Italian: Europe’s Magical Language
It’s been said that Italians could have a meaningful conversation with each other using gestures alone. There’s no doubt that the rich repertoire of body language is a reflection of their effusive disposition. More than likely, though, this body language is just a natural extension of the Italian language, whose colourful, expressive and lyrical qualities all but demand physical manifestation.
Italian is an Indo-European language, meaning that it is part of a family of hundreds of languages and dialects found in Europe, Iran and the southern part of Asia that trace their origins to the Bronze Age. It is estimated that Italian is spoken as a mother tongue by about 85 million people mainly in Italy, though sizable numbers speak it in Switzerland, San Marino and Vatican City. Italian is the official language of Italy and of San Marino and one of the official languages of Switzerland. Italian is also spoken in Malta, Eritrea, Somalia, Libya and Ethiopia.
Within the Indo-European family, Italian is in the subdivision called the Romance languages – direct descendants of Latin, the language of ancient Rome. There are dozens of Romance languages; the six most widely spoken are Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, and Catalan.
In the late Middle Ages, variants of what was to become Italian gradually replaced Latin in much of Southern Europe, and by the time of the Renaissance, Italian emerged as a consolidated language. From that period onward, Italy became increasingly important in the arts, and its monuments, opera houses, galleries and museums attracted large numbers of educated Europeans. Italian language studies sprung up all over Europe, since it was de rigueur that cultured people should be reasonably proficient in Italian, whether or not they ever visited the country.
Many of the famous composers of the Renaissance were Italian. The influence of the language in music persists to this day and is evidenced by the plethora of Italian terms like pianissimo, forte, andante and moderato, which have become standard in musical direction. As composers of opera, Italians surpassed those of most other nations. In addition, Italy has produced some of the world’s greatest opera singers, and operatic works sung in Italian have an unmatched quality. Who would deny the emotional power of Puccini’s Nessun Dorma performed by Luciano Pavarotti? When BBC used his rendition as their theme music during the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, this aria became a huge hit reaching number 2 in the UK Singles Chart.
Italian literature and poetry can be traced back to the 12th century. Yet the 15th century gave the world some of the language’s greatest literary geniuses, including Dante Alighieri (The Divine Comedy), Giovanni Boccaccio (Decameron) and Francesco Petrarch (Il Canzoniere). The 16th century saw Machiavelli produce works like Istorie fiorentine, Guicciardini write Storia d’Italia, and Pietro Bembo pen the poetic masterpiece Prose della volgar lingua. This work was pivotal in the development of the most famous form of secular lyrical music in the sixteenth century: Italian madrigal.
In the 20th century, many great Italian authors achieved worldwide acclaim. Some were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, including Luigi Pirandello, Salvatore Quasimodo and Eugenio Montale. The work of these Nobel laureates and other renowned Italian authors were translated into numerous languages. Primo Levi’s 1947 moving account of his experiences in Auschwitz, Se questo è un uomo, (English title: If this is a man) received worldwide acclaim, so too did Italo Calvino’s 1979 post-modern novel Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore…, (English title: If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller). Umberto Eco’s Medieval detective story Il nome della rosa (English title: The name of the rose) received international acclaim and was adapted for the cinema in 1986.
Italy’s beautiful language has inspired men to create the most exquisite music and the most enduring literature. In the process, Italian has endowed the world with a unique and rich heritage, without which, there would be a void in the cultural life of every nation.