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183-865: 1916 1917 1918 White War (1915–1918) The White War ( Italian : Guerra Bianca , German : Gebirgskrieg , Hungarian : Fehér Háború ) is the name given to the fighting in the high-altitude Alpine sector of the Italian front during the First World War , principally in the Dolomites , the Ortles-Cevedale Alps and the Adamello-Presanella Alps . More than two-thirds of this conflict zone lies at an altitude above 2,000m, rising to 3905m at Mount Ortler . In 1917 New York World correspondent E. Alexander Powell wrote: “On no front, not on

366-512: A June the Austrians had fortified the Costone di Salesei and the Costone di Agai, meaning that it would take a frontal attack on Col de Lana to push them out. On 15 June, some Italian patrols sent towards the enemy positions were easily neutralized, and this was followed by series of bloody frontal attacks that achieved nothing. The Italians launched ten further attacks against Col di Lana and five against

549-557: A counterattack from caves dug into the rock. At dawn, the Italian artillery began to strike the attackers, while two platoons were sent to reinforce the men hidden in the Sasso di Sesto tunnels. On the morning of April 22 the counterattack began and by the early afternoon the position was again in Italian hands. With this episode, major fighting in the shadow of the Tre Cime also ended. The slowness of

732-540: A group of volunteers try to outmanoeuvre the Austro-Hungarians by climbing over the glacier in camouflage, but they were detected and repulsed after several days of determined fighting. In most sectors there were no major engagements after October each year at the latest, as the troops concentrated in preparing themselves to survive the winter. Unusually the IVth Army Command decided that the firm settled snow and

915-500: 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

1098-591: A line of trenches stretched from the slopes below it across the Val Popena, connecting it with Monte Piana . In early August 1915 the Italians began attacking the Austro-Hungarian positions in the heights. Between 9 and 11 August Alpini units, strongly opposed by artillery and machine gun fire, began the assault on Forame and managed to take it on the night of 13th. Another column took the high peak of Cristallo, forcing

1281-534: A little east of Forcella Dignas. This meant it was roughly facing the 1st and 4th Italian Armies. The region was divided into five sectors, called ‘rayons’. part of General Scholz's 90th Division, composed of eleven battalions, was assigned to sectors I and II, from the Stelvio to Presèna, with support from the fort at Gomagoi on the Stelvio route and modern artillery placed to defend the Passo del Tonale. The III sector ran from

1464-464: 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

1647-657: 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

1830-420: A passage towards Tyrol . However, it had to carry out limited offensives to better ensure the inviolability of the Italian border, occupying Austrian territory whenever it was possible and convenient. Enduring with ill grace having to remain on the defensive, he carried out these offensive operations with the utmost energy. On May 25, 1915, the day after entering the war, the Italian troops, taking advantage of

2013-645: 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

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2196-503: A powerful offensive across the lines of the 1st Army to take the entire Italian side from the back. In view of a probable enemy offensive, at his request, the Supreme Command granted Brusati five divisions. On March 24, from London , Cadorna stated: For no reason, the troops will have to let themselves be dragged by resistance on advanced positions, but any retreat will have to be done promptly so that troops remain efficient to defend

2379-417: 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

2562-558: 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

2745-541: 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: Roberto Brusati Roberto Brusati OSML OCI , was an Italian General of the Army who was an active participant in World War I . He was known for not having any military experience prior to

2928-474: 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

3111-503: A steep path targeted by Italian artillery. These months were mainly used to excavate covered trenches, tunnels and caves in the shelter of the northern edge; the paths on the western side were widened, and partly retraced in more sheltered positions, while at the end of November a cableway was erected that kept the Austrian-Hungarian line supplied for the next two years. 1916 saw a progressive strengthening of positions, especially on

