Italian language- English language comparative linguistics İtalyanca İngilizce dilbilimi le lingue

1. ITALIAN

2. ITALIAN
A. General information
• Italian is a Romance language spoken by 62 million people in Italy and
Switzerland and by 126 million people as a second language in the world.
• It derives from Latin and it is the closest national language to Latin. It
retains its origins with both Latin and Greek.

3. ITALIAN
A.II. History- ETRUSCAN CIVILIZATION
Etruscan civilizaton was
developed in Italy after
about 800 BC. Later, it
gave way in the 7th
century to a culture
that was influenced by
Greek traders and
Greek neighbours in
Magna Graecia (Great
Greece), the Hellenic
civilization of southern
Italy. After 500 BC the
political destiny of Italy
passed out of Etruscan
hands.

4. ITALIAN
A.II. History
Between 17th and 11th Between 8th and 7th Ancient Rome was at
century BC , Greeks century BC, Greek first an agricultural
established contacts with colonies were community founded at
Italy. established 8th BC.
Senatus Populusque Romanus

5. ITALIAN
B. History
After 6th
century, Italian was Italian Republic of Italy:
divided into Unification 1946
oligarchic city- (1861- 1922)
states.

6. ITALIAN
A.III. Dante Alighieri
IVRA MONARCHIE SVPEROS PHLAEGETONTA
LACVSQVE LUSTRANDO CECINI FATA VOLVERVNT
QVOVSQVE SED QVIA PARS CESSIT MELIORIBVS
HOSPITA CASTRIS ACTOREMQVE SVVM PETIIT
FELICIOR ASTRIS HIC CLAVDOR DANTES PATRIS
EXTORRIS ABORIS QVIA GENVIT PARVI FLORENTIA
MATRIS AMORIS.
DANTE
Italian language was first vulgar Latin.
The father of Italian language is DANTE. He is still credited with
standardizing the Italian language and the dialect of Florence
became the basis for what would become the official langauge of
Italy.

7. ITALIAN
B. Phonetics- The sounds of Languages
21 lettere (letters)- 5 vocali (vowels) and 15 consonanti (consonants)
letter sound Phonetic example
transcription
a open /a/ cara
e open /ε/ sènza
closed /e/ cassétta
i closed /i/ micio
o open // stòria
closed amóre
u closed /u/ uva

8. ITALIAN
B. Phonetics- The sounds of Languages
21 lettere (letters)- 5 vocali (vowels) and 15 consonanti (consonants)
a f m r
b g n s
c h p t
d l q v- z
J- (english words): jeans (gins) jet (get)
K- (cappa) km, kg, poker, koala
W- (doppia vu) würstel, whisky
X- (ics) taxi, xenofobia, xeroderma
Y- (ipsilon),style/stail, yogurt/iogurt, boy/boi

9. ITALIAN
B. Phonetics- Suprasegmentals- Stress
 As you know, in any utterance some vovels are
perceived as more prominent than others and they be
prominent with respect to the parameters of pitch-
loudness and length which constitute a cover term,
stress. In italian, the use of stress is common and on
some of the vowels it is obligatory such as : caffè or
perché. There are two types of accents in Italian. One
of them is an acute accent (´) and the other one is a
grave accent (`) are used.

10. ITALIAN
B. Phonetics- Suprasegmentals- Obligatory Stress
 at the end of polysyllabic words: onestà, perché etc.
 with monosylabic words containing diphtongs: più,
può etc.
 with monosyllabic words which can be confused with
the words written the same.
Ché (perché) Che - pronoun
Dà (dare-verb) Da- preposition
dì (giorno) Di- preposition
Pg. 11

11. ITALIAN
C. Phonology- The function and patterning of sounds
Consanantal Clusters
Gl + i Egli, Figli, degli,
Gl + Vowels except i Gleba, Gloria, Glucose
Gn + Vowels Vergogna, Bologna, Cologna, Ognuno
Gh + e- i Ghette, Laghi,-
Gi + a – o- u Giacca, Giudice
Ch+ e - i Oche, Chimica, Chilo
Ci + a - u - o Camicia, Ciuffo
Gli + Vowels Figlia, Moglie, Coniglio
Sci + Vowels Sciarpa, Sciocco, Sciupare

