Ascona ( Ticinese : Scona [ˈʃkona] ) is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland .
128-486: The Brissago Islands ( Italian : Isole di Brissago ) are a group of two islands located in the Swiss part of Lake Maggiore close to Ronco sopra Ascona and Brissago . Both islands belong to the district of Locarno , in the canton of Ticino . San Pancrazio (also known as Grande Isola) is larger and is well known for its botanical garden . On the smaller island, known as Isolino, Isola Piccola or Isola di Sant’Apollinare,
256-481: A Fachhochschule ). In Ascona there were a total of 766 students (as of 2009 ). The Ticino education system provides up to three years of non-mandatory kindergarten , and in Ascona there were 94 children in kindergarten. The primary school program lasts for five years and includes both a standard school and a special school. In the municipality, 217 students attended the standard primary schools and 10 students attended
384-664: A local language of Italy , most frequently the language spoken at home in their place of origin. Italian is a major language in Europe, being one of the official languages of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and one of the working languages of the Council of Europe . It is the third-most-widely spoken native language in the European Union (13% of the EU population) and it
512-433: A boat. Antoinette remained and continued to develop the botanical garden park, and her island residence became a centre of intense cultural and business activities. Between 1886 and 1914, Baroness Antoinette de Saint Léger (as she called herself after her husband inherited the title from one of his uncles) hosted on the island the painters Daniele Ranzoni , Filippo Franzoni [ de ] and Giovanni Segantini and
640-550: A huge number of civil servants and soldiers recruited from all over the country introduced many more words and idioms from their home languages— ciao is derived from the Venetian word s-cia[v]o ("slave", that is "your servant"), panettone comes from the Lombard word panetton , etc. Only 2.5% of Italy's population could speak the Italian standardized language properly when
768-601: A large number of artists, anarchists, and other famous people, including Hermann Hesse , Hans Habe , Carl Jung , Erich Maria Remarque , Hugo Ball , Else Lasker-Schüler , Stefan George , Isadora Duncan , Paul Klee , Rudolf Steiner , Mary Wigman , Gyula Háy , Max Picard , Ernst Toller , Henri van de Velde , Rudolf Laban , Frieda and Else von Richthofen , Otto Gross , Erich Mühsam , Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach , and Gustav Stresemann . Ascona has an area, as of 1997 , of 4.97 square kilometers (1.92 sq mi). Of this area, 1.78 km (0.69 sq mi) or 35.8%
896-464: A little over one million people in the United States speak Italian at home. Nevertheless, an Italian language media market does exist in the country. In Canada, Italian is the second most spoken non-official language when varieties of Chinese are not grouped together, with 375,645 claiming Italian as their mother tongue in 2016. Italian immigrants to South America have also brought a presence of
1024-463: A part-time student). There were 26 vocational students who were attending school full-time and 73 who attend part-time. The professional program lasts three years and prepares a student for a job in engineering, nursing, computer science, business, tourism and similar fields. There were 9 students in the professional program. As of 2000 , there were 231 students in Ascona who came from another municipality, while 213 residents attended schools outside
1152-645: A poetic and literary origin in the works of Tuscan writers of the 12th century, and, although the grammar and core lexicon are basically unchanged from those used in Florence in the 13th century, the modern standard of the language was largely shaped by relatively recent events. However, Romance vernacular as language spoken in the Italian Peninsula has a longer history. In fact, the earliest surviving texts that can definitely be called vernacular (as distinct from its predecessor Vulgar Latin) are legal formulae known as
1280-521: A port. Parts of this castle still exist and have been integrated into modern buildings. A church is first mentioned in 1264 and was originally consecrated only as the Church of S. Peter. The Church of SS Peter and Paul is first mentioned as a parish church in 1330, and in 1332 as a collegiate church . However, no documents exist which show the separation from the mother church of San Vittore in Muralto and thus
1408-681: A refuge by early Christians. In the thirteenth century nuns of the Humiliati order built a monastery on San Pancrazio, while the local parish also built around this time the Church of S. Pancrazio. After the suppression of the Humiliati in 1571 by Pope Pius V , the order's property was given to the hospital in Locarno and the islands became uninhabited. In 1885 an Anglo-Irishman of the aristocratic Saint Leger family, Richard Fleming, and his Saint Petersburg -born wife Antoinette (née Bayer, 1856 to 1948) purchased
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#17328509798301536-417: A renewed interest in linguistics in the 16th century, sparked a debate that raged throughout Italy concerning the criteria that should govern the establishment of a modern Italian literary and spoken language. This discussion, known as questione della lingua (i.e., the problem of the language ), ran through the Italian culture until the end of the 19th century, often linked to the political debate on achieving
1664-509: A result. Starting in late medieval times in much of Europe and the Mediterranean, Latin was replaced as the primary commercial language by languages of Italy, especially Tuscan and Venetian. These varieties were consolidated during the Renaissance with the strength of Italy and the rise of humanism and the arts . Italy came to enjoy increasing artistic prestige within Europe. A mark of
1792-482: A seven-vowel system, consisting of /a, ɛ, e, i, ɔ, o, u/ , as well as 23 consonants. Compared with most other Romance languages, Italian phonology is conservative, preserving many words nearly unchanged from Vulgar Latin . Some examples: Ascona It is located on the shore of Lake Maggiore . The town is a popular tourist destination and holds the yearly Ascona Jazz Festival . The oldest archaeological finds in Ascona (at S. Materno and S. Michele) go back to
1920-474: A single language is that they have evolved so that they are no longer mutually intelligible ; this diagnostic is effective if mutual intelligibility is minimal or absent (e.g. in Romance, Romanian and Portuguese), but it fails in cases such as Spanish-Portuguese or Spanish-Italian, as educated native speakers of either pairing can understand each other well if they choose to do so; however, the level of intelligibility