3294-504: 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

3477-586: A week before the enemy attack. In addition, Cadorna Court-martialed Brusati on charges of treason, based on Chapter 1, Article 72, Paragraph 7 of the Military Criminal Code in time of war. However while the Court-Martial never met, public opinion was led to believe that Brusati had serious faults in the Army and was the subject of a smear campaign, which neither the government, nor the Supreme Command intervened to stop. There were even rumors that his son

3660-427: 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

3843-729: 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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4026-528: 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

4209-455: 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

4392-498: 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 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

4575-458: 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

4758-626: Is the main working language of the Holy See , serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as 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

4941-538: 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

5124-501: 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,

5307-936: 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 ),

5490-619: The Cereda Pass , defending the Trentino salient with the 35th Reserve Division near Brescia . The 4th Army was deployed on the Dolomites sector under General Luigi Nava , based in Vittorio Veneto , which its forces from the Cereda Pass to Mount Peralba , over about 75 km as the crow flies, and about double the distance on the ground. The Cordevole  [ it ] sector, between

5673-672: 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

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5856-816: The Grisons ), Corsica , and Vatican City . It has official minority status in Croatia , Slovenian Istria , and 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

6039-641: The Indo-European language family that evolved from 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

6222-630: The Isonzo River . Faced with public unrest, and while the battle was in full swing, the government and the Supreme Command sought the scapegoat. On May 25, a press release from the Stefani agency announced, with unusual relief, that the Council of Ministers had placed General Brusati at rest with the Lieutenancy Decree of May 25, 1916. It was a very serious provision, omitting that the exemption took place

6405-649: 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

6588-763: 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

6771-660: The Pale di San Martino and the Rocchetta di Pelmo, was garrisoned by the IX Corps under the command of General Marini with the 17th and 18th Divisions serving on the front or in reserve. The Cadore sector, between the Valle del Boite and the sources of the Piave, came under I Corps of General Ottavio Ragni , with the 2nd and 10th Divisions deployed close to the border and the 1st Division in reserve. Unlike

6954-539: 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

7137-604: The Royal Academy of Turin  [ it ] in 1866. Due to his own nationalism, Brusati tried unsuccessfully to volunteer to enlist to fight in the Third Italian War of Independence . The selection among the aspiring officers was then very strict, but he always ranked first in his course, graduating by 1869. With his promotion to second lieutenant, he was admitted directly to the General Staff Corps, thus attending

7320-427: The Sass de Stria with its tunnels and trenches, and Lagazuoi , more excavated than any other mountain in the Dolomites; within it, a bloody battle was fought with mines . The war reached Cortina d'Ampezzo on July 31, 1914 with the conscription of men between 21 and 42 into the armed forces of Austria-Hungary. In November of the same year twenty-year-olds were also called up, and in May 1915, when Italy also entered

7503-399: The Trentino , offered major advantages to Austria-Hungary. Extending southwards towards the River Po , it potentially allowed Austro-Hungarian forces to strike towards the lower Adige and Mincio , cutting off Veneto and Friuli-Venezia from the rest of Italy. Another section, much smaller, favoured Italy around the Kreuzberg Pass and the headwaters of the Drava . In practical terms however,

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7686-406: The Val Badia was controlled by Forte Tre Sassi on the stony ground of the Valparola Pass , while the Livinallongo del Col di Lana was blocked upstream of Pieve by Forte Corte  [ it ] and Forte Ruaz  [ it ] . Finally, near Moena stood Forte Someda  [ it ] , guarding the Fassa Valley and the mouth of the San Pellegrino valley, a few kilometres from

7869-406: 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

8052-406: 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

8235-458: 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

8418-438: 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

8601-456: The 3,042m summit of Monte Popera. Their attention then shifted towards the Sentinella Pass. In August and September 1915 the Italians mounted a number of probing attacks at the Sentinella Pass, but autumn weather brought fighting to a standstill, with both sides leaving only small garrisons in position. It was the Italians who took the initiative in February 1916 with a new plan of attack which required Cima Undici to be occupied. The men chosen for

