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Italian is certainly not a global language spoken by hundreds of millions of people,

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like English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian. However, contrary

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to what many might think, Italian is not only spoken in Italy. Today I want

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to talk to you about the countries where Italian is widespread outside Italy, starting with Europe.

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My name is Davide and this is Podcast Italiano, a channel for those who love or learn the Italian language.

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If you learn Italian, consider turning on subtitles. You will find the transcript of this

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video on my site. Link in description. Italy was born in the 12th century as a state,

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but the Italian language has a much longer history. All the states that merged into the

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Kingdom of Italy had for a long time a common concept of a cultured language, what we now call

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Italian and comes from literary Tuscan, as you know. Let's understand, in those days only a

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very minority elite cared about these things and people spoke their own regional language. But

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that minority elite was at the same time the one who held power, who produced

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literature, who taught and therefore had great influence. Why am I telling you all

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this? Because some Italian states, such as Naples and Sicily, Genoa, Piedmont, Lombardy and

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above all Venice had a presence in many places that today do not form part

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of Italy, which means that where their people arrived, their concept of

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cultured language, which is why today Italian is present in some form outside Italy.

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In some cases the language historically spoken in these territories was not even Italian,

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but rather another Italian language or dialect, as we say in Italy. However, being

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in the Italian cultural orbit, the regional language has been lost in favor of

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Tuscan literary Italian, as has happened or is happening in many parts of Italy.

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So let's find out what places we are talking about. Our journey begins from Switzerland.

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I actually already talked about the Italian of Switzerland in a recent exciting video. Haven't

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you seen it? Very bad. I'm very offended. But to summarize, Italian is one of the four

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official languages ​​of the country, along with French, Romansh and German. The

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Italian-speaking population consists of approximately 670,000 speakers, just over 8% of the

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country's population. Italian is mainly spoken in the Canton of Ticino, one of the Swiss cantons,

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where in the past, however, Ticino, a variant of Lombard, was spoken. Schooling,

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the media and prestige have meant that Italian has slowly taken the place of

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Ticino, specifically a regional Italian very similar to the one spoken in Lombardy.

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So I really invite all Ticinese to do it. The sooner many of us are vaccinated,

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the sooner this Canton will emerge from the crisis that we are all starting to no longer tolerate.

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That said, watch the video about Italian in Switzerland after this of course. Among other things,

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I also recently published a podcast with Gabriele Chierici, a true Swiss about life

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in Italian-speaking Switzerland. Have you already listened to it? I'll leave you the link in the description. We leave

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Switzerland behind and enter Italian territory to exit again almost immediately. We are

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in Slovenia, on the Istrian peninsula. Italian is a recognized minority language in Slovenia and

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is co-official, together with Slovenian, in some places. Specifically, four: Piran,

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Koper, Isola d'Istria and Ankaran. These are Italian toponyms. In Slovenian they would be

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Piran, Koper, Izola and Ankaran respectively. According to a 2002 census — I haven't found

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any more recent ones — 3,762 people believed their native language was Italian,

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or 0.2% of the population. Despite the low figure, 15% say they speak

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Italian as a second language, the second highest figure in the entire European Union,

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surpassed only by Malta, and 5% say they use Italian in daily life,

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the highest percentage in the European Union after Italy itself. The vast majority of

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them live along the Slovenian coast, where daily contacts with Italy are very frequent.

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To go beyond what has been, there have been the events of history,

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the even painful events of the twentieth century, to reunite in a

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European perspective aimed at the present and the future. We remain in Istria but go slightly

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south and enter Croatian territory. Italian is also official in

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Croatian Istria. Among other things, almost the entire peninsula belongs to Croatia. According to the latest census

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of the Croatian National Institute of Statistics, in 2022 5.4% of Istriots declared they spoke

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Italian. In the region there are eleven primary schools and four secondary institutes where

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the primary language is Italian. In addition to the language, the survey also asked who felt

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Italian and this is interesting. We saw that the percentage of

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Italian speakers in Istria was 5.4% and is slightly higher than the percentage of people who

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consider themselves Italian, which represents 5.1% of the region's population.

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Italian is co-official with Croatian in 19 municipalities of the country, all obviously in Istria.

