Research carried out a few years back found out that the vast majority of Italians considered language the strongest representation of their “being Italian.” It seems a legitimate view: in a country where traditions and cultural habits can change drastically from an area to another, our language – and I dare say, the literature it produced – remains a strong point in common, a way not only to communicate, but ultimately to share, bond and strengthen our connection.

Yet, the linguistic reality of Italy is much more complex, as many Italian-Americans probably have learned when realizing the language their grandparents spoke wasn’t that close to standard Italian at all, but rather a linguistic variety of its own. This is because each region of Italy has its own idiom, or dialect, some of which are spoken regularly by so many individuals to have gained the status of language (Neapolitan, Sicilian, but also Piedmontese in the North).