8784-430: The 4th Italian Army sector, the Croda Rossa di Sesto was occupied by Austro-Hungarian troops on the Sesto side. From here they could control the pass of Monte Croce di Comelico , Cima Undici , the Zsigmondy crest and it:Monte Popera . The Austro-Hungarians had one of the best guides in the area, Sepp Innerkofler  [ de ] , and, from July, support from the German Alpenkorps who hoisted two mountain guns onto

8967-422: The 67th Company and caused the first death on the Dolomite front. Over the following days there were clashes between patrols and small groups of soldiers trying to climb up and occupy small portions of rocky ground, but perhaps the most famous action was the Austro-Hungarian offensive on July 4, 1915 where Innerkofler lost his life. Together with some Standschützen he attempted to occupy the Passaporto fork to cut off

9150-522: The Adamello to the Pale di San Martino, and was the responsibility of the 91st Division made up of about thirty battalions, under the General Können-Horack , while one brigade controlled the garrison of the strongholds of Riva del Garda and Trento under General Guseck. This defensive system around Trento was of great strategic importance, and was divided into four sub-sectors, Lodaro, Lavarone , Rovereto and Pergine Valsugana , which had modern fortifications and various defensive works. The IV sector, from

9333-406: The Austrians began to work on an assault tunnel under the snow. Work lasted two months, and on 21 April sixty soldiers, emerged little more than two metres from the enemy lines, attacking the trenches with hand grenades. The defenders were taken completely by surprise and many prisoners were captured while they slept. Although the Austro-Hungarians quickly captured the trenches, the Italians organised

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9516-411: The Austrians from various high points around the eastern entrance to the Pass, particularly the rocky outcrop called the Casteletto on the Tofana di Rozes . The fighting to secure thus became so intense that the Austrians called it the “Schreckenstein” – “The rock of horror. Unable to push the Austro-Hungarians off the Casteletto, in 1916 the Italians decided to dig a 500m gallery from their positions to

9699-500: The Austrians were still able to block the road towards the fork of San Candido and then towards the Val Pusteria. Later Italian attempts failed but the Italians managed to move the front about 12 kilometers, significantly improving their defensive line. The positions of the two sides were very close here: between the Sasso di Sesto and Torre di Toblin they were separated by just a few hundred meters and this contributed to making that small sector much disputed, although after 30 October, there

9882-447: The Austro-Hungarian initiatives in the Lavaredo sector. The most notable event of the war in Lavaredo was an inconclusive attack by the Italians when the command of the I Corps decided to force its way into the Val Fiscalina  [ it ] and the Val Campo di Dentro. Six battalions of infantry were massed behind the Tre Cime with the support of two battalions of mountain guns. The attack began on 14 August with an advance towards

10065-415: The Austro-Hungarian positions on the Forame heights to the west of Rauhkofel. The plan was for a group of volunteers to work their way behind Austro-Hungarian lines at night and attack at dawn, when the main Italian forces would advance out of their trenches. Early in the morning of 29 August this plan was executed. Surprised, the Austro-Hungarians retreated leaving the Italians in control on the first ridge of

10248-417: The Austro-Hungarian side, where the entire summit became a network of fortified defensive works. Soldiers led a mostly underground life in covered trenches, connecting tunnels and caves equipped for different functions. The Italians, with larger forces but weaker positions, continued their slow advance on the northern plateau. In August they managed to take the so-called "Fosso degli Alpini", a long depression on

10431-463: The Austro-Hungarians back to Cresta del Costabella and Rauchkofel. After bringing artillery up onto the peak the Italians began to bombard these positions on 26 August. This was followed by another attack in from 11–26 September, but hampered by fog, snow and freezing temperatures, the Italians could not force the Austro-Hungarians off the mountain once and for all, and little ground changed hands. Another costly Italian attack between 20 and 26 October saw

