Italian language

Italian ( italiano  [itaˈljaːno] or lingua italiana [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna]) is a Romance language spoken mainly in Italy, parts of Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City; as a second language in Albania, Malta, Slovenia and Croatia; by minorities in Crimea, Eritrea, France, Libya, Monaco, Montenegro, Romania and Somalia; and by expatriate communities in Europe, in the Americas and in Australia. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardised Italian and other regional languages. It is an official language in the European Union and one of the six official languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe along with English, Spanish, French, Russian and German.

According to the Bologna statistics of the European Union, Italian is spoken as a native language by 65 million people in the EU (13% of the EU population), mainly in Italy, and as a second language by 14 million (3%). Including the Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland and Albania) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world.