You might not realise it, but all in all Italy is a pretty interesting language. In fact this beautifully spoken language has a number of fun and interesting facts which you’ll feel all the better for knowing.

The History of Italian

You’ll get different opinions on when the first Italian text can be traced back to. Some experts believe it can be traced back to 800AD which is “Indovinello Veronese” – The Veronese Riddle. However there is another set of experts who believe that this is Vulgar Latin instead of Italian so opinions are split.

There are texts that can be dated back to around 960AD which are legal documents to do with land disputes in the town of Benebento.

The Italian that we are most used to seeing today really can only be traced back as far as the 14th century. A poet Dante Alighieri wrote his main work around this time – although it is a mixture of Tuscan and Sicilian Dialects it is thought to the oldest example of the Italian we are all most used to seeing, speaking and hearing today.

It Isn’t Just Spoken in Italy

You probably already know that there is a chance Italians speak the language outside of Italy, but you might not realise that it is actually the office language of more than just Italy. For example did you know that in Switzerland, Italian is considered one of the four office languages of the country. It is also the second most popular language spoken in Argentina – so it is much more widely spread than you could imagine.

Tongue Twisters

Generally speaking Italian is quite an easy language to learn especially if you know other European languages such as French or Spanish. However there is also some fun tongue twisters that Italians like to try and perfect – the most popular being Trentatré trentini entrarono a Trento tutti e trentatré trotterellando which means Thirty three people from Trento entered the city, all thirty three waddling.

Long Words

The longest word in the Italian language has a grand total of 29 letters –   esofagodermatodigiunoplastica which refers to surgery following the removal of the stomach and oesophagus. Most people do not know this word however and if you ask an Italian what they think the longest word is they’ll probably tell you it is a word that is 26 letters long precipitevolissimevolmente meaning extremely quickly.