Part I
Getting Started
In this part . . .
Ciao! See? You already understand some Italian, although you may think we’re saying good-bye before we even say hello. The truth is that ciao mean both “hello” and “goodbye.”
These first four chapters introduce you to the basics of the Italian language: Chapter 1 gets you going with pronunciation, Chapter 2 helps you with basic Italian grammar. You learn how to say “hello” and “goodbye” as well as how to introduce yourself and others in Chapter 3. And you learn how to tell time, put dates in your calendar, and ask for phone numbers in Chapter 4. So Andiamo! (ah-de-ah-moh) (Let’s go!)
Chapter 1
Saying It Like It Is
In This Chapter
Taking note of the little Italian you know
Looking at popular expressions and cognates
Learning basic Italian pronunciation
You probably know that Italian is a Romance language, which means that Italian, just like Spanish, French, Portuguese, and some other languages, is a “child” of Latin. There was a time when Latin was the official language in a large part of Europe because the Romans ruled so much of the area. Before the Romans came, people spoke their own languages, and the mixture of these original tongues with Latin produced many of the languages and dialects still in use today.
If you know one of these Romance languages you can often understand bits of another one of them. But just as members of the same family can look very similar but have totally different personalities, so it is with these languages. People in different areas speak in very different ways due to historical or social reasons, and even though Italian is the official language, Italy has a rich variety of dialects. Some dialects are so far from Italian that people from different regions cannot understand each other.
Despite the number of different accents and dialects, you will be happy to discover that everybody understands the Italian you speak and you understand theirs. (Italians don’t usually speak in their dialect with people outside their region.)
You Already Know Some Italian!
Altho...
