Languages of Italy

Languages of Italy
Languages of Italy by groups
Official languages	Italian
Regional languages	see "legal status"
Minority languages	see "legal status"
Main immigrant languages	Spanish, Albanian, Romanian, Hungarian, and Romani
Main foreign languages	English (34%) French (16%) Spanish (11%) German (5%) Other regional language (6%)
Sign languages	Italian Sign Language
Common keyboard layouts	Italian QWERTY
Source	Special Eurobarometer, Europeans and their Languages, 2006

There are a number of regional languages spoken to varying degrees in Italy, most of which belong to various branches of the Romance languages and are hence descendants of Vulgar Latin. The official and most widely spoken language is Italian, a descendant of Tuscan.

All Romance varieties spoken in Italy, except Standard Italian, are often colloquially referred to as "dialects", although for some of them the term may coexist with other labels like "minority languages" or "vernaculars". However, the use of the term "dialect" to refer to the languages of Italy erroneously implies that the languages spoken in Italy are actual "dialects" in the prevailing linguistic sense of "varieties or variations of a language." This is generally not the case in regards to the languages of Italy, as they are, for the most part, not varieties of Standard Italian. Most of the regional languages of Italy evolved or diverged locally from Vulgar Latin alongside, but mostly independently, of what would become Standard Italian, long before the fairly recent spread of Standard Italian throughout Italy. In fact, Standard Italian is itself either a continuation of, or a dialect heavily based on, the Florentine Tuscan language. Most regional languages in Italy are thus better classified as separate languages descended independently from Latin, rather than "dialects" or variations of the Standard Italian language. Conversely, with the spread of Standard Italian throughout Italy in the 20th century, regional varieties or actual dialects of Standard Italian, known as regional Italian dialects, have also developed throughout the peninsula.

There are several minority languages that belong to other Indo-European branches, such as Cimbrian (Germanic), Arbëresh (Albanian), the Slavomolisano dialect of Serbo-Croatian (Slavic), and Griko (Hellenic). Other non-indigenous languages are spoken by a substantial percentage of the population due to immigration.