12. ITALIAN
D. Morphology
LE RAGAZZ-E
IL RAGAZZ-O
LA RAGAZZ-A I RAGAZZ-I

13. ITALIAN
D. Derivational Morphology - AFFIXES
Italian is morphologically rich and uniform language.
LIBR- O
radice-stem desinenza-ending
Libr-iccin-o A small book
Libr-ett-o A small and pretty book
Libr-on-e A big and heavy book
Libr-acci-o A bad and immoral book
Brutto: in-brutt-ment-o: imbruttimento

14. ITALIAN
D. Inflectional Morphology
In Italian, there are both suffixes and prefixes but more
significantly, desinenza (ending) may refer to number, gender in
nouns, adjectives or even pronouns and also
mood, tense, person/gender and number aspects of the verbs.
• Number (nouns and adjectives)
Il ragazzo -> i ragazzi
La casa bianca-> le case bianche
Il libro pesante-> i libri pesanti
• Verb (person and number agreement)
parl-o -> I- present tense first singular parl-iamo
parl-i parl-ate
parl-a parl-ano

15. ITALIAN
E. SYNTAX
 pro-drop head- initial SVO
Pens-are Scriv-ere Sent-ire
Io pens-o. Io scriv-o. Io sent-o.
Tu pens-i. Tu scriv-i. Tu sent-i.
Egli/ Lui pens-a. (esso) Egli/ Lui scriv-e. (esso) Egli/ Lui sent-e. (esso)
Ella/ Lei pensa. (essa) Ella/ Lei scrive. (essa) Ella/ Lei sente. (essa)
Noi pens-iamo. Noi scriv-iamo. Noi sent-iamo.
Voi pens-ate. Voi scriv-iate. Voi sent-ite.
Loro pens-ano. Loro scriv-ono Loro sent-ono.

16. ITALIAN
E. SYNTAX
 Ieri Paolo and Laura hanno fatto un escursione in montagna. Il tempo
è stato bello per tutta la giornata. I due ragazzi sono tornata a casa
stanchi ma contenti.
 Marco era in casa e stava studiando Latino, quando ha udito un
rumore soffocato provenire dalla stanza di sua sorella. Sapeva che in
casa non c’era nessuno perché tutti quella sera erano usciti. Senza
spaventarsi, ha messo da parte i libri e lentamente si è avvicinato alla
porta della stanza, trattenendo il respiro per non insospettire chi si era
probabilmemnte intrufolato nella casa.
 L’uomo si alzò, prese il microfono, espose le ragioni … .

17. ITALIAN
E. SYNTAX- INVERSION YES/NO and WH Qs
Qs Yes/No-
Dove vivi? Sai che oggi era l’ultima giornata mia
Vivo a Roma. al lavoro?
Ehh ssiiiii.
Che hai fatto di bello oggi? Non sapevi che era qua?
Niente. Noo, ma come posso sapere?
Chi chiede il mio nome? Sei un turco?
Signorina Rossi. Si, sono un turco.

18. ITALIAN
D. SEMANTICS-NOUNS
Italians use a number of metonoyms, metaphors and antonomesia
in their daily speech and they love using them as conversational
strategies.
 Per ubriacarmi mi basta un bicchiere.
 Antonia non ha orecchio.
 Sei un casanova ( implied by the great actor Giacomo
Casanova)
 Questa stanza é una Sibiria.

19. ITALIAN
D. ADJECTIVES
In Italian, adjectives may be before or after the noun.
Il nostro vicino è
un uomo povero.
OR
Il nostro vicino è
un povero uomo.

20. ITALIAN
D. ADJECTIVES Roberto è più/meno alto di
Giovanna
Comparative
Roberto è alto come
Roberto è Giovanna.
alto.
Superlative Roberto è altissimo.
Pg.165

21. ITALIAN
D. ADJECTIVES

22. ITALIAN
E. ADVERBS
ADJECTIVE + mente :Camminiamo lentamente.
Adesso non posso uscire: ci vedremo domani.
Noi viviamo laggiù.
Qui piove.
Questa pianta cresce ovunque/ dappertutto.
Luca studia molto.
Forse ha ragione Laura.
MICA: Non sono mica stato io. Mica è brutto questa
film.

