Italian is a Romance language spoken as a regional language by approximately sixty two million citizens in Italy, San Marino and areas of Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia along with France. It is spoken as a foremost language by many Italian individuals and immigrants overseas, for a entirety of roughly 70 million regional speakers. In addition, it is spoken by an supplementary a hundred and twenty to 150 million inhabitants as a 2nd language. Nearly everyone regional speakers are native bilinguals of both standardised Italian and regional varieties.

In Switzerland, Italian is one of 4 authorized languages, spoken primarily in the Swiss cantons of Grigioni and Ticino. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City. The Italian language adopted by the state after the unification of Italy is based on the Tuscan dialect, which beforehand was only available to upper class Florentine society. Its development was also influenced by other Italian dialects and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman invaders.

Italian was often an official language of the various Italian states pre-dating unification, slowly usurping Latin, even when ruled by foreign powers , even though the masses spoke primarily vernacular languages and dialects. Italian was also one of the many recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.pimsleur italian