10614-509: The Austro-Hungarians continued to pretend that they were occupied in order to divert Italian fire towards useless targets. Both armies, from the beginning of the conflict, began the constant work of excavating caves, tunnels, trenches, walkways, shelters and underground depots, which led to the creation of entire underground towns relatively safe from enemy fire. Monte Piana and Col di Lana were notable examples of such structures, with impressive defensive systems. Other examples can be found at

10797-416: The Castelletto delle Tofane. The Italian offensive continued until June 16 with poor results; the Austro-Hungarians were well entrenched in Val Travenanzes and benefited from the terrain, so eventually the Italian command broke off the attacks. The central column, strong with two infantry battalions, aimed directly at the Som Pouses barrage, strongly fortified and with excellent defensive positions starting from

10980-476: The Conca d'Ampezzo as his priority, General Nava, worried about strong resistance and ambushes from the woods, delayed in issuing orders, advising the commanders of the army corps to operate with great caution; so May 24 passed quietly. Only a few Italian exploratory patrols crossed the border, reaching Passo Tre Croci and the Cinque Torri without encountering the enemy, and only on 27 May did a patrol descend to Cortina, finding it completely free of defenders. The town

11163-405: The Cordevole sector, however, the troops of the Cadore sector could count on the substantial fixed defenses of the Cadore-Maè Fortress. On the Austro-Hungarian side, General Viktor Dankl von Krasnik took command of the defense of Tyrol at the start of hostilities, based in Innsbruck . His field of operations stretched from the Stelvio Pass to the Croda Nera , located on the Carnic watershed just

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11346-434: The Costone di Agai were also broken up by Austro-Hungarian artillery. A major new frontal assault was launched on 21 October, in which the Italians outnumbered the defenders ten to one. Trench by trench, at great cost, the Austro-Hungarians were dislodged from their positions and on 7 November the 60th Infantry Regiment of the Brigade "Calabria" finally conquered the summit. However it fell back into Austro-Hungarian hands on

11529-461: The Dolomites in favor of a strengthening his position on the Asiago plateau, as a base from which to attack the Veneto. As a result, the defences that opposed the Italian 4th Army were second-rate compared to those of Trentino. In the first days of the war, instead of trying to maintain old strongholds Commander Goiginger had his men retreat and distributed the artillery around the surrounding mountains. By spreading their guns over isolated positions on

11712-410: The Forame, before progress halted. Between 4 and 6 September the Italians tried to push their way down the valley between Forame and Costa Bella, but constant Austrian fire stopped them advancing. Then, in a surprise counterattack in 13 September, the Austro-Hungarians retook the peak of Forame, and quickly hoisted up artillery and mortars to ensure they could not be removed again. At the eastern edge of

11895-402: The Italian advance to secure Cortina d’Ampezzo allowed the Austrians to fortify and effectively seal off the routes to the north towards the Puster Valley . Unable to make any progress here, the Italians turned their attention westwards to the Falzarego Pass between the Sass de Stria and the Cinque Torri . If they could take this and then gain control of the Col di Lana , they could dominate

12078-417: 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

12261-408: The Italian garrison at Piramide Carducci, roughly in the middle of the plateau, where the Austrians had initially been based. Advancing up to the Italian lines the Austro-Hungarians were eventually forced to retreat by artillery and rifle fire, returning in the evening to the positions of Piramide Carducci and Forcella dei Castrati. Sporadic fighting and artillery fire continued until 11 June, when there

12444-439: 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,

12627-514: The Italian lines, firing at the same time on an arch that went from Dos Cassina to Col San Giovanni . At the dawn on May 15, the Austro-Hungarian troops went on the offensive, easily overwhelming the advanced positions of the 1st Army and the troops deployed there in Val Lagarina , Monte Maronia and at Val d'Astico . The enemy troops swept towards the Venetian plain , and it took four weeks of dramatic and uncertain fighting for Cadorna to be able to stop them, bringing in huge reinforcements from