2048-468: A somewhat destitute life until her death, on 24 January 1948. In 1926, Hamburg department store magnate Max Emden purchased the islands, demolished the existing house and replaced it with a Palazzo style villa, designed by the Berlin architect Alfred Breslauer . The villa had 24 rooms, a conservatory and a 33-metre-long Roman-style bathing pool. While not interested in botany and gardening, Emden preserved
2176-434: A total of 2,465 apartments (53.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 2,067 apartments (44.6%) were seasonally occupied and 104 apartments (2.2%) were empty. As of 2007 , the construction rate of new housing units was 11.8 new units per 1000 residents. The historical population is given in the following table: There are eleven Swiss heritage site of national significance in Ascona. There are three churches on
2304-504: A united Italian state. Renaissance scholars divided into three main factions: A fourth faction claimed that the best Italian was the one that the papal court adopted, which was a mixture of the Tuscan and Roman dialects. Eventually, Bembo's ideas prevailed, and the foundation of the Accademia della Crusca in Florence (1582–1583), the official legislative body of the Italian language, led to
2432-514: Is 817 people or 14.9% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 666 people or 12.1% are between 70 and 79, there are 432 people or 7.9% who are over 80. As of 2000 , there were 2,472 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.0 persons per household. In 2000 there were 689 single family homes (or 47.8% of the total) out of a total of 1,442 inhabited buildings. There were 194 two family buildings (13.5%) and 360 multi-family buildings (25.0%). There were also 199 buildings in
2560-427: Is 89% with French, 87% with Catalan , 85% with Sardinian , 82% with Spanish, 80% with Portuguese , 78% with Ladin , 77% with Romanian . Estimates may differ according to sources. One study, analyzing the degree of differentiation of Romance languages in comparison to Latin (comparing phonology , inflection , discourse , syntax , vocabulary , and intonation ), estimated that distance between Italian and Latin
2688-729: Is also spoken by a minority in Monaco and France, especially in the southeastern part of the country. Italian was the official language in Savoy and in Nice until 1860, when they were both annexed by France under the Treaty of Turin , a development that triggered the " Niçard exodus ", or the emigration of a quarter of the Niçard Italians to Italy, and the Niçard Vespers . Giuseppe Garibaldi complained about
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#17328509798302816-528: Is higher than that between Sardinian and Latin. In particular, its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian . As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive. Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino and is spoken fluently by the majority of the countries' populations. Italian is the third most spoken language in Switzerland (after German and French; see Swiss Italian ), although its use there has moderately declined since
2944-492: Is home to approximately 1,500 plant species, among which are azaleas, rhododendrons, Japanese palm trees, numerous camellias, Japanese banana, bamboo, magnolia, agaves, cypress, yucca, California poppies. The garden today covers 2.5 hectares and receives more than 90,000 visitors a year. Today the villa contains a restaurant and the administration offices of the Botanical Park of Canton Ticino. The Brissago Islands are part of
3072-515: Is located in the Locarno District, on the right bank of the Maggia delta . It consists of the town of Ascona which includes the sections of Gerbi, Monescie, Monte Verità, Moscia, and Saleggi. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure two keys argent in saltire ribboned together and in chief a papal crown of the same. The attributes of St. Peter were conceded when the bishop of Como and
3200-455: Is markedly lower between Italian-Spanish, and considerably higher between the Iberian sister languages of Portuguese-Spanish. Speakers of this latter pair can communicate with one another with remarkable ease, each speaking to the other in his own native language without slang/jargon. Nevertheless, on the basis of accumulated differences in morphology, syntax, phonology, and to some extent lexicon, it
3328-458: Is not difficult to identify that for the Romance varieties of Italy, the first extant written evidence of languages that can no longer be considered Latin comes from the ninth and tenth centuries C.E. These written sources demonstrate certain vernacular characteristics and sometimes explicitly mention the use of the vernacular in Italy. Full literary manifestations of the vernacular began to surface around
3456-512: Is reflected in the designation plebis Locarni Asconaeque which it was given in 1369. It is believed that in the 6th century, the Castle of San Michele was the site of a curia (court) and the seat of a sculdascio ( Lombardic for officer) of the county of Stazzona, who exercised control over the entire parish of Locarno. In 1004, the court rights were transferred from the Archbishop of Milan to
3584-500: Is said to have been ordered to leave Russia on 48 hours' notice. The tales of who she was or where she came from, no one who knew her is certain, other than her father must have been wealthy to send his daughter off with a governate to Naples for health rehabilitation and to learn Italian, where she would later first marry the German consul in Naples. On San Pancrazio island, Fleming renovated
3712-575: Is spoken as a second language by 13.4 million EU citizens (3%). Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland, Albania and the United Kingdom ) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is approximately 85 million. Italian is the main working language of the Holy See , serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as
3840-631: Is the Casa Serodine, a building of the 17th century, with a richly decorated facade . After various changes, the Collegio Papio seminary was secularized in 1852 and then served initially as a high school. It then became a girls' school and later the Istituto Elvetico . In 1879, it returned to its original name and purpose and was placed under the Bishop of Como. In 1885 it came under the authority of
3968-510: Is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.66 km (0.64 sq mi) or 33.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.63 km (1.02 sq mi) or 52.9% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.01 km (2.5 acres) or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and 0.2 km (0.077 sq mi) or 4.0% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing, and buildings made up 26.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 13.7%, while parks, green belts, and sports fields made up 10.9%. Out of
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4096-538: Is used, and the town of Chipilo near Puebla, Mexico; each continues to use a derived form of Venetian dating back to the 19th century. Other examples are Cocoliche , an Italian–Spanish pidgin once spoken in Argentina and especially in Buenos Aires , and Lunfardo . The Rioplatense Spanish dialect of Argentina and Uruguay today has thus been heavily influenced by both standard Italian and Italian regional languages as
