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Italian dialects | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4635 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 1 of 17 02 February 2013 at 3:31am | IP Logged | ||
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How prevalent are dialects these days in Italy? Let's say I want to vacation in Venice, Milan, Rome, Naples, Florence, or somewhere in Sicily. Would I have any trouble in those places with just the standard Italian? Which dialects are still spoken the most? Do all of the younger Italians speak the standard?
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| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6492 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 2 of 17 02 February 2013 at 12:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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There's no problem in using standard Italian, and local pronunciations are easily understandable. Almost all Italians know the standard language. But dialects are very different, and if Italians speak between themselves in a dialect, you don't understand what they say (just can hear some keywords, but not the meaning). Edited by Siberiano on 02 February 2013 at 12:15pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5181 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 3 of 17 02 February 2013 at 12:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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As a rule of thumb, beside the many dialects and the few (minor?) languages still present
in the territory (e.g. "Sardinian"), "everybody" in Italy speaks standard Italian. Weird, eh? Sarcasm apart, it goes without saying that old people, especially those coming from the rural areas, might prefer expressing themselves in the local dialect/idiom (that might be their first language, after all). But hey, no worries, as long as you can speak proper Italian, it's very unlikely that you will face hard times communicating with people, especially if you plan to visit Rome, Milan, Florence, etc. Edited by Fabrizio on 02 February 2013 at 12:33pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4667 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 4 of 17 02 February 2013 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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On Italian tv /RAI you can hear the Roman dialect (Romanesco) [in movies and sitcoms],
Venetian [in comedy programs], Napolitan [in songs]. While most Italians understand even the thickest romanesco, foreigners may face problems trying to watch a movie in Romanesco. At best, it sounds like muffled Italian (that is as Italian spoken with a hot potato in mouth). Here in Istria (Croatia), the local Italian minority does not speak standard Italian at all, they do understand it, of course, but they use their Istrian dialect (a viariant of the Venetian language) in speech, even if you ask them something in standard Italian, they will answer you in dialect. Because of political/historical reasons, they identify themselves with Istria, and not with Rome or Tuscany. The similar situation is found in Corsica ...People will answer you in Corsican and not in standard Italian. Edited by Medulin on 02 February 2013 at 6:34pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Surtalnar Tetraglot Groupie Germany Joined 4395 days ago 52 posts - 67 votes Speaks: German*, Latin, English, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), Arabic (classical) | Message 5 of 17 03 February 2013 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | ||
I guess you mean Sardinia. In Corse people will mostly answer you in Français. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4714 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 6 of 17 03 February 2013 at 5:32pm | IP Logged | ||
True, I did. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5129 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 7 of 17 03 February 2013 at 6:10pm | IP Logged | ||
As others here have said, you'll be fine with standard Italian. I can't speak for all of Italy, but I can tell you a bit about Turin and surrounding areas. You'll hear the dialect (some form of Piedmontese) being spoken here and there, but everyone also speaks standard Italian. Of my friends that are around my age or younger (I'm 50), none of them speak Piedmontese. They all are familiar with it, most have parents that spoke it, but they themselves don't speak it, unless they've become interested specifically in the language for whatever reason (usually nationalistic or ethnic pride, to tell the truth). There's also somewhat of a recent surge in interest in minority languages, and invariably, my friends that don't speak Piedmontese now wish that they did. So, again, don't worry about dialects as far as being able to communicate. But do take advantage of hearing them, getting exposed to them, and maybe even picking up a little bit. Some are quite beautiful. All have their value. R. == Edited by hrhenry on 03 February 2013 at 6:10pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4664 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 8 of 17 08 February 2013 at 10:19pm | IP Logged | ||
Even when I went to Italy as a child with my parents and stayed with my Mum's family in a tiny little hamlet, everyone spoke Italian to me (which is just as well as my piacentino is non-existent). I don't recall ever having any difficulties. I've heard the Venetian dialect in vivo, but that's about the only one that I've heard up close (and even then it wasn't directed at me). I can't speak for Sicily, but I'd be surprised if you had any issues with Italian. The last few times I've been, the only place I've heard dialect has been on TV. Now "interesting" pronunciations, that's a different story ... 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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