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1.What language family does Italian belong to?
Romantic
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Germanic
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Romance
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The Romance family also includes French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian, among others.
2.When did Italian first appear in written language?
10th century
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14th century
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16th century
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Descended from Vulgar Latin, the first evidence of written Italian comes from the 10th century, though it wasn't until the 14th century that it started becoming standardized.
3.Which of these Italian authors was most responsible for standardizing the Italian language by creating grammar and spelling norms?
Giovanni Boccaccio
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Dante Alegheiri
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Primo Levi
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Written in the 14th century, Dante's Divine Comedy helped standardize the Italian language by creating grammar and spelling norms.
4.When did Italian become the language of Italy?
16th century
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20th century
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19th century
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Italy was unified in 1871, and a dialect called Tuscan was chosen to be the official language of the country. It eventually became known as "Italian," though at the time it was chosen, less than 5% of people in the country could speak it.
5.What's considered the first Italian novel?
Storia del Nuovo Cognome by Elena Ferrante
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Se Una Notte d'Inverno Un Viaggiattore
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I Promessi Sposi by Alessandro Manzoni
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This book, called in English The Betrothed, is the most widely read Italian novel ever written. It isn't well known abroad, but is part of pretty much every curriculum in Italy.
6.How many Italian speakers are there in the world?
90 millin
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31 million
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66 million
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There are disagreements over the exact numbers, but one reliable estimate says Italian has 63 million native speakers, and an additional 3 million people speak it as a second language.
7.How many countries have Italian as an official language?
1
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4
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15
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Italy, San Marino, Vatican City and Switzerland all have Italian as an official language.
8.Which two states in the U.S. have the most Italian speakers?
New Jersey and Maryland
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Massachusetts and Maine
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New York and New Jersey
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High concentrations of Italian immigrants settled in these states in the past.
9.Which South American country has the most Italian speakers?
Argentina
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Chile
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Peru
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Argentina has 1.5 million Italian speakers, making it the second most-spoken language there (after Spanish).
10.Which artistic field uses Italian as a lingua franca?
Ballet
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Sculpture
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Classical Music
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If you've ever played an instrument, you might remember Italian words including "Forte" and "Staccato" used in sheet music.