbers of Italians immigrated to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, about 709,000 people in the country speak Italian at home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The most recent data available (from 2013) found that Italian was the fifth most-studied foreign language in the United States. New York and New Jersey are the states with the largest number of native Italian speakers, with around 294,000 and 116,000 speakers, respectively.

How Many People In Europe Speak Italian?

Unsurprisingly, Italy is home to the most Italian speakers in the world — nearly 58 million of them. The language is popular in other parts of Europe, as well. For instance, Italian is the official national language of San Marino (25,000 speakers), Switzerland (666,000) and Vatican City, along with some local areas of Croatia and Slovenia that have also made it their official language. Significant contingents of Italian speakers also reside in Albania, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Malta, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Romania and the United Kingdom. It’s difficult to find exact numbers for all of Europe, but there are approximately 64 million native Italian speakers in the European Union.

How Many People In South America And Central America Speak Italian?

South and Central America have more Italian speakers than you might imagine. The most live in Argentina, which has 1.5 million speakers, making Italian the second most-spoken language in the country, after Spanish. Italian is also the second most-spoken language in Venezuela, which is home to about 200,000 speakers. Brazil has a pocket of Italian speakers — about 50,000 — based primarily in the city of São Paulo. There are also Italian-speaking minority groups in Paraguay, Costa Rica and Ecuador, and Italian has influenced the Spanish dialect spoken in Argentina and Uruguay.

How Many People In Africa Speak Italian?

There are at least some Italian speakers, or at least people who understand the language, in Africa. They are found primarily in the former colonies of Italian Libya (now just Libya) and Italian East Africa (now part of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia). Descendants of the colonizers still speak Italian in these areas, and Italian is used in some forms of commerce. Exact numbers of speakers in these countries are not readily available.