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…the last Wednesday of February was celebrated as pink shirt day,

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the day to fight against bullying. The students of Istrian schools sent

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a clear message: stop the violence. Therefore the Italian presence in Istria,

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both in Slovenia and in Croatia, is relatively numerous. Why? Thanks for the question. Istria

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was for a long time under the political orbit of first Venice and then Italy. The

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Istrian population was a mix of Italians and Slavs divided almost equally, but coexistence both here and

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in nearby Dalmatia, where there was also a certain but smaller Venetian presence, was not

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exactly peaceful, to put it mildly, as we will see soon. However, the language spoken

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in Istria by the majority of the population of Venetian-Italian origin, as often happens,

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was not Italian but Venetian. Today the younger generation of Croatians from

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Italian families learns Italian at school and uses it with other descendants of Italians. But the Venetian,

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it seems, still survives. How vital it is I don't know, so let me know if you live

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in those parts, leave me a comment. The fact is that the Croatian government in 2021 and apparently

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also the Slovenian one a few years earlier, in 2016, even recognized the

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Istro-Venetian variety, the Venetian of Istria, in fact, which is expected to be taught in schools in the future and

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will have the own official media. From this point of view, Slovenia and Croatia are ahead of

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Italy, where historically very important but now at risk languages, including

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Veneto, have no recognition. As for Dalmatia, although the Republic

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of Venice has historically controlled many territories in this region too,

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Italian never became the lingua franca of the area, but only that of the governing elite,

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because the local elite spoke Dalmatian, a Romance language now extinct, and the population,

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based on their ethnic affiliation, Latin or Slavic, spoke either Dalmatian or Slavic languages.

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After the Second World War the area was handed over to Tito's communist Yugoslavia and there

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was a huge emigration of Italians from Istria and Dalmatia to Italy, known as the

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Julian Dalmatian exodus. It is an extremely complicated and controversial topic. Simplifying

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as much as possible, it is estimated that 300,000 Italians were forced to emigrate following the massacres of

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Tito's government, which in turn were a sort of revenge for the persecutions that had occurred at the hands

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of the Italian army a few years earlier and for the forced Italianization occurred during the

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twenty years of fascist government. In short, as you can imagine, it is still an

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open wound today as well as an extremely politicized topic. Since this is not the place to delve into it,

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let's cross the Adriatic Sea to enter the Republic of San Marino.

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But first… If you like learning Italian through my

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content, you probably embrace my philosophy of learning through input and immersion in the

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language. And this is the philosophy behind StoryLearning. Learn a language through

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stories. A methodology that I really like. StoryLearning offers its

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series of “Italian Uncovered” courses to those learning Italian and if you follow my videos you will probably be interested in

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the upper-intermediate and advanced levels. I'll leave you the link below. All of their

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courses are built around a story that unfolds over several chapters. And this

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is a great way to learn about the story because we become attached to the characters, we want to find out

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what happens next and this gives us a lot of motivation. I really like the idea of ​​learning through

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a story, a context, and this applies to both vocabulary and grammar. But every now and then

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it also makes sense to have a slightly more analytical approach. And in fact the course is structured and

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also has lessons on grammar, vocabulary, culture and colloquial language. So it's not just

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input, but it's a whole structured path with insights into various aspects of the language.

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In addition to this, by purchasing the course you will also have access to a community of teachers and students

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who will guide you and give you assistance in your learning journey. Their courses

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are perfect for those who embrace my philosophy, so I really invite you to go and discover them at the

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links in the description and if you buy through my links you will have a €200 discount on both, so

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€97 instead of €297. Not bad as an offer. Thank you all for the support and let's continue.

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Located on the border between Emilia Romagna and Marche, the Republic of San Marino, with its 61

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square km and 34,000 inhabitants is a real state. It is worth a visit, if only for the

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fact that it is the oldest Republic in Europe, presided over by two heads of state called Captains

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Regent, who are changed every six months. The traditional language spoken by the

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local San Marino population is Romagnolo. [clip in Romagna]

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... Gallo-Italic language, therefore a language of northern Italy that shares many

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traits with Veneto, Ligurian, Lombard and so on. But the official language, the only

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official language, is Italian. All administration, education, means of communication are in

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Italian. The relationship between the local language and the administrative and high language is in fact the same one that

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has developed in many parts of Italy, with the younger generations

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increasingly abandoning Romagna in favor of Italian. I can assure you, because partly due to my

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activity in the Council I have, let's say, quite prepared myself on this topic. I can tell you,

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without fear of contradiction, that the DC is the most democratic party that exists in San Marino.

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We now cross Marche, Umbria and Lazio and arrive in the Eternal City, in the city:

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Rome. But we stay there for a short time because we cross a new border that takes us inside the

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Vatican City. Yes, sometimes we forget, but Italian is also spoken in the Vatican which,

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although tiny, indeed the smallest state in the world, is a sovereign country in which the head of state

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is the bishop of Rome. Many people think that Latin is the official language of the state,

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but the truth is that the Vatican does not have an official language. Latin is certainly the

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most prestigious language for the Church, as well as the official language of the Holy See, and is still

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sometimes used in some liturgies, translations and writings of various kinds. The Holy See is the seat

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of an organization, the Catholic Church, which is located in a state, the Vatican City. Yes,

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it's a little complicated. However, the Holy See is not the Vatican. They are two separate entities. Although the

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Vatican has no official language, it has promulgated its laws and regulations in Italian since 1929.