12810-436: The Italian soldiers, on the evening of June 22, after a last vain and bloody attempt at the Som Pouses, the order was given to suspend the attacks, which had cost the attackers 324 dead, 2826 wounded and 85 missing. After this attack the positions remained unchanged until the Italian retreat in the autumn of 1917. The borders of 1866 had given the advantage of ground to the Austro-Hungarians almost everywhere, but on Monte Piana

12993-415: The Italian supplies for the Paterno . The assault failed but the Austro-Hungarian commander Goiginger decided to attempt other strikes in the Tre Cime area on the evening of the same day. On the night of July 5 a group of Standschützen attacked the Mezzo Pass, but was repulsed by two groups of Alpine troops, while a dawn attack on the Arghena fork was repelled by an infantry unit, temporarily putting an end to

13176-612: The Italians to descend into Val Felizon towards Carbonin and in Val Acqua di Campo Croce, from where they would have seriously threatened the Austro-Hungarians’ positions in the Conca d'Ampezzo. To prevent this, the Austro-Hungarians further fortified their positions, and on 7 June they were ready to face the Italian troops who, began their attack up the Alemagna road. Despite the determination of

13359-769: The Kreuzberg, rose the Dolomites, that offered little strategic advantage to either side. Between Switzerland and Lake Garda the Ortler, and the Adamello-Presanella Alps controlled the Stelvio Pass and the Tonale Pass . From here the Austro-Hungarians could have broken through to threaten the industrial cities of Lombardy, while the Italians could have penetrated deep into the Tyrol. In fact, neither side developed major plans for this sector; once

13542-550: 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

13725-543: The Pale di San Martino to Mount Padonit was held by the 90th Division, with a mountain brigade of seven battalions. The V sector, from Mount Padon to the Croda Nera, was held by a mountain brigade of nine battalions. The massing of the Italian 4th Army meant that on May 27 this sector was removed from the 90th Division and made partially autonomous under the command of General Ludwig Goiginger and with three reinforcing battalions until

13908-602: The Ravenna Division and the Rome Division. In 1910, he assumed command of the 1st Army Corps of Turin. On May 3, 1914, he was designated as Army Commander in case of war which was the highest rank of the Royal Italian Army at the time. Although politically, he was inclined to neutralism, when the war against Austria-Hungary was decided, he actively devoted himself to the command of the 1st Army . On December 30 of

14091-585: The Royal Academy of Turin for two years in order to obtain eligibility for the service of the General Staff and promotion to lieutenant. He later served in the 3rd Artillery Regiment and sent to Rome and Milan. In 1876, he was assigned to the Istituto Geografico Militare where he served for six years. In 1877, he was promoted to captain. In 1881 he got married with Miss Graziella Ferguson who

14274-575: The Sentinella pass. On the night of 15 and 16 March thirty-six men led by three officers attacked the pass. Achieving complete surprise, they encountered no resistance. However taking the Sentinella Pass would not give the Italians any advantage as long as the Austrians controlled the Croda Rossa. The Austro-Hungarians began reinforcing their positions, under continuous fire from the Italian artillery in

14457-554: The Sentinella valley and on the Dito plateau. The Austro-Hungarian garrison increased from 20 to 150 men, and the whole summit was made impregnable. From June 16, the day of the last and failed Italian assault on the Croda, positions remained unchanged until November 1917, and the battle for the Croda Rossa turned into a daily routine of reconnaissance, with occasional small clashes. The harsh winter brought death to many in both sides on this section of

14640-542: The Supreme Command that they certainly give a very significant concentration of artillery and roadways in the region of the highlands. This concentration appeared in smaller proportions in the Lagarina and Sugana valleys. The deployment of the Italian troops continued, however the Italian forces became an easy target of the Austrian artillery while the stronger defensive positions behind it remained abandoned. Brusati believed in