4224-501: The Il Globo (Australia) and the La gazzetta del Sud Africa (South Africa). Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world, but rarely as the first foreign language. In the 21st century, technology also allows for the continual spread of the Italian language, as people have new ways to learn how to speak, read, and write languages at their own pace and at any given time. For example,
4352-936: The La Voce del Popolo ( Croatia ), the Corriere d'Italia (Germany), the L'italoeuropeo (United Kingdom), the Passaparola ( Luxembourg ), the America Oggi (United States), the Corriere Canadese and the Corriere Italiano (Canada), the Il punto d'incontro (Mexico), the L'Italia del Popolo ( Argentina ), the Fanfulla (Brazil), the Gente d'Italia ( Uruguay ), the La Voce d'Italia ( Venezuela ),
4480-536: The Odyssey . After the First World War, Antoinette became deeply in debt due to failed business ventures and high-risk investments to which she was prone and even began to engage in smuggling between Italy and Switzerland, where her islands became the ideal base. Finding herself in a precarious debt situation she was forced to sell the islands in 1926. She moved first to Ascona and then to Intragna , where she lived
4608-655: The Bishop of Como . In 1189 this gave the castle of San Michele to the Duni, one of the families of the Capitanei di Locarno . Other noble families from Locarno (Da Carcano, Castelletto, Muralto) settled in Ascona. They were joined by the Griglioni family that fled the wars between the Guelphs and Ghibellines of Milan. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Duni enlarged their fortress (demolished in
4736-557: The Congregation of the Oblate of Milan , which led the school until 1798. The Church of SS Peter and Paul was enlarged in the 16th century, and in 1703, was elevated to have a provost over the church. This was followed by it being raised to have a dean in 1800. In 1617-37 the Church of Madonna della Fontana was built on the northern slopes of Monte Verità, which became a pilgrimage destination. The most remarkable profane building of this era
4864-672: The Gallo-Italic linguistic panorama of Northern Italy , the Italo-Dalmatian , Neapolitan and its related dialects were largely unaffected by the Franco- Occitan influences introduced to Italy mainly by bards from France during the Middle Ages, but after the Norman conquest of southern Italy , Sicily became the first Italian land to adopt Occitan lyric moods (and words) in poetry. Even in
4992-649: The Kingdom of Italy in the Dodecanese ). Italian is widely spoken in Malta , where nearly two-thirds of the population can speak it fluently (see Maltese Italian ). Italian served as Malta's official language until 1934, when it was abolished by the British colonial administration amid strong local opposition. Italian language in Slovenia is an officially recognized minority language in
5120-763: The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia ), although the masses kept speaking primarily their local vernaculars. Italian was also one of the many recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire . Italy has always had a distinctive dialect for each city because the cities, until recently, were thought of as city-states . Those dialects now have considerable variety . As Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian . The most characteristic differences, for instance, between Roman Italian and Milanese Italian are syntactic gemination of initial consonants in some contexts and
5248-1019: The Middle Ages , the established written language in Europe was Latin, although the great majority of people were illiterate, and only few were well versed in the language. In the Italian Peninsula , as in most of Europe, most would instead speak a local vernacular. These dialects, as they are commonly referred to, evolved from Vulgar Latin over the course of centuries, unaffected by formal standards and teachings. They are not in any sense "dialects" of standard Italian, which itself started off as one of these local tongues, but sister languages of Italian. Mutual intelligibility with Italian varies widely, as it does with Romance languages in general. The Romance languages of Italy can differ greatly from Italian at all levels ( phonology , morphology , syntax , lexicon , pragmatics ) and are classified typologically as distinct languages. The standard Italian language has
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5376-539: The Placiti Cassinesi from the province of Benevento that date from 960 to 963, although the Veronese Riddle , probably from the 8th or early 9th century, contains a late form of Vulgar Latin that can be seen as a very early sample of a vernacular dialect of Italy. The Commodilla catacomb inscription is also a similar case. The Italian language has progressed through a long and slow process, which started after
5504-567: The SVP (15.89%) and the SP (15.29%). In the federal election, a total of 1,419 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 41.4%. In the 2007 Gran Consiglio election, there were a total of 3,346 registered voters in Ascona, of which 1,763 or 52.7% voted. 37 blank ballots and 2 null ballots were cast, leaving 1,724 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT , which received 422 or 24.5% of
5632-474: The Swiss Reformed Church . There are 606 individuals (or about 12.16% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), and 235 individuals (or about 4.72% of the population) did not answer the question. In Ascona about 69.6% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or
5760-747: The Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . Italian is the least divergent language from Latin , together with Sardinian (meaning that Italian and Sardinian are the most conservative Romance languages). Spoken by about 85 million people, including 67 million native speakers (2024), Italian is an official language in Italy , San Marino , Switzerland ( Ticino and the Grisons ), Corsica , and Vatican City . It has official minority status in Croatia , Slovenian Istria , and
5888-514: The Western Roman Empire's fall in the 5th century. The language that came to be thought of as Italian developed in central Tuscany and was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri , written in his native Florentine . Dante's epic poems, known collectively as the Commedia , to which another Tuscan poet Giovanni Boccaccio later affixed
6016-437: The tertiary sector , with 353 businesses in this sector. There were 2,233 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 46.0% of the workforce. In 2000 , there were 2,056 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,149 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.8 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 16.0% of
