Quote:
Originally Posted by HorridRedDog
You're wonderfully correct. I wish that more people understood that modern Italian language came about after the "Italian Wars" (1494 to 1559) and the conquest and occupation of Italy by Napoleon. Even in Mussolini's time there were (and to some degree or another still are) many well defined dialects.
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Oh, the dialects are still spoken, and taught to children, in every region of Italy.
beppe quotes a good statistic about how long it took for the "standard" Italian to be adopted. My grandparents left Italy as late as 1904, and not one of them spoke the "national" Italian. Which made family life interesting, as they were unable to speak to each other in their native dialects (piedmontese, bergamese, and abruzzessa (SP).
What's being lost is the literature written in those dialects.
beppe, I live in the USA but I am an Italian citizen. I hope to move to Bergamo after my husband is granted citizenship via naturalization.