14823-662: The Toblin fork on three different routes: from the Col di Mezzo fork, the Lavaredo fork and the Pian di Cengia fork. The last column was the first to achieve success with the conquest of the Alpe dei Piani basin, while the other two columns struggled to advance, hampered by their artillery. After three days of fierce fighting the Italians managed to take the Toblin fork and the Sasso di Sesto, but not Torre Toblin, so

15006-474: The adjoining Mount Sief until General Rossi called a halt on 20 July to await reinforcements. Despite this pause in infantry attacks the Italian artillery continued to bombard the La Corte and Tre Sassi forts. By the beginning of August, Tre Sassi was practically a pile of rubble, and this prompted the Italians to renew their attacks on 2 August. They were repulsed again. Smaller attacks on the Costone di Salesei and

15189-612: The arrival of the German Alpenkorps , whose commander Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen assumed command of the Tyrol and the responsibility of the IV and V sectors. He retained this until 14 October, when, having withdrawn the Alpenkorps from Alto Adige , he handed over to General Roth von Limanowa . Despite their numerical superiority, the Italian forces did not take the offensive on this front. The Italian commanders lacked intelligence about

15372-490: The assault were the expert alpine troops of the "Cadore" and "Fenestrelle" battalions. On January 30 left they set off from the Zsigmondy ridge. Moving only at night or in bad weather over extreme terrain they advanced slowly through the heavy snowfalls and frequent avalanches of February and March. With the arrival of good weather, they had reached two narrow ravines called "Da Col" and "Dal Canton", from where they could attack

15555-498: The border favored Italy. Except for the northern end, the plateau that formed the upper part of the mountain was in Italian hands, and formed a wedge between the Rienza and the Landro valleys, pointing towards Dobbiaco . Before the war the Austrians had tried to reduce the threat from this position by fortifying Mount Rudo  [ it ] (Rautkofel) with several batteries that dominated

15738-437: The border itself. However at the beginning of the hostilities the Austrians did not have sufficient forces to be able to maintain them. They therefore withdrew to defensive positions behind the border that gave them the advantage of high ground wherever possible and shortened their defensive lines from around 500 km to about 400 km. In contrast the Italians followed the practice of locating their fortifications well behind

15921-670: The border, meaning they had no role in the fighting in the Dolomites. An Austrian advance near Agordo would have been met at the fort of Listolade, while the Cadore was defended by the Chiusa di Venàs and the fort of Monte Rite, as well as by numerous concealed artillery positions. On the Austrian side, Ampezzo and the Cadore Dolomites area were defended by the Prato Piazza (Plätzwiese) and Landro, which had been complemented with modern structures in

16104-444: 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

16287-481: The clear air of November favoured an infantry advance and the use of artillery. Having failed to take the high ground of Forame they decided to try a surprise attack immediately to the west, down the Val Felizon. When the attack began on 26 November it was plain that the Austro-Hungarians had been expecting it, and they cut down the advancing soldiers with machine gun fire as they struggled through snow 70 cm deep. By

16470-630: 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

16653-597: The command of General Gobbo . The III Corps occupied the western side of the Trentino salient, from Stelvio to Lake Garda. The 6th Division was deployed on the border while the 5th was the reserve of the III Corps. To the south, between Garda and the Lessinico plateau, were the troops of the fortress of Verona, while the V Corps with the 9th, 34th and 15th divisions was positioned at the Passo Tre Croci  [ it ] and

16836-486: The conflict, the draft was extended to men aged up to 50. Ladin speakers , Italian speakers from Trentino and German speakers from Tyrol were grouped into three regiments of Landesschützen and four of Kaiserjäger , hurriedly transferred to the Eastern Front . On the eve of the hostilities, General Nava, commander of the Italian 4th Army, ordered that the first objectives on the Cadore front were: taking of possession of

