Italian linguistics is the scientific study of the Italian language. Italian linquistics includes such topics as phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics.
As Latin was developing into numerous Italian dialects from which Florentine was selected to be the national language, changes were taking place in other regions of what was once the Roman Empire. New linguistic entities were evolving into languages which today are separate and distinct from Italian. Or are they?
The differences between Italian and English double consonants and how confusion can arise when comparing Italian doubled consonants to English ones. In Italian a doubled consonant is assigned two beats, though this distinction goes unnoticed by many non-natives.
Speech impediment, snobbish affectation, or dialectal difference? The Italian letter
r has a couple of distinct articulations that might make it a shibboleth.
Britten Milliman kicks off her new series about Italian linguistics with an introduction to the topic, and solves some of the riddles that come with learning Italian, including "What does that mean?"
As you progress in Italian, you are constructing and morphologically training an Italian lexicon to recognize words and what they mean. By understanding the properties of a word, you can take shortcuts and save storage space in your brain.
Knowing where to put the correct stress or how to have proper inflection and intonation can help you come closer to understanding Italian, regardless of whether or not you are a native speaker.
The best incentive to learning a foreign language is to be able to express your thoughts with others—or just order something as simple as a
panino in Italian from your favorite café in Italy!
Syntax is the branch of linguistics which focuses on the rules of word order in phrases and sentences. Growing accustomed to the new structure of Italian will broaden your means of expressing yourself, not only in Italian, but in English as well.
No one can deny the role Dante Alighieri played in the progression of Florentine from a dialect to Italy's national language. Considered one of the towering figures of European literature, Dante had another important role which tends to be overlooked, though. In addition to being an accomplished poet, Dante was also a linguist.
Standard Italian. That's what's spoken in Italy, and that's what you study in textbooks. Otherwise, why would you study it? Standard Italian. That's what's written in Italian newspapers, magazines, and books, and that's what announcers use on Italian radio and TV. Otherwise, who could understand it? In fact, the reality is a bit more complicated.
Though it may not look it, the letter
s in Italian presents exceptions to many phonological rules which govern the formation of syllables in Italian. While some of these irregularities serve to clarify mysteries previously unexplained, others only pose more questions.
Buzz, whoosh, and crackle. We often create terms whose sounds remind us of the objects or actions they name. The sounds of many Italian words also have a distinct relationship between specific meanings and even emotions.
There are dialects of Italian (regional varieties) and there are dialects of Italy (distinct local languages). To further muddy the Tiber, the phrase
dialetti italiani is often used to describe both phenomena.
The Fabbrica dell'Italiano (the Italian Language Factory) is an integrated digital archive that contains material held in the Accademia della Crusca's archive and library. Documents in the database include over 2000 dictionaries, hundreds of grammar books and manuscripts, and lists of thousands of technical terms collected by Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici.
GISCEL is dedicated to the study of the theoretical and social challenges of linguistic education in schools and to the renewal in the methods and techniques of linguistic instruction.
GSCP is an organziation focused on spoken Italian.
Group whose purpose is to promote and coordinate the study of political linguistics and analyze in-depth the theoretical and social problems relative to the topic.
The Istituto Opera del Vocabolario Italiano is an online dictionary of historical Italian. Users can search a database of documents and locate instances of individual words and phrases dating prior to 1375.
Unpublished notes of Giovanni Flechia, a Piemontese linguist and dialectologist. Topics include Italian and Latin morphology as well as Italian dialects. [in Italian]
Study suggests that two different aspects of both music and language depend on the same two memory systems in the brain. One brain system helps humans memorize information in both language and music—for example, words and meanings in language and familiar melodies in music. The other system helps us unconsciously learn and use the rules that underlie both language and music.
Introduction to phonology, the study of the sound system of languages. Guide can also be downloaded as a PDF.
The Società di Linguistica Italiana, a society based in Rome, is a group of linguistics scholars that provides information on conferences, members' publications, and developments in the field of Italian linguistics.