6144-519: The 111 Italian lecturer sections belonging to foreign schools where Italian is taught as a language of culture. As of 2022, Australia had the highest number of students learning Italian in the world. This occurred because of support by the Italian community in Australia and the Italian Government and also because of successful educational reform efforts led by local governments in Australia. From
6272-506: The 13th century in the form of various religious texts and poetry. Although these are the first written records of Italian varieties separate from Latin, the spoken language had probably diverged long before the first written records appeared since those who were literate generally wrote in Latin even if they spoke other Romance varieties in person. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the use of Standard Italian became increasingly widespread and
6400-510: The 17th century) and the church of S. Sebastiano as well as having created a plaza around their residential home. The oldest fortification, probably, is the castle of San Materno. At its location, north of the village, there already seems to have been a Roman tower. The fort was occupied as early as the Early Middle Ages. In the 13th century, it was owned by the Orelli and Castelletto families. In
6528-411: The 17th century, only a part of the walls was still preserved. In the course of the 13th century, two new fortifications were built. The first was the Carcani Castle on the shore east of the Church of SS. Pietro e Paolo, and it was already demolished by the 2nd half of the 13th century. The second, was still further east, outside the inhabited area at that time. The Griglioni built a small castle to protect
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#17328509798306656-438: The 1970s. It is official both on the national level and on regional level in two cantons : Ticino and Grisons . In the latter canton, however, it is only spoken by a small minority, in the Italian Grisons . Ticino, which includes Lugano , the largest Italian-speaking city outside Italy, is the only canton where Italian is predominant. Italian is also used in administration and official documents in Vatican City . Italian
6784-399: The 19th century, linen production and mills offered job opportunities to the locals. In the second half of the 19th century, a dynamite factory operated in Ascona, but it closed after repeated explosions in 1874. In the 20th century, tourism became a major part of the local economy. Since 1970 the number of second homes has increased substantially, and at the end of the 20th century, during
6912-423: The Brissago Islands with a family legacy inherited by Fleming. The Brissago Islands at the time were deserted, covered with vegetation and the remains of an old convent once used by sectarian nuns. Fleming's wife had already gravitated to Italy and had frequented the lakes for health reasons before her marriage to Fleming. She is believed to be an illegitimate daughter of Tsar Alexander II , and as Antoinette Bayer,
7040-404: The Gardens of Switzerland network. 46°08′00″N 8°44′06″E / 46.13333°N 8.73500°E / 46.13333; 8.73500 Italian language Italian ( italiano , pronounced [itaˈljaːno] , or lingua italiana , pronounced [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from
7168-417: The Italian dialects has declined in the modern era , as Italy unified under Standard Italian and continues to do so aided by mass media from newspapers to radio to television, diglossia is still frequently encountered in Italy and triglossia is not uncommon in emigrant communities among older speakers. Both situations normally involve some degree of code-switching and code-mixing . Notes: Italian has
7296-439: The Italian language into a lingua franca used not only among clerks, nobility, and functionaries in the Italian courts but also by the bourgeoisie . Italian literature's first modern novel, I promessi sposi ( The Betrothed ) by Alessandro Manzoni , further defined the standard by "rinsing" his Milanese "in the waters of the Arno " ( Florence 's river), as he states in the preface to his 1840 edition. After unification,
7424-497: The Mediterranean. The increasing political and cultural relevance of Florence during the periods of the rise of the Medici Bank , humanism , and the Renaissance made its dialect, or rather a refined version of it, a standard in the arts. The Renaissance era, known as il Rinascimento in Italian, was seen as a time of rebirth, which is the literal meaning of both renaissance (from French) and rinascimento (Italian). During this time, long-existing beliefs stemming from
7552-418: The Monte Verità Museum, are also on the list. Two museums, the Museo comunale d’arte and the Museo Epper , and a theater, the Teatro S. Materno , finish out the list. The entire town of Ascona is listed on the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites . In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 32.24% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (18.93%),
7680-405: The PPD (with 338 or 19.6%), the LEGA (with 311 or 18.0%) and the SSI (with 254 or 14.7%). As of 2007 , Ascona had an unemployment rate of 4.99%. As of 2005 , there were 9 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 3 businesses involved in this sector. 361 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 47 businesses in this sector. 2,683 people were employed in
7808-684: The Swiss national languages (as of 2000 ), 1,189 speak German, 112 people speak French, 3,289 people speak Italian, and 10 people speak Romansh . The remainder (384 people) speak another language. As of 2008 , the gender distribution of the population was 46.6% male and 53.4% female. The population was made up of 1,776 Swiss men (32.4% of the population), and 779 (14.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 2,202 Swiss women (40.1%), and 731 (13.3%) non-Swiss women. In 2008 there were 22 live births to Swiss citizens and 8 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 36 deaths of Swiss citizens and 9 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration,
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#17328509798307936-479: The beginnings of the Late Bronze Age . During the expansion of the cemetery in 1952, a necropolis was discovered at S. Materno, where 21 cremation urns were discovered. The urns were either simply buried or covered with a stone slab box. They contained cremated bones and, in some cases, bronze grave goods . Of particular interest are the bronze brooches , which are among the oldest that have been found so far in Switzerland. They also provide important evidence for
8064-416: The bishop of Lugano. Under the bishop of Lugano, several religious orders administered the seminary, including the Salesians (1894–1910), the Assumptionists (1910–14), and finally the Benedictines (since 1924). In the 20th century, the building was rebuilt and expanded several times (1924–27, after a fire in 1960, 1975–76, and 1992). In the second half of the 18th century, the Church of SS Peter and Paul