17019-563: 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

17202-508: 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

17385-446: 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

17568-515: 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

17751-464: 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

17934-523: 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

18117-574: The eastern Tyrolean highlands and prepare to attack up the Val Badia towards Bruneck . On the 15th of June, furious fighting took place for the 2,477m spike-like Sasso di Stria which had been fortified by the Austro-Hungarians. The Italian attack was disorganised and easily repelled, and for the next two years small pieces of ground around the Pass were won and lost by both sides without either gaining any clear advantage. The Italians decided to focus on dislodging

18300-467: The eastern edge of the plateau, delimited by a grassy hill known to the Austro-Hungarians as "Kuppe K". This position was important because it tied the Austro-Hungarians down on another side of the mountain, and allowed the Italians to protect the ascent route along the Castrati valley, from which they could directly attack enemy lines. So at the end of August a short but fierce battle began for "Kuppe K", which

18483-472: 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

18666-455: The entire massif of Monte Piana and the Cortina d'Ampezzo basin, both in the operational area of the 1st Army Corps of General Ragni. In Cortina the gendarmes, the financial police, the few Standschützen present and the elderly or veterans repatriated for illness or injuries, retreated behind Som Pouses to reinforce the defences that closed the Conca to the north. Although he had declared taking

18849-449: The entire summit of Monte Piana. During the first days of the war small Italian patrols reconnoitred daily near the Austrian trenches, from where however they were chased back on 7 June 1915, the day the Austro-Hungarians started their first major action on the plateau. Goiginger gave orders for an attack carried out by two companies of Landesschützen and some units of Standschützen. Coming up at night from Carbonin, they attacked and wiped out

19032-458: 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

19215-492: The evening when it was evident the attack had failed the brigade command requested permission to withdraw, but the 2nd Division command refused and at 20:45 ordered the action resumed the following morning. At dawn on 27 November, after an hour of artillery barrage to prepare for this assault, the XXXXVIII Bersaglieri should have resumed action. However the temperature was -20° and many of the soldiers had died of cold, with

19398-510: The explosion as they rushed downhill, while others were killed by falling rocks. They managed to take the south side of the Casteletto but did not manage to drive the Austrians off completely for another three months. Taking the Casteletto turned out not to give the Italians a decisive advantage and they still could not force their way through the Falzarego Pass. Their next attempt was to reach

19581-409: The exposure of the Italian lines to a possible enemy offensive. Fearing that the entire deployment of the Army would be in crisis, he didn't feel like ordering the retreat of the troops from the forward positions to those behind. Cadorna, not satisfied with the use of reinforcements already granted, and not convinced of the need to grant others, on May 8, exempted Brusati from command, replacing him with

19764-433: 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

19947-583: The fact that the Austrian forces were deployed far from the border, conquered considerable Austrian territory. Starting from the second half of August, the insufficiency of supplies led to the failure of the new attacks against the permanent Austrian fortifications that guarded the head of the Val d'Astico . On August 29, General Cadorna recalled the Army Command to its purely defensive task. However, he never gave up on carrying out further operations aimed at consolidating

20130-492: The few provisions the inhabitants had in occupied places. Once Cortina was taken it was immediately clear that it could not be held securely without also taking the commanding heights above it – the Tofane to the north-west and Pomagagnon and Monte Cristallo to the northeast as well as the northern head of the basin itself – Val Travenanzes, Val Fanes and Val Acqua di Campocroce. Another objective strategic objective to be achieved

20313-489: The foot of the outcrop and use 35 tons of gelignite to destroy it. The Austro-Hungarians responded by countermining but the Italians were so confident of success that General Cadorna and King Victor Emmanuel were invited to observe the detonation of the mine followed by the rapid assault by Italian troops held ready in another tunnel to swarm out after the explosion. The attack on 11 July was only partially successful. Many Italian soldiers were killed by carbon monoxide from

