The Roman alphabet, first developed by the Etruscans and further refined by the Romans, is the foundation of many modern-day languages.
It is interesting to note that the modern Italian Alphabet consists of 21 letters, with J, K, W, X and Y not present. These ‘missing’ sounds are easily formed by joining letters together, for example, a ‘j’ sound is formed by adding the vowel ‘i’ or ‘e’ after a ‘g’, as in Buongiorno. A ‘k’ is formed by adding an ‘i’ or ‘e’ after a ‘ch’, as in the girl’s name Chiara. More can be found here.
If you don’t live in Italy and want to learn the language, a good starting point is the alphabet and the way it is pronounced. The Italian word, analfabeta means illiterate. Naturally.
ALMOST ITALIAN 
It’s eerie to see most of our letters of the alphabet we use today are the same as thousands of years ago – the Etruscans. Never heard of them but then again I haven’t studied history much – and they were before the Romans!!
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My name has 3 Ks…Kolkka. It is almost always misspelled here in Australia, but never in Italy where they don’t even have a K. I am slowly learning Italian. It would help if I actually studied, but it is not something I am fond of.
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Ah Debra, you could pick it up by just being there I imagine, as you spend so much time there. I love studying Italian and have never stopped. I am happy to read it every day.
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An interesting post, Francesca, thank you for sharing x
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The ‘c’ is hard followed by an ‘a’, as in ‘cappuccino’, and ‘cc’ is pronounced as ‘ch’. However, we need to go easy on the Italians in case they ask us to explain English 😉
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It is the magic ‘i’ that turns that ‘cc ‘ in cappuccino into a ch sound. An ‘i’ and and ‘e’ after a c ( or cc in this case) makes the sound ch. Without that ‘i’, the ‘cc still sounds like a hard K. Thanks Kay for adding to the story.
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All those ‘missing’ letters and still arguably the most beautiful language on earth. Thank you Francesca.
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Opinions on things sure are different – I’ll go with French as the most beautiful language:)
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I did say ‘arguably’. French is beautiful too. 🙂
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Yes you did, so you are in the clear, ha ha! 🙂
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I have learnt both, and favour the language of Dante.
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I would be happy to not even say ‘arguably’. It is such a beautiful language, the language of Dante, the language of love. x
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Knowing this sure does make Italian pronunciation of words much easier…nice post and very helpful!
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Thanks Susan, it is such a flowing language, as you know, it just rolls off the tongue.
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Interesting. The K has returned in Italian in SMS . E.g. Ke fai?
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Really? interesting. I know that ‘k’ has its place in words of foreign derivation. Is it a shorthand texting thing?
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Yes it’s a short texting thing like X for ‘per’ .
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I think the “k” comes from Germanic languages mainly.
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Could be. Also K is used a lot in Ancient Greek. Here’s a great list of English words starting with ‘k’ and deriving from Greek. https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Category:English_terms_derived_from_Ancient_Greek&from=K
Language is fun for sure.
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I could never understand why c and k existed, as I thought they sounded the same. This reminds me of the Monty Python sketch where someone could not say c and said b in replacement. So ‘Kings College Cambridge’ became ‘Kings Bollege Bambridge’. Some pointed out to him why don’t you just substitute a k for the c and you’ll then be able say the words correctly. He answered “that makes sense! I’m a silly bunt”
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Brilliant – thanks Michael.( bro)
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I did not realize the Italian alphabet was 5 letters shorter than the one with 26 – very interesting and cool take on the wpc 💛❤️
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Thanks- the sounds are still there- the letters are not really needed.
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Yes – and you explained it a bit in your quick tutorial –
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Nice choice for this challenge, Francesca.
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Grazie Stefano.
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The letter j is called “i lungo” (long i) and the w is called “doppia v” (double v) – lovely and logical
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I love the way that a ‘w naturally forms in the mouth so easily when vowels are thrown together , such as in ‘tuoi’ or ‘guido’ for example.
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Love your image … Naturally 😃
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I’d love to learn Italian or really I think I’d probably go for Spanish. But I am hopeless with languages! 🙂
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I’ll be heading back to San Marino this spring to visit family. Thanks for the reminder that I had better brush up on my somewhat pathetic conversational Italian skill. (Never has the word “skill” been used so badly.)
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I am envious: I would love to return but now I think it’s another year away. The language will come back when you are immersed. In the meantime, we are so lucky now to have the internet and to listen to Italian at what ever level ( and speed) you enjoy.
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Hi Francesca. I’ve just signed up for the intermediate Italian course through EdX. I’ll let you know how it goes! Italian is a beautiful language. It’s so lyrical. It brings me closer to my Italian heritage too. But I’m still far from fluent. 😦
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That’s great news Patti- I feel excited too. Any questions along the way, just ask.
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Thanks so much, Francesca. I’m hoping to unravel mystery of the verb tenses. 🙂
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Most tenses all have a pattern.The irregular ones, present and the various past versions, do require some rote learning. When I taught high school Italian, I advised them to plaster their walls, desks, toilet walls and so on with the irregular verbs until they knew them well. This works well if you are a visual learner.
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Thanks, Francesca. That’s so kind of you to offer! I studied Latin years ago in high school, but that isn’t helping. I’ve just got to memorize.
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