science

Geographical distribution of Italian speakers

Geographical distribution of Italian speakers is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Geographical distribution of Italian speakers rather than just read about it. In short: This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the Italian language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the Italian-speaking area in Europe, Italian-speaking minorities are present in few countries.

Key takeaways

Geographical distribution of Italian speakers belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Connect Geographical distribution of Italian speakers to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
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Reference excerpt

This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the Italian language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the Italian-speaking area in Europe, Italian-speaking minorities are present in few countries. More than 67 million people in the world speak Italian as their first language and more than 80 million have it as either their first or second language.

Statistics

Native speakers by country The following table presents estimates of the number of people worldwide who speak Italian as their first language (mother tongue). The data are derived from a variety of sources, including national censuses, official surveys conducted by statistical agencies, and independent studies or estimates. Where sources do not account for the entire population (for example, by excluding children or focusing on specific age groups) estimates are projected to the total population. Since definitions vary across sources, the table includes the specific criteria used in each case (for example mother tongue or language spoken at home) for a better interpretation of the figures.

Subnational territories In the following territories, Italian is an official language. Apart from Ticino, Italian is official alongside at least another language, such as German, Slovene, Croatian, Ladin and Romansh.

Unspecified

Total speakers by country

Europe

Italian is an official language of Italy, San Marino and Switzerland. Italian is also used in administration and official documents in Vatican City. In central-east Europe Italian is first in Montenegro, second in Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, and Ukraine after English, and third in Hungary, Romania and Russia after English and German. But throughout the world, Italian is the fifth most taught foreign language, after English, French, German, and Spanish. In the European Union statistics, Italian is spoken as a native language by 13% of the EU population, or 65 million people, mainly in Italy. In the EU, it is spoken as a second language by 3% of the EU population, or 14 million people. Among EU states, the percentage of people able to speak Italian well enough to have a conversation is 66% in Malta, 15% in Slovenia, 14% in Croatia, 8% in Austria, 5% in France and Luxembourg, and 4% in the former West Germany, Greece, Cyprus, and Romania.

Albania In Albania, Italian is one of the most spoken languages. This is due to the strong historical ties between Italy and Albania but also the Albanian communities in Italy, and the 19,000 Italians living in Albania. It is reported that as much as 70% of the Albanian adult population has some knowledge of Italian. Furthermore, the Albanian government has pushed to make Italian a compulsory second language in schools. Today, Italian is the third most spoken language in the country after Albanian and Greek. The Italian language is well known and studied in Albania, another non-EU member, due to its historical ties and geographical proximity to Italy and to the broadcasting of Italian television in the country.

Croatia, Slovenia and Montenegro Italian formerly had official status in Montenegro (because of the Venetian Albania), and in parts of Slovenia and Croatia (because of the Venetian Istria and Venetian Dalmatia). Italian language in Slovenia is an officially recognized minority language in the country. The official census, carried out in 2002, reported 2,258 ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians) in Slovenia (0.11% of the total population). Italian language in Croatia is an official minority language in the country, with many schools and public announcements published in both languages. The 2001 census in Croatia reported 19,636 ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians) in the country (some 0.42% of the total population). Their numbers dropped dramatically after World War II following the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus, which caused the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians. Italian was the official language of the Republic of Ragusa from 1492 to 1807.

France and Monaco Italian is also spoken by a minority in Monaco and France, especially in the southeastern part of the country. Italian was the official language in Savoy and in Nice until 1860, when they were both annexed by France under the Treaty of Turin, a development that triggered the "Niçard exodus", or the emigration of a quarter of the Niçard Italians to Italy, and the Niçard Vespers. Giuseppe Garibaldi complained about the referendum that allowed France to annex Savoy and Nice, and a group of his followers (among the Italian Savoyards) took refuge in Italy in the following years. Corsica passed from the Republic of Genoa to France in 1769 after the Treaty of Versailles. Italian was the official language of Corsica until 1859. Giuseppe Garibaldi called for the inclusion of the "Corsican Italians" within Italy when Rome was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, but King Victor Emmanuel II did not agree to it. Today it is estimated that only 10% of Corsica's population speak the language natively, with 50% having some sort of proficiency in it. Italian is generally understood in Corsica by the population resident therein who speak Corsican, which is an Italo-Romance idiom similar to Tuscan. Francization occurred in Nice and Corsica cases, and caused a near-disappearance of the Italian language as many of the Italian speakers in these areas migrated to Italy. Ligurian is recognized as a regional language in the French department of the Alpes-Maritimes, furthermore, there is an autochthonous Italian population dating from the Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia, which controlled the area until 1860, the year the Treaty of Turin entered into force, regardless the more recent Italian immigrants of the twentieth century. Italian was the official language in Monaco until 1860, when it was replaced by the French. This was due to the annexation of the surrounding County of Nice to France following the Treaty of Turin (1860).

Greece Italian formerly had official status in parts of Greece (because of the Venetian rule in the Ionian Islands and by the Kingdom of Italy in the Dodecanese).

Malta Italian is widely spoken in Malta, where nearly two-thirds of the population can speak it fluently (see Maltese Italian). Italian served as Malta's official language until 1934, when it was abolished by the British colonial administration amid strong local opposition.

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Geographical distribution of Italian speakers

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Geographical distribution of Italian speakers claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Geographical distribution of Italian speakers before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Geographical distribution of Italian speakers ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Geographical distribution of Italian speakers

In research: Geographical distribution of Italian speakers appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Geographical distribution of Italian speakers in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Geographical distribution of Italian speakers is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Geographical distribution of the Italian language, Linguistic minorities, Second-language acquisition, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Geographical distribution of Italian speakers outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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Frequently asked questions

What is Geographical distribution of Italian speakers in simple terms?

Why does Geographical distribution of Italian speakers matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Geographical distribution of Italian speakers?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

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It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Geographical distribution of Italian speakers.