Two Languages, Two Perspectives: Italian vs. English

Italian and English, two languages with long and rich histories,

provide two very different ways of expressing oneself. One Romantic

and the other Germanic, their differences are deeper than those that at

first appear. There are obvious differences in sound; English’s

complexity contrasts with Italian’s fluidity. However, the languages

offer not merely two parallel ways of saying the same things, but rather

different ways of thinking about them, two unique lenses through which

to see the world.

English is one of the most multifaceted languages in the world,

due to its long history and varied influences. Its origins were in the

400s with the dialects spoken by Anglo-Saxons who settled around this

time on the island of Great Britain, collectively referred to as Old

English. At the time of the Norman conquest in 1066, when England

was taken over by William of Normandy, French words and spelling

entered the language, marking a new development now called Middle

English. Modern English began with the Great Vowel Shift, a

phenomenon that took place from approximately 1450 to 1750, in which

some of the long vowel sounds in English changed from pure single

sounds to diphthongs and other vowels changed their value. Prior to

the vowel shift, the word date was pronounced with a long a similar to

that in father, boot was pronounced similarly as boat is pronounced

now, and house was pronounced like the vowel in the modern whose.

As a result of this, English became the only language in existence with

such a sound.

Italian also has a rich history, though its most significant

developments are relatively recent. In the 1300s, Dante Alighieri

blended Latin, Southern dialects and his native Tuscan dialect in his

epic poems which make up the Divine Comedy. These works were so

widely read and influential that they became what is generally regarded

as the basis of modern Italian. Italian dialects are still spoken

commonly throughout Italy; in fact, up until the unification of Italy in

1861, only 2.5% of the population knew standard Italian. Being a

Romance language, Italian is lexically 89% similar to French and 82% to

Spanish. It is the closest modern language in the world to Latin, evident

in the many cognates such as hodie (Latin for today) and oggi, and homo

(man) and uomo.

Italian and English are clearly different in their sounds and

spelling. In contrast to English, whose vowels are often diphthongized,

Italian vowels are all pronounced in one specific way. Spelling is

phonetic; there are no silent letters and few exceptions to the rules. For

example, c, g and sc always make hard sounds when followed by a, o, or

u, and soft sounds when followed by e or i. English spelling is much

more complex and retains archaic silent letters. Its influence from

Germanic and Romance languages means that the same letters can

make entirely different sounds. One example is the syllable ough, which

is pronounced eight different ways. In addition, because of its dual

heritage, English encompasses a much wider vocabulary than does

Italian, or for that matter any of the Romance or Germanic languages.

A clear and notable difference between English and Italian is the

presence of genders for nouns in Italian. As in other Romance

languages, all objects are either masculine or feminine, and the article

as well as any modifier must agree with the gender and number of their

subject. English nouns, apart from people and other living objects, do

not generally have genders, and any modifiers do not have to agree.

For example, the possessive in English, his and her, depends upon the

gender of the subject, while in Italian it depends upon the gender of the

object. Suo fratello could be “her brother” or “his brother”, as sue

sorelle could be “his sisters” or “her sisters”.

The process for conjugating verbs is also very different between

these two languages. English verbs generally retain the same form—I

go, you go, we go, they go, etc.—and their meaning can be changed by

adding auxiliaries like would or will, or a number of suffixes, such as –

es, –ed or –ing. Italian, on the other hand, requires that verb endings be

changed to indicate subject and tense. For example, in the regular verb

parlare (to speak), parlo means I speak, parli means you speak, parla

means he or she speaks, and so on. This eliminates the need for subject

pronouns – it’s enough to say “l’ha fatto” (he did it) instead of “lui l’ha

fatto”, where lui is the subject pronoun, since ha is the third-person

singular indicative conjugation for avere (to have). Also, it means that

as long as all the elements of the sentence are present, their order can

be artistically arranged. Since direct objects and indirect objects are

specified clearly, the meaning of the sentence will always be apparent.