8192-407: The canton of Ticino was founded in 1803, Ascona became a political municipality. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the local economy depended mostly on crops, livestock, and fisheries. A smaller, but important source of income was the emigration of builders, architects, and artists to Rome and Tuscany. The most famous Ascona artist families were the Serodine, Abbondio, Pancaldi, and Pisoni. In
8320-444: The case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are careful not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages. The economic might and relatively advanced development of Tuscany at the time ( Late Middle Ages ) gave its language weight, although Venetian remained widespread in medieval Italian commercial life, and Ligurian (or Genoese) remained in use in maritime trade alongside
8448-439: The church of St. Peter (S. Pietro) gave feudal rights to Ascona. " Ascona has a population (as of December 2020 ) of 5,554. As of 2008 , 27.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 10.7%. Most of the population (as of 2000 ) speaks Italian (66.0%), with German being the second most common (23.9%), and Serbo-Croatian being third (2.5%). Of
8576-455: The colonial period. In the early 19th century, Eritrea was the country with the highest number of Italians abroad, and the Italian Eritreans grew from 4,000 during World War I to nearly 100,000 at the beginning of World War II. In Asmara there are two Italian schools, the Italian School of Asmara (Italian primary school with a Montessori department) and the Liceo Sperimentale "G. Marconi" (Italian international senior high school). Italian
8704-417: The composer Ruggero Leoncavallo . After World War I, she also hosted Rainer Maria Rilke and Harry Graf Kessler . In 1919, the Irish writer James Joyce , who at the time was working on his novel Ulysses , visited the island and stayed at the baroness' residence; Joyce who was staying in nearby Locarno, made contact having learned that the baroness, aged 63, had scrolls on her walls painted with scenes from
8832-414: The convent into a home and his wife began to create a botanical garden , which required bringing by boat to the island earth, plants from around the world and gardeners. Fleming, reportedly finding his wife too impetuous, left the island in 1897 for Naples , where he worked as a diplomat at the British consulate, he died in 1922. Her daughter had also left the island, escaping with a gardener’s assistance in
8960-405: The country (some 0.42% of the total population). Their numbers dropped dramatically after World War II following the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus , which caused the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians. Italian was the official language of the Republic of Ragusa from 1492 to 1807. It formerly had official status in Albania due to the annexation of
9088-408: The country to the Kingdom of Italy (1939–1943). Albania has a large population of non-native speakers, with over half of the population having some knowledge of the Italian language. The Albanian government has pushed to make Italian a compulsory second language in schools. The Italian language is well-known and studied in Albania, due to its historical ties and geographical proximity to Italy and to
9216-446: The country. A few hundred Italian settlers returned to Libya in the 2000s. Italian was the official language of Eritrea during Italian colonisation . Italian is today used in commerce, and it is still spoken especially among elders; besides that, Italian words are incorporated as loan words in the main language spoken in the country (Tigrinya). The capital city of Eritrea, Asmara , still has several Italian schools, established during
9344-515: The country. The official census, carried out in 2002, reported 2,258 ethnic Italians ( Istrian Italians ) in Slovenia (0.11% of the total population). Italian language in Croatia is an official minority language in the country, with many schools and public announcements published in both languages. The 2001 census in Croatia reported 19,636 ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians ) in
9472-464: The design and fashion industries, in some sports such as football and especially in culinary terms. In Italy, almost all the other languages spoken as the vernacular —other than standard Italian and some languages spoken among immigrant communities—are often called " Italian dialects ", a label that can be very misleading if it is understood to mean "dialects of Italian". The Romance dialects of Italy are local evolutions of spoken Latin that pre-date
9600-572: The diffusion of Italian television in the country. Due to heavy Italian influence during the Italian colonial period , Italian is still understood by some in former colonies such as Libya. Although it was the primary language in Libya since colonial rule , Italian greatly declined under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi , who expelled the Italian Libyan population and made Arabic the sole official language of
9728-472: The educated gentlemen was to make the Grand Tour , visiting Italy to see its great historical monuments and works of art. It was expected that the visitor would learn at least some Italian, understood as language based on Florentine. In England, while the classical languages Latin and Greek were the first to be learned, Italian became the second most common modern language after French, a position it held until
9856-415: The end of the upper secondary program, a student will be prepared to enter a trade or to continue on to a university or college. In Ticino, vocational students may either attend school while working on their internship or apprenticeship (which takes three or four years) or may attend school followed by an internship or apprenticeship (which takes one year as a full-time student or one and a half to two years as
9984-458: The establishment of Italian, and as such are sister languages to the Tuscan that was the historical source of Italian. They can be quite different from Italian and from each other, with some belonging to different linguistic branches of Romance. The only exceptions to this are twelve groups considered " historical language minorities ", which are officially recognized as distinct minority languages by
10112-588: The existence of an early medieval parish . The Church of S. Maria della Misericordia was built in 1399–1442. It contains one of the most extensive late Gothic fresco cycles in Switzerland. In 1640-41, Ascona separated from Ronco and Castelletto. According to the statues adopted in the 14th century, Ascona was represented by three people in the Council of the parish of Locarno. Under the Swiss Confederation , it
10240-461: The existing garden and vegetation, undertaking the necessary maintenance. Emden continued the baroness's exotic partying, entertaining young ladies who would water-ski and dance naked in the garden. Emden lived on the islands until his death in a clinic in Locarno in 1940. In 1949, Emden's son Hans Erich, who had emigrated to Chile accepted an offer from a consortium consisting of the Canton Ticino,