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And then the Pope in Italy at least speaks Italian, not Latin. Italian is the language most used

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by popes who are at the head of a confession with more than 1,000,000,000 faithful. And this,

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in a world that speaks more and more English, is in my opinion a very relevant fact.

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The next few months will lead us to the opening of the Holy Door with which we will begin the Jubilee.

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I ask you to intensify your prayers to prepare us to live this event of grace well.

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As for the population, what language do the Vaticanians speak? Well,

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people with Vatican citizenship are not, for obvious reasons, born in the Vatican. It deals with

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of priests, officials and workers from many countries, even if

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the majority is Italian and this is the vehicular language most used by the population.

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We leave the Vatican and say goodbye to the Holy See, but we remain in Rome, where

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another very interesting organization is based. Nice name, right? Well, this is the official name of

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what is popularly known as the Order of Malta, an order of knights (yes, you

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heard correctly) founded in the 12th century, almost 1000 years ago. And who, after the era of the Crusades,

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after having passed through Jerusalem, Rhodes and Cyprus, settled permanently in Malta thanks

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to King Charles I of Spain, aka Charles V of Habsburg, the one of the empire on which the

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Sun. Maybe you remember something. You will tell me "Davide, but it is not a country, it is a subject of

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international law". Dear pedantic legal friends who are writing, yes, I know, its

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legal status is strange. However, its official language is Italian. So that's what matters

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to me . And by the way most countries have ambassadors in the order of Malta.

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And why did this order of noble knights choose Italian as their official language? You

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ask yourself. The first official language was obviously Latin. French followed,

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which was the language most used in European diplomacy in the Middle Ages. However, during the late

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Middle Ages Italian acquired some importance in the Mediterranean. It was the language of trade and

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banking and when the order moved to Rhodes, this island had a strong Venetian and

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Tuscan influence, which is why the Italian language became increasingly common among the knights and in the 12th century

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the official language of 'order. Then, due to Napoleon, the order had to leave Malta

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where it had settled in the meantime and after various wanderings, it ended up settling in Rome in

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1834. Currently the order no longer has a military character and is dedicated to charitable works and

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humanitarian activities. The Grand Master, its leader, now presides over a Council of State and Government

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that administers the Order's diplomatic relations and its activities around the world.

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All decisions, advice and actions are, yes, in the Italian language.

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I John Timothy Dunlap only promise and swear on this most sacred Wood of the

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Cross and on the holy Gospels of God to observe the Constitutional Charter, the codes and rules

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and the laudable customs of our order. And speaking of Malta, we take a plane from Rome

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which we do first and land on the island, once the land of our dear knights.

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The Republic of Malta has two official languages, Maltese and English. Nothing Italian. By the way,

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I highly recommend you watch a video of people speaking Maltese. Obviously

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after this video. It is a Semitic language, an Arabic language but full of loanwords from Sicilian and

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Italian. A wonder for the ears. [maltese clip]

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According to a 2022 Maltese government survey, 96% of the population speaks English,

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90 Maltese, 62 Italian and twenty French. It is interesting to compare this statistic with

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another made in 1995: 98% of the population then spoke Maltese, 76 English, 36

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Italian and ten French. The use of Italian has therefore almost doubled in just under 30

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years. From the 14th to the 19th century the island was under the control of our friends, knights of the Order

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of Malta, as we said earlier. Most of them were French and French

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was certainly a rather used and important language, but the official language of the order

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was Italian. To this we must add that the majority of the population spoke Maltese with

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Sicilian linguistic influence, because the island had been controlled by the Kingdom of Sicily in the

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Middle Ages, during the Napoleonic wars, as we have seen just now, the island rented to the

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Knights of Ordine was occupied by the French and in 1814 became part of the British Empire,

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which started a process of anglicisation of the island. Italian lost its status as an

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official language and its use became increasingly restricted. Curiously, since the 1960s,

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with the advent of television, because Italian TV was also seen in Malta, the language began

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to come back into fashion among young people. Do you live in Malta? I'm curious to know how much and how

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Italian is used on the island and what coexistence with English, Maltese and French is like. So let me know.

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For many of us Maltese, Italy represents our second home, a country with which we share

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not only geography, but also a large part of our history, culture and even language.

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Italian is also an official language in the European Union. Italy's cultural importance,

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both in the past and today, means that many Europeans study Italian as a second or third language and

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maybe you are one of them. In any case, the journey through Italian-speaking Europe ends here,

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thanks to which we passed from the mountains of Switzerland to a Mediterranean island

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ruled by medieval knights. Not bad, right? Stay tuned for the second

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part where we will talk about Italian in the rest of the world. Try StoryLearning and see you. HI!