23. ITALIAN
F. Prepositions

24. ITALIAN
F. Prepositions

25. ITALIAN
E. VERBS- Modo Indicativo
Passato prossimo & Trapassato prossimo
Trapassato remoto & Futuro anteriore

26. ITALIAN
E. VERBS- Modo Condizionale

27. ITALIAN
E. VERBS- Modo Congiuntivo

28. ITALIAN
E. VERBS- Attiva & Passiva & Riflessiva
Gender is
important!
Il medico visitò il malato.
Il malato è visitato dal madico.

29. ITALIAN
E. VERBS- Riflessiva
io mi lavo=I wash myself
tu ti lavi=you wash yourself
lui/lei si lava=he/she washes him/herself
noi ci laviamo=we wash ourselves
voi vi lavate=you wash yourself
loro si lavano=they wash themselves

30. ITALIAN
BASIC VOCABULARY

33. Know him? Enrico Fermi?
The founder of atomic bomb

34. ITALIAN
F. ITALIAN MODERN LITERATURE
Born in Cuba in 1923, Calvino was raised in Italy,
where he lived most of his life.
He died in Siena at the age of sixty-one in 1985.
My favorite writer:
ITALO CALVINO
“Mr. Palomar is standing in line in a cheese shop, in Paris. This is a shop whose range seems
meant to exemplify every conceivable form of dairy product; the very sign, "Spe-cialites
froumageres," with that rare archaic or vernacular adjective, advises that here is guarded the
legacy of a knowledge accumulated by a civilization through all its history and geography.
This shop is a dictionary; the language is the system of cheeses as a whole: a language whose
morphology records declensions and conjugations in countless variants, and whose lexicon
presents an inexhaustible richness of synonyms, idiomatic usages, connotations, and
nuances of meaning, as in all languages nourished by the contribution of a hundred dialects.
It is a language made up of things; its nomenclature is only an external aspect, instrumental;
but for Mr. Palomar, learning a bit of nomenclature still remains the first measure to be
taken if he wants to stop for a moment the things that are flowing before his eyes.”
http://des.emory.edu/mfp/calvino/

35. ITALIAN
F. ITALIAN MODERN LITERATURE
An Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher, literary critic, and
novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose (Il nome
della rosa, 1980), an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in
fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory.
UMBERTO ECO
http://www.umbertoeco.com/en/

36. ITALIAN
F. ITALIAN MODERN LITERATURE
An Italian poet, novelist. (1908- 1950)
CESARE PAVESE
“We do not remember days, we remember
moments. The richness of life lies in memories
we have forgotten.”
Hard Labor &
“No woman marries for money; they are all clever enough, Your Villages &
before August Holiday &
marrying a millionaire, to fall in love with him first.” Death will come etc.
“Give me the ready hand rather than the ready tongue.”
“Lessons are not given, they are taken.”

37. Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi Death will come and will have your
questa morte che ci accompagna eyes –
dal mattino alla sera, insonne, the death that is with us
sorda, come un vecchio rimorso from morning to evening, sleepless,
o un vizio assurdo. I tuoi occhi deaf, like an old regret
saranno mortevana parola,
Verrà la
una e avrà i tuoi occhi or an absurd vice. Your eyes
un grido taciuto, un silenzio. will be a futile word,
(Death will stare at me out of your eyes)
Cosí li vedi ogni mattina a cry kept silent, a silence.
quando su te sola ti pieghi Thus you see them every morning
nello specchio. O cara speranza, when alone you stoop over yourself
quel giorno sapremo anche noi in the mirror. O dear hope,
che sei la vita e sei il nulla. that day we too will know
that you are life and nothingness.
Per tutti la morte ha uno sguardo.
Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi. Death keeps an eye on each of us.
Sarà come smettere un vizio, Death will come and will have your
come vedere nello specchio eyes.
riemergere un viso morto, It will be like giving up a vice,
come ascoltare un labbro chiuso. like watching a dead face
Scenderemo nel gorgo muti. re-emerge in the mirror,
like listening to closed lips.
We will go down into the vortex mute.

51. Amalfi Coast

52. Sanremo Music Festival

56. Eros Ramazzotti & Laura Pausini

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hTVG3qC4RE

57. Giuseppe Verdi Luciano Pavarotti

59. References
Sensini, M. (2010) La lingua e i testi. Arnoldo Mondori Scuola
O’Grandy, W. (1997) Introduction to Linguistics. St. Martin’s Press, New
York.
Fromkin, V. (1988) Introduction to Language. Holt, Rineheart.
Wardraugh, R. Introduction to sociolinguistics. Wiley- Blackwell.