Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
The "modern" Italian language is a very recent "invention" - less than a century old.
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Modern Italian language is much, much older than a century.
All scholars/historians agree that by the end of the 16th century there was a common standard for literary Italian and it was substantially the same as modern spoken Italian.
The official legislative body of the Italian language, L'Accademia della Crusca, was founded at the end of the 16th century and the first modern Italian dictionary was published in 1612.
On the other hand, the diffusion of the literary language as spoken language is a relatively recent phenomenon.
In the 19th century the Italian language was spoken only by a small percentage of the population. The unification of Italy (1861), WWI, and several other factors (e.g. mass-media diffusion) greatly contributed to the spreading of the Italian language throughout the nation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by doreenjoy
It is the dialect of Florence, reportedly chosen as the national language because it was the language in which Dante wrote The Divine Comedy.
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Dante played a prominent part in the standardization of the Italian language and his Tuscany dialect (fiorentino) was the basis upon which modern Italian was founded.