Italian language in Croatia
The Italian language is an official minority language in Croatia, with many schools and public announcements published in both languages. Croatia's proximity and cultural connections to Italy have led to a relatively large presence of Italians in Croatia.
The village of Grožnjan/Grisignana is the only municipality in Croatia with a majority Italian speaking population.
A portrait painting the fall of the Republic of Venice (1797): the abdication of the last Doge, Ludovico Manin
A bilingual road sign in Italian and in Croatian in Istria
Italian Secondary School in Rijeka/Fiume
Italian is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent Romance language from Latin, together with Sardinian. Spoken by about 85 million people including 67 million native speakers (2024), Italian is an official language in Italy, San Marino, and Switzerland, and is the primary language of Vatican City. It has official minority status in Croatia and in some areas of Slovenian Istria.
Dante Alighieri (top) and Petrarca (bottom) were influential in establishing their Tuscan dialect as the most prominent literary language in all of Italy in the Late Middle Ages.
Venetian Pietro Bembo was an influential figure in the development of the Italian language from the Tuscan dialect, as a literary medium, codifying the language for standard modern usage.
Alessandro Manzoni set the basis for the modern Italian language and helping create linguistic unity throughout Italy.
Italian Secondary School in Rijeka/Fiume, Croatia
