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Italy

Home to 12 dialects represented on Dialect Atlas, spanning 5 language families.

Italian dialects in Italy

Standard Italian

also: Italiano standard, Tuscan-based

The national standard of Italy, historically based on Florentine Tuscan. The reference variety in education and national media.

Romanesco

also: Roman Italian

The Italian of Rome. A Central Italian variety widely heard through national cinema and television, occupying a middle position between Tuscan and Southern varieties.

Neapolitan

also: Napulitano

The variety of Naples and surrounding Campania. Often classified as a distinct Italo-Romance language; a major literary and operatic medium.

Sicilian

also: Sicilianu

The variety of Sicily, often counted as a separate Italo-Romance language. Carries strong Greek, Arabic, Norman, and Spanish influences from the island's history.

Venetian

also: Vèneto

The Romance variety of the Veneto region. Linguistically distinct enough from Italian that many linguists classify it as a separate language.

Lombard

also: Lombardo

The Gallo-Italic variety of Lombardy and Italian-speaking Switzerland. Internally split between Western (Milan) and Eastern (Bergamo) groupings.

Sardinian

also: Sardu

The Romance variety of Sardinia. The most conservative Romance language, often cited as the closest living variety to Latin in several phonological respects.

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Standard Italian vs Romanesco Standard Italian vs Neapolitan Romanesco vs Neapolitan Romanesco vs Sicilian Neapolitan vs Sicilian Neapolitan vs Venetian Sicilian vs Venetian Sicilian vs Lombard

Greek dialects in Italy

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Griko

also: Italiot Greek, Salentino Greek

The Greek of southern Italy, spoken in two enclaves in Salento and Calabria. A direct descendant of the Magna Graecia varieties; one of the oldest continuously-spoken Greek varieties outside Greece.

Albanian dialects in Italy

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The Albanian variety of the Arbëreshë communities of southern Italy, descended from 15th-century settlers fleeing the Ottoman conquest. A medieval Tosk Albanian preserved through five centuries of relative isolation.

Catalan dialects in Italy

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Catalan

also: Català

A Western Romance language, official in Andorra and co-official across Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian Community of Spain. Around 10 million speakers, with strong literary tradition since the medieval period.

Algherese Catalan

also: Alguerès, Catalan of Alghero

The Catalan minority variety of Alghero on the island of Sardinia, rooted in medieval Catalan settlement and long separated from the main Catalan-speaking territories. It survives as a local heritage language in intense contact with Italian and Sardinian.

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Catalan vs Algherese Catalan

Occitan dialects in Italy

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Occitan

also: Lenga dʼòc, Provençal

A Romance language of southern France, the Aran valley in Catalonia, and a few alpine valleys of Italy. The language of the medieval troubadours; now endangered in everyday use.

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CompareStandard Italian vs Romanesco DialectStandard ItalianDialects mapped LanguageItalianItalian dialects in Italy RegionEuropeHome to 12 dialects represented on Dialect Atlas, spanning 5 language families.