Italian is also a member of the Romance group of the Indo-European language family. The Italian language is more similar to the Latin language than any other Romance language, which makes sense because Latin originated in Italy. Latin was just one of several Indo-European languages in Italy. As a group, these languages are sometimes referred to as the Italic languages. The other Italic languages include Faliscan, Osean, Umbrian, and Venetic. The Italian language derives mainly from Vulgar Latin, which was the spoken language among commoners and less educated citizens of ancient Rome. Many words used today in written and spoken Italian are taken directly from the Latin language. Italian is spoken mainly in the Italian Peninsula, southern Switzerland,
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This may have happened because of Tuscany’s central position in Italy and the aggressive commerce of its most important city, Florence. Of all the Italian dialects, Tuscan has the greatest similarity in morphology and phonology to classical Latin, which makes it harmonize best with the Italian traditions of Latin culture. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the initial development of the Italian language took the form of multiple regional dialects. These dialects, for many centuries, had maintained their separate identities since there had been limited movements of the population within the Italian peninsula. The Florentine dialect was the one that earned the most exposure in Italy through writers such as Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio, whose literary works gave prestige and prominence to the language. In the 19th century, the Tuscan dialect, spoken by educated Tuscans, became the national language. For many centuries, Italian remained an exclusive conduit for literary expression, used only by educated people. The various dialects continued to be spoken, favored even during the political fragmentation of the Italian Peninsula, which remained divided in numerous city-states until the year
This may have happened because of Tuscany’s central position in Italy and the aggressive commerce of its most important city, Florence. Of all the Italian dialects, Tuscan has the greatest similarity in morphology and phonology to classical Latin, which makes it harmonize best with the Italian traditions of Latin culture. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the initial development of the Italian language took the form of multiple regional dialects. These dialects, for many centuries, had maintained their separate identities since there had been limited movements of the population within the Italian peninsula. The Florentine dialect was the one that earned the most exposure in Italy through writers such as Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio, whose literary works gave prestige and prominence to the language. In the 19th century, the Tuscan dialect, spoken by educated Tuscans, became the national language. For many centuries, Italian remained an exclusive conduit for literary expression, used only by educated people. The various dialects continued to be spoken, favored even during the political fragmentation of the Italian Peninsula, which remained divided in numerous city-states until the year