The fathers of modern italian were dante, manzoni, and television. each had a part in creating a national language from an infinity of regional and local dialects; the Florentine Dante, the first to write in the vernacular, did much to put the Tuscan dialect in the foreground of Italian literature.

Manzoni's revolutionarnovel, I Promessi Sposi, heightened national consciousness by using an everyday language all could understand in the 19th century.

Television in the last decades is performing an even more spectacular linguistic unification; although the majority of Italians still speak a dialect at home, school and work, their TV idols insist on proper Italian.

The words and phrases ion this ections should help you out in most situations, but the ideal way to come to italy is with some Italian under your belt; your visit will be richer, and you're much more likely to make some Italian friends.

Italian words are pronounced phonetically. Every vowel and consonant is sounded. Consonants are the same as in English, except the 'c' which, when followed by an 'e' or 'i', is pronounced like the English 'ch' (cinque thus becomes cheequay). Italian 'g' is also soft before 'i' or 'e' as in 'gira' (jee-ra). H is never sounded; z is pronounced like 'ts'. The consonants 'sc' before the vowels 'i' or 'e' becomes like the English 'sh' as in sci, pronounced shee; ch is pronounced like a 'k' as in Chianti, kee-an-tee; gn as 'ny' in English (bagno, pronounced ban-yo); while gli is pronounced like in the middle of the word million (Castiglione, pronounced Ca-stee-lyon-ay).

Vowel pronunciation is: a as in English father; e when unstressed is pronounced like 'a' in fate as in mele, when stressed can be the same or like the 'e' in pet (bello); i is like the 'i' in machine; o, like 'e', has two sounds, 'o' as in hope when unstressed (taccchino), and usually 'o' as in rock when stressed (morte); u is pronounced like the 'u' in June.

The accent usually (but not always!) falls on the penultimate syillable. Also note that in the big northern cities, the informal way of addressing someone as you, lei, is widely used, while tu or voi is used in the rest of Italy.