Italo-Australian is an Australian-based dialect of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

that is spoken by Australians of Italian descent.

Characteristics

The exact number of speakers is unknown, but it is highly speculated that the language is mainly spoken by the younger generations, passed on by the elder ancestors, who created the language. Some researchers think that the dialect might have been spoken by nearly 900,000 Italian Australians in 2012.

Origin

The foundation of this dialect is modern

, which was brought to Australia following the Italian diaspora in the post World War I era. It wasn't until the years after the second diaspora after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

that the dialect came into note. The language was simply created with modern Italian words being influenced by the vocabulary of the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

, to create Italian/English words. Some words follow the rules of Italian spelling, changing to an English one only with a few character changes to make it sound Italian.Tullio De Mauro. "Storia Della Lingua Italiana" (p.102)

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

Tullio De Mauro Tullio De Mauro (31 March 1932 – 5 January 2017) was an Italian linguist, a professor emeritus of general linguistics at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Rome "La Sapienza" and an Italian politician. Biography He was the youn ...

has noted the dialect in his famous book 'Storia Della Lingua' as "developing dialect that is still enduring the modern influences of English". De Mauro also claims the language is growing with the vocabulary being passed onto the younger generations of Italian Australians.

Example Words

References

{{Italian people Latino-Faliscan languages Dialects of Italian Australia Languages of Australia Italian-Australian culture Romance languages in Oceania

Characteristics

Origin

Example Words

See also

References