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Italian Language
Italian is spoken in 29 Southern-European countries by around 70 million people. The Italian-speaking areas also include two independent states-the Republic of San Marine and the Vatican.History of Italian
Italian is a son of Latin, in particular of the vulgar form which was spoken in the Roman Empire. The evolution of Italian has gone through a process of simplification which didn't affect phonetic, but it did affect grammar-for instance, the five Latin cases have disappeared.The standardization of the language was leadered by Dante Alighieri, one of the greatest poets ever. The language of the Commedia, undoubtely the most popular of his works, included both Southern Italy's regional dialects together with Dante's native Tuscan. The Commedia became very popular and was known virtually by everyone. Its language bacame a national standard and at the same time it was considered the first form of primitive Italian.
Dialects
Standard Italian is the language of education and of the media. Nevertheless, in the twenty regions that made up the peninsula, local varieties are very common, so that it's possible to hear different words to call the same thing. The main division is between the dialects of the North and those of the South, even if in regions like Sardinia the language is completely different from standard Italian-for instance, in certain areas of Sardinia they speak a mix between local dialect and Spanish Catalan.Grammar
Italian grammar is quite complex and this affects most difficult parts-such as syntax-as well as the smallest particles as the noun.Generally speaking, nouns should inflect according to number (singular and plural) and gender (masculine and femenine). But unfortunately there are exceptions: some nouns have only the plural form (occhiali-glasses), others stay the same in the singular and in the plural form ("un re, due re" - one king, two kings).