International food blog

Italian is classified as an Indo-European language. According to Ethnologue: Languages of Italy there are 55,000,000 speakers of Italian in Italy. These include individuals who are bilingual in Italian and regional varieties as well as those for whom Italian is a second language. There are an additional 6,500,000 speakers of Italian in other countries.

Besides Italy, Italian is spoken in 30 other countries, including:

Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Egypt, Eritrea, France, Germany, Israel, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Paraguay, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, USA, Vatican State.

Italian is also recognized as an official language in Croatia, San Marino, Slovenia, and Switzerland.

Italian language spoken in Croatia LINK below:

http://www.101languages.net/italian/most-common-italian-words/

LINK TO ITALIAN LANGUAGE SPOKEN IN CROATIA

This map shows the percentages of Italians in municipalities of Istria in 1910, based on the Austro-Hungarian census. Italians made up more than 70% of the population in 43 areas.

Darker colored areas speak the most Italian.

Historically, the language had a much larger population than it does now. Italians have lived on the Adriatic coast for hundreds of years, and Istria was part of the Kingdom of Italy from 1919 until 1947.

The 2011 census in Croatia

reported 17,807, or 0.42% of the total Croatian population, mostly in Istria. Istria. Ethnologue reported 70,000 speakers in 1998: 40,000 ethnic Italians and 30,000 ethnic Croats and Istrian people. Native Italian speakers are largely concentrated along the Adriatic coast. In addition, roughly 120,000 Italian tourists visit Croatia each year, so many in the service and tourist industries have some knowledge of the language.

However the Istrian exodus after the Second World War and Yugoslavian ethnic cleansing in the form of the Foibe massacres forced the greater part of the Istrian Italians to flee to Italy. During the Italian exodus, about 350000 people left Istria, Dalmatia and the isles of Croatia.

LINK TO ITALIAN-CROATIAN GOURMET CHEF FROM ISTRIA - Lidia Bastianich who lives in US