It is mostly derived fromLatin, with some words fromGreek,Etruscan and elsewhere. It is called aninflected language - that means that the meaning of words can be changed by changing their endings. Italiannouns are either masculine or feminine ingender (these usually have little to do with natural genders).
Most singular masculine nouns end in -o, and most plural masculine nouns end in -i.
Most singular feminine nouns end in -a, and most plural feminine nouns end in -e.
So:
gatto = male cat
gatta = female cat
gatti = male cats
gatte = female cats
The ending ofverbs are quite complicated because ofconjugation. The endings depend upon thetense of the verb (past,present,future and so on) and on theperson of the verb (I, you, they etc.). Because Italiangrammar uses endings for theseinflections, the personal pronoun is not always needed (in the following example it is in parenthesis).[4]
So:
(io) parlo = I speak
(noi) parliamo = we speak
(lui) parlava = he was speaking
(loro) parlarono = they spoke
(io) parlerò = I will speak
parliamo! = let's speak!
There are very many of these endings to learn - it is one of the more difficult parts of the Italian Grammar. But pronunciation is simple - there are just a few rules to learn, and hardly any difficult sounds.
Many Italian words for food have entered the English language, such as:pizza,spaghetti andravioli. Many technical words inmusic are Italian, such asforte andallegro. Many musical instrument names are also Italian, such ascello andtuba.Mafia andvendetta come from the darker side of Italian culture.
Pidgin versions of the Italian language were developed in the colonies of Italy:[5] the most important were in Eritrea, Somalia and Libya.[6]