10368-610: The fact that Ascona took part in trade over the Alps through the Val Mesolcina and over Lake Maggiore with the Po Valley . Similar objects were found by exploratory excavations in the late 1960s on the castle hill of San Michele. Both fine ceramics and coarse pottery were discovered, which suggests that this area was settled during the Late Bronze Age, even if there is no evidence of
10496-433: The fact that it was linguistically an intermediate between the northern and the southern Italian dialects. Thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the official language of Italy. Italian was progressively made an official language of most of the Italian states predating unification, slowly replacing Latin, even when ruled by foreign powers (such as Spain in the Kingdom of Naples , or Austria in
10624-400: The forested land, 28.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 5.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 6.0% is used for growing crops, while 3.0% is used for orchards or vine crops, and 26.8% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes. Of the unproductive areas, 3.8% is unproductive vegetation. The municipality
10752-468: The free website and application Duolingo has 4.94 million English speakers learning the Italian language. According to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , every year there are more than 200,000 foreign students who study the Italian language; they are distributed among the 90 Institutes of Italian Culture that are located around the world, in the 179 Italian schools located abroad, or in
10880-637: The graves points to the period in the mid-1st or 2nd century AD. The necropolis was probably associated with a villa. In 1979–80, an excavation at the church of S. Sebastiano discovered 60 early medieval graves. A fortified settlement is first mentioned in 1186, as Sconae ( castrum quod dicitur sconae ), in 1224 as burgus de schona . The etymology of the toponym is unknown, there are several suggestions from 19th-century scholarship, all of them uncertain: from Latin scanum "alluvial sediment", from Latin ab abscondito , or from an uncertain early Romance asculà "pasture in uncultivated land". The German form of
11008-483: The island of Corsica (but not in the neighbouring Sardinia , which on the contrary underwent Italianization well into the late 18th century, under Savoyard sway: the island's linguistic composition, roofed by the prestige of Spanish among the Sardinians , would therein make for a rather slow process of assimilation to the Italian cultural sphere ). The rediscovery of Dante's De vulgari eloquentia , as well as
11136-631: The language to that continent. According to some sources, Italian is the second most spoken language in Argentina after the official language of Spanish, although its number of speakers, mainly of the older generation, is decreasing. Italian bilingual speakers can be found scattered across the Southeast of Brazil as well as in the South. In Venezuela , Italian is the most spoken language after Spanish and Portuguese, with around 200,000 speakers. In Uruguay , people who speak Italian as their home language are 1.1% of
11264-491: The late 18th century when it tended to be replaced by German. John Milton , for instance, wrote some of his early poetry in Italian. Within the Catholic Church , Italian is known by a large part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and is used in substitution for Latin in some official documents. Italian loanwords continue to be used in most languages in matters of art and music (especially classical music including opera), in
11392-525: The late 19th to the mid-20th century, millions of Italians settled in Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Brazil and Venezuela, as well as in Canada and the United States, where they formed a physical and cultural presence. In some cases, colonies were established where variants of regional languages of Italy were used, and some continue to use this regional language. Examples are Rio Grande do Sul , Brazil, where Talian
11520-563: The law. On the other hand, Corsican (a language spoken on the French island of Corsica ) is closely related to medieval Tuscan , from which Standard Italian derives and evolved. The differences in the evolution of Latin in the different regions of Italy can be attributed to the natural changes that all languages in regular use are subject to, and to some extent to the presence of three other types of languages: substrata, superstrata, and adstrata . The most prevalent were substrata (the language of
11648-689: The list: the church of S. Maria della Misericordia with the Collegio Papio , the Church of S. Michele with the ruins of a medieval castle, and the Parish Church of SS. Pietro e Paolo. Three houses are on the list: the Serodine House, the Unifamiliare Tuia House, and the Villa at via Ludwig 26. The Balladrum, a prehistoric and medieval settlement, as well as the Albergo, a park with a complex of houses, and
11776-460: The municipal structures. Remains of walls and clay from the Balladrum hill are the only Iron Age objects found in the municipality. However, the exact age is unknown. The only item that has been conclusively identified is a single flagon from the 6th to 5th century BC. From the Roman Empire , a necropolis with 38 tombs at the foot of the Castle of S. Materno was discovered. The equipment found near
11904-794: The municipalities of Santa Tereza and Encantado in Brazil . Italian is also spoken by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia . Italian is included under the languages covered by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Romania , although Italian is neither a co-official nor a protected language in these countries. Some speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian (either in its standard form or regional varieties ) and
12032-642: The municipalities of Ascona, Brissago and Ronco sopra Ascona, plus the Swiss Nature Protection League (known today as the Swiss Heritage Society) to purchase the islands. The purchase agreement was signed on 2 September 1949. On the morning of 2 April 1950 the Brissago Islands were opened to the public. While the smaller island has been left in its natural state, the botanical garden ( Parco botanico del Canton Ticino ) on San Pancrazio
12160-420: The municipality that were multipurpose buildings (used for both housing and commercial or another purpose). The vacancy rate for the municipality, in 2008 , was 0.65%. In 2000 there were 4,636 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 3 room apartment of which there were 1,567. There were 606 single room apartments and 503 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments,
12288-480: The municipality. In 2014 the crime rate, of the over 200 crimes listed in the Swiss Criminal Code (running from murder, robbery, and assault to accepting bribes and election fraud), in Ascona was 64.4 per thousand residents, slightly lower than the national average (64.6 per thousand). During the same period, the rate of drug crimes was 5.5 per thousand residents. This rate is lower than average, only 48.2% of
