Welcome to Mahalo Italian!
Italian is a romance language and is the most similar, of all the romance languages, to Latin. Because of the relatively recent development of Italian unification, the Italian language was not a national language in Italy until the late 19th Century. Until that point, every region and city in Italy had a unique language, dating back to when Italy was divided into city-states. Like all Romantic languages, Italian is based on Latin. Italian is the official language of Italy and is also spoken in San Marino, Slovenia, Switzerland, Croatia and the Vatican City. The language was adopted after the unification of Italy in the late 19th century, and is based primarily on the Tuscan dialect.
This page contains resources for learning and studying Italian, so you can one day visit Italy and immerse yourself in its beautiful culture. The below video is an example of teacher Nadia Lanfranconi's basic phrases tutorial.
source: www.youtube.com
Nadia Lanfranconi offers a video tutorial on how to ask "How are you?" in Italian. She offers the phrase's translation and the phrase is listed on the screen along with a vocalization guide. This language tutorial is offered as part of a larger series of language guides offered on the Mahalo.com YouTube channel.
Mahalo's Italian Playlists
Any language takes years of practice to perfect, and Italian is no different. Mahalo's How to Speak Italian course offers some simple beginner's phrases that will equip you with the basics of communicating on your trip to Italy. Such lessons include:
- How to Ask "Where is the Bathroom"
- How to Ask "Where is The Phone"
- How to Ask "Where is the Train Station"
- How to Count From 1 to 10
- How to Count to 100 in Groups of 10
- How to Say "I Need Help"
- How to Ask "Can I Have Your Phone Number"
- How to Ask "Do You Know A Good Restaurant"
- How to Ask "Have You Been To America"
- How to Ask "How Do You Say..."
References
Meet Our Expert
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Nadia Lanfranconi
Nadia Lanfranconi was born and raised in Lake Como, Italy, and moved to Los Angeles at the beginning of 2007. As a child, when she wasn't drawing copies of the Mona Lisa, she was listening to music and singing. Since she is fluently bilingual, Nadia now records her music in both Italian and English. She has recorded her album "Bad Story" in L.A. with some top local musicians such as Tony Gilkyson from X as well as Jonny 2 Bags and Danny McGough from Social Distortion.
About the Italian Language
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Language family
Indo-European, Romance Language
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Number of speakers
60 million native speakers
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Official language
10 countries including Italy plus the European Union
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Regulated by
Accademia della Crusca
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Major dialects
Tuscan, Umbrian, Romanesco, Marchigiano, Laziale