This flexibility lends itself to poetry and songwriting. For example, in

one Renaissance poem by Giovanni Battista Guarini, one line says “un

sol potrete languido e doloroso oimè sentire”. Literally translated, it

would become “a single you will be able languid and sorrowful alas to

hear”, but is understood in Italian as “you will be able to hear a single

languid and sorrowful alas.” In contrast, English is strongly dependent

on word order. The various moods and tenses, including present

indicative, recent and remote past, imperfect, future, conditional, and

present and past subjunctive, all have distinct patterns in Italian that

identify the subject, tense and mood with one word. Only the recent

past requires an auxiliary verb, which would be essere (to be) or avere

(to have) combined with a past participle, similar to English’s present

perfect (I have gone, etc). One can form less common tenses like the

pluperfect (I had gone) and future perfect (I shall have gone) by

combining the past participle with the imperfect and future,

respectively.

Another grammatical difference is the distinctive prevalence in

Italian of the subjunctive mood. It is employed to specify any verb that

is the subject of something else, such as “I think that you are nice” or

“It’s the prettiest thing I have ever gotten”, which in English show no

difference. The English subjunctive is also used in expressions of

modality, but less often. The subjunctive form of to be for the first-

person singular takes the form of I be instead of I am, and I were

instead of I was. It can be seen in certain cases, like “Long live the

king”, “be that as it may” or even “I want that you know something”,

though it is more common to say “I want you to know something”.

However, the differences between Italian and English are not all so

initially apparent. Translating sentences or expressions literally will

often yield incorrect results, because the way one thinks of and says

things may be very different. For example, the Italian word bello, which

in literal meaning is similar to the English beautiful, would be used to

describe something called “good” or “nice” in English. The common

expression “Che bello!” (“How nice!” or “Great!”) shows how in Italian

there is an inherent appreciation for beauty; one associates bello with

attractiveness, while good or nice is more a judge of character.

Italian also has a separate form of address used in formal

situations, the Lei form. As opposed to the tu, which is used in

exchanges between family, friends and children, the Lei is used among

adults one does not know well personally. It is conjugated exactly like

the third-person singular, while imperatives are given in the regular

subjunctive form. For plural second-person address, the usual form, voi,

is used, except in highly formal situations like the Italian parliament in

which the archaic Loro is used. In English, if a more formal mode of

address is to be specified—which it rarely is in American English, more

frequently so in British English—the verb form remains the same and

the subject is addressed as Sir or Ma’am. Furthermore, there is no

difference between any of the types of second-person address in

English; all are referred to as “you”. To differentiate between singular

and plural, one may say “you guys” or “you all”. Southern American

English is well known for its expression “y’all”, which may be used to

address one or more people.

The emphatic English “it is!” or “he does!” are expressed

differently in Italian, since Italian verb conjugation often renders subject

pronouns superfluous and the literal equivalent would be something like

“fa!” or “è!” Instead, the word infatti, meaning indeed, is a common

saying, as is insomma. Furthermore, where in English to indicate

emphasis the subject pronoun would have to be emphasized by the

speaker, in Italian the pronoun has only to be reiterated at the end of

the sentence, where its redundancy indicates emphasis (“I’ll do it” vs.

“Lo farò io”).

While Italian is a language of fluidity, simplicity, and respect,

English is a language of intriguing complexity. This can be seen not

only in the aesthetics of the languages but in the way things are

communicated therein. The greatest challenge to a non-native speaker

of Italian would probably be memorizing the endings of the various verb

tenses and knowing when to use them, while for someone learning

English, the sheer number of oddly spelled and pronounced words

would pose a daunting enough problem. More importantly, however,

each would have to learn the different way of speaking or modo di

parlare in the new language. Beyond that which one can define in a

dictionary, Italian and English are deeply and richly different, from the

intriguing histories which shaped each tradition to the unique ways of

speaking and thinking they have grown to provide.