12416-515: The name, Aschgunen , is recorded from the 16th century, when Locarno had come under the rule of the Old Swiss Confederacy . It is no longer in use. In the later Middle Ages, Ascona, Ronco , and Castelletto formed a village cooperative together. In 1321 it was mentioned for the first time, and in 1369, it had its own statutes. The history of Ascona during the Middle Ages is closely linked with that of Locarno . The important role of Ascona
12544-412: The nation was unified in 1861. Italian is a Romance language , a descendant of Vulgar Latin (colloquial spoken Latin). Standard Italian is based on Tuscan , especially its Florentine dialect , and is, therefore, an Italo-Dalmatian language , a classification that includes most other central and southern Italian languages and the extinct Dalmatian . According to Ethnologue , lexical similarity
12672-421: The near future. In 1945 negotiations over World War II surrender plans took place between U.S. and Nazi German representatives in Ascona. " Monte Verità " ("Mount Truth") was so named at the beginning of the 20th century, when a "colony" was founded by proponents of primitive socialism and anarchy on a hill formerly known as "Monescia", just to the north-west of the town of Ascona. The colony attracted
12800-458: The north, so that as of 2023 Locarno and Ascona form a single agglomeration. Two bridges connect Ascona with the left bank of the Maggia river. The one at Solduno, which was built 1815–16, and rebuilt in 1887 after the flood of 1868, was totally replaced in 1996. The second bridge, further into the valley, was built in 1974–80. Since 1947, Ascona has also had an airport; however, it is likely to close in
12928-408: The number of printing presses in Italy grew rapidly and by the year 1500 reached a total of 56, the biggest number of printing presses in all of Europe. This enabled the production of more pieces of literature at a lower cost and Italian, as the dominant language, spread. Italian became the language used in the courts of every state in the Italian Peninsula , as well as the prestige variety used on
13056-580: The official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta . Italian has a significant use in musical terminology and opera with numerous Italian words referring to music that have become international terms taken into various languages worldwide. Almost all native Italian words end with vowels , and the language has a 7-vowel sound system ('e' and 'o' have mid-low and mid-high sounds). Italian has contrast between short and long consonants and gemination (doubling) of consonants. During
13184-630: The openness of vowels, the length of the consonants, and influence of the local language (for example, in informal situations andà , annà and nare replace the standard Italian andare in the area of Tuscany, Rome and Venice respectively for the infinitive "to go"). There is no definitive date when the various Italian variants of Latin—including varieties that contributed to modern Standard Italian—began to be distinct enough from Latin to be considered separate languages. One criterion for determining that two language variants are to be considered separate languages rather than variants of
13312-584: The original inhabitants), as the Italian dialects were most probably simply Latin as spoken by native cultural groups. Superstrata and adstrata were both less important. Foreign conquerors of Italy that dominated different regions at different times left behind little to no influence on the dialects. Foreign cultures with which Italy engaged in peaceful relations with, such as trade, had no significant influence either. Throughout Italy, regional varieties of Standard Italian, called Regional Italian , are spoken. Regional differences can be recognized by various factors:
13440-453: The other hand, almost everyone still speaks the Corsican idiom , which, due to its linguistic proximity to the Italian standard language, appears both linguistically as an Italian dialect and therefore as a carrier of Italian culture, despite the French government's decades-long efforts to cut Corsica off from the Italian motherland. Italian was the official language in Monaco until 1860, when it
13568-406: The population of Italy could speak Standard Italian. He reports that in 1951 that percentage had risen to 87%. The ability to speak Italian did not necessarily mean it was in everyday use, and most people (63.5%) still usually spoke their native dialects. In addition, other factors such as mass emigration, industrialization, and urbanization, and internal migrations after World War II , contributed to
13696-411: The population of Swiss citizens decreased by 14 while the foreign population decreased by 1. There were 7 Swiss men and 3 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 43 non-Swiss men and 27 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources) was an increase of 17, and the non-Swiss population change
13824-469: The proliferation of Standard Italian. The Italians who emigrated during the Italian diaspora beginning in 1861 were often of the uneducated lower class, and thus the emigration had the effect of increasing the percentage of literates, who often knew and understood the importance of Standard Italian, back home in Italy. A large percentage of those who had emigrated also eventually returned to Italy, often more educated than when they had left. Although use of
13952-528: The pronunciation of stressed "e", and of "s" between vowels in many words: e.g. va bene "all right" is pronounced [vabˈbɛːne] by a Roman (and by any standard Italian speaker), [vaˈbeːne] by a Milanese (and by any speaker whose native dialect lies to the north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line ); a casa "at home" is [akˈkaːsa] for Roman, [akˈkaːsa] or [akˈkaːza] for standard, [aˈkaːza] for Milanese and generally northern. In contrast to
14080-415: The publication of Agnolo Monosini 's Latin tome Floris italicae linguae libri novem in 1604 followed by the first Italian dictionary in 1612. An important event that helped the diffusion of Italian was the conquest and occupation of Italy by Napoleon in the early 19th century (who was himself of Italian-Corsican descent). This conquest propelled the unification of Italy some decades after and pushed
14208-529: The referendum that allowed France to annex Savoy and Nice, and a group of his followers (among the Italian Savoyards ) took refuge in Italy in the following years. Corsica passed from the Republic of Genoa to France in 1769 after the Treaty of Versailles . Italian was the official language of Corsica until 1859. Giuseppe Garibaldi called for the inclusion of the " Corsican Italians " within Italy when Rome
14336-501: The relationship of this area to the cultures of the Italian Peninsula . The grave goods have similarities with those from the final phase of the so-called Canegrate culture (named after a large necropolis in Milan ). However, the materials used are those of the late Bronze Age north of the Alps . This allowed the cemetery to be dated to the period between the 12th and 10th centuries BC and points to
14464-461: The school was finished. After negotiations with Charles Borromeo , the Archbishop of Milan, and representatives of Pope Gregory XIII , it was decided to sell the originally planned Casa Papio and to build the Collegio Papio college next to the Church of S. Maria della Misericordia. This project ran from 1585 until 1592. In 1616, Cardinal Federico Borromeo , placed the school under the authority of
14592-426: The special school. In the lower secondary school system, students either attend a two-year middle school followed by a two-year pre-apprenticeship, or they attend a four-year program to prepare for higher education. There were 213 students in the two-year middle school and 1 in their pre-apprenticeship, while 123 students were in the four-year advanced program. The upper secondary school includes several options, but at
14720-477: The summer season, around 20,000 to 25,000 visitors came to Ascona each year. Closely connected with the rise of tourism was population growth in the 1920s. In 1925 an extensive redistribution of land ownership allowed non-locals to purchase land. By 1934, the number of landowners included not only 299 Ticinesi, but 88 other Swiss, 41 German, 35 Italian, and 31 foreign nationals. The settlement area has expanded since 1960. The expansion has proceeded more and more towards
14848-464: The teachings of the Roman Catholic Church began to be understood from new perspectives as humanists —individuals who placed emphasis on the human body and its full potential—began to shift focus from the church to human beings themselves. The continual advancements in technology play a crucial role in the diffusion of languages. After the invention of the printing press in the 15th century,
14976-463: The title Divina , were read throughout the peninsula and his written dialect became the "canonical standard" that all educated Italians could understand. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language. In addition to the widespread exposure gained through literature, the Florentine dialect also gained prestige due to the political and cultural significance of Florence at the time and
15104-529: The total population of the country. In Australia, Italian is the second most spoken foreign language after Chinese, with 1.4% of the population speaking it as their home language. The main Italian-language newspapers published outside Italy are the L'Osservatore Romano ( Vatican City ), the L'Informazione di San Marino ( San Marino ), the Corriere del Ticino and the laRegione Ticino ( Switzerland ),
15232-444: The vegetation is allowed to develop naturally. Both benefit from the mild climate provided by the lake. The minimum distance from the shore is 1,040 metres for San Pancrazio and 930 metres for Sant'Apollinare, making them the farthest islands from the shore in Switzerland . Both islands culminate at 200 metres above sea level or 7 metres above lake level (193 m). Roman remains have been found on San Pancrazio. The islands were used as
15360-594: The vote. The next three most popular parties were; the PPD +GenGiova (with 323 or 18.7%), the SSI (with 307 or 17.8%) and the PS (with 215 or 12.5%). In the 2007 Consiglio di Stato election, 29 blank ballots and 8 null ballots were cast, leaving 1,726 valid ballots in the election. The most popular party was the PLRT which received 409 or 23.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were;
15488-424: The workforce coming into Ascona are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.1% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 7.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 47.8% used a private car. As of 2009 , there were 34 hotels in Ascona with a total of 1,192 rooms and 2,230 beds. From the 2000 census , 3,308 or 66.4% were Roman Catholic , while 835 or 16.8% belonged to
15616-515: Was a decrease of 3 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.3%. The age distribution, as of 2009 , in Ascona is; 365 children or 6.7% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 500 teenagers or 9.1% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 481 people or 8.8% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 612 people or 11.2% are between 30 and 39, 833 people or 15.2% are between 40 and 49, and 782 people or 14.2% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution
15744-548: Was also introduced to Somalia through colonialism and was the sole official language of administration and education during the colonial period but fell out of use after government, educational and economic infrastructure were destroyed in the Somali Civil War . Italian is also spoken by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. Although over 17 million Americans are of Italian descent , only
15872-516: Was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy , but King Victor Emmanuel II did not agree to it. Italian is generally understood in Corsica by the population resident therein who speak Corsican , which is an Italo-Romance idiom similar to Tuscan. Francization occurred in Nice case, and caused a near-disappearance of the Italian language as many of the Italian speakers in these areas migrated to Italy. In Corsica, on
16000-486: Was extensively rebuilt. In 1859, the façade and the south side were totally redone in a Gothic Revival style. A further renovation began in 1948 but was aborted after the 18th-century vaults collapsed. In 1798 Ascona elected to join the Helvetic Republic , and was granted a certain degree of local self-government. French troops moved into the town but were driven out, and it was then occupied by Austrian units. When
16128-443: Was mirrored by a decline in the use of the dialects. An increase in literacy was one of the main driving factors (one can assume that only literates were capable of learning Standard Italian, whereas those who were illiterate had access only to their native dialect). The percentage of literates rose from 25% in 1861 to 60% in 1911, and then on to 78.1% in 1951. Tullio De Mauro , an Italian linguist, has asserted that in 1861 only 2.5% of
16256-630: Was replaced by the French. This was due to the annexation of the surrounding County of Nice to France following the Treaty of Turin (1860) . It formerly had official status in Montenegro (because of the Venetian Albania ), parts of Slovenia and Croatia (because of the Venetian Istria and Venetian Dalmatia ), parts of Greece (because of the Venetian rule in the Ionian Islands and by
16384-537: Was represented with two members, alternating every two years with those of Ronco. In 1428, Filippo Maria Visconti gave the villages the market right , which was renewed by the Confederates after the conquest of Locarno in 1513. In 1580, Bartolomeo Papio, who had become wealthy in Rome, donated 25,000 Scudi to Ascona for the construction of a seminary as long as the work could be completed within three years. In October 1584
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