20496-468: 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

20679-675: The front, from avalanches, hunger, cold and disease. With the front lines unchanging after March 1916 the only significant action was from the giant 280mm and 305mm Italian howitzers positioned around the Misurina basin and on the Comelico side of the Monte Croce Pass. Their shots were guided by observers on the top of the Cristallino di Misurina, on the Popera and on the flanks of Cima Undici from where

20862-443: The front, making the deployment of his troops assume a purely offensive projection but this order led to the neglect of the defenses. The bulk of the available forces remained concentrated on the advanced positions, often uncomfortable and not preparing for defense, rather than on the positions where they were more suitable for defensive operations. In March 1916, while the command of the 1st Army were studying new offensive strategies,

21045-455: The front. All these forts were of modest size, much less impressive than the large fortresses on the Trentino highlands and in the Adige valley. At the beginning of the war they were partially decommissioned because they were outdated and inadequate to resist modern artillery. Their guns were moved to more favourable positions less detectable by the enemy; the buildings were highly visible and at times

21228-517: The general Count Guglielmo Pecori Giraldi . Still on May 14, Cadorna, in a confidential letter written to General Ugo Brusati, Adjutant of the Field of the King, protested Roberto's dismissal with the fact that he didn't believe in the imminent Austrian offensive. A few hours later however, Ugo was blatantly denied. In the afternoon of the same day the Austro-Hungarian artillery opened an intense blank fire on

21411-554: The general withdrawal after Caporetto. The Col di Lana is one of the least striking mountains in the Dolomites in its appearance, but its location meant it was hotly disputed by the two armies. The mountain dominated all road traffic moving between the Pordoi Pass and the Falzarego Pass , connecting Cortina d’Ampezzo with Canazei and the tens to the west. It was protected to the west by Forte La Corte  [ it ] and on

21594-612: The hills surrounding Cortina. The first column on the western flank, with companies of Alpine troops, fought fiercely during the night of 8 and 9 June at Ponte Alto, which it occupied. From here it carried out various attacks against the Fanes barrage and towards the Val Travenanzes as it tried an enveloping maneuver around the Tofane group, in conjunction with other attacks on the Lagazuoi and against

21777-402: The immediacy of the Austrian offensive, so much so that on March 22, he renewed the requests to receive further reinforcements, motivating them with the fact that the enemy offensive would be unleashed within a few days, but Cadorna replied curtly that he already had enough troops at his disposal. In the second half of April, General Cadorna visited the lines of the 1st Army, and became aware of

21960-657: The information services of the Army had the first news of a large concentration of Austrian forces in the Trentino sector. These were preparations for the so-called Battle of Asiago , strongly desired and planned by the Chief of Staff of the Imperial Royal Austro-Hungarian Army, Field Marshal Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf . This offensive had the declared intent to annihilate the Royal Italian Army, unleashing

22143-483: 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

22326-563: 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 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

22509-631: 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

22692-491: 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

22875-525: 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

23058-563: 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

23241-408: The main line. In open disagreement with Cadorna, Brusati ordered the exact opposite, arranging the indefinite defense of the advanced positions, counting on the solidity of the strengthening works carried out up to then. In addition, on April 1, the Royal Italian Army went on the offensive again, launching assaults that achieved some decisive but partial successes. On April 6, Brusati confirmed to

23424-452: The most remote places. Eventually, cableways were built too, and this building work itself was difficult, dangerous and exhausting. In the High Alps , temperatures vary widely: above 2,500 meters, temperatures below zero are normal even in summer. In winter, during the war, temperatures as low as -35° were recorded. All year round the weather can change rapidly and storms are common. Finally,

23607-403: The movement of troops along the Val Pusteria. Modest initial conquests were soon halted by the Italian artillery, which drove the attackers back to their starting positions. This was the last important action on Monte Piana. The Cristallo Group lies between the Val Grande, the Misurina basin, the Val Popena and road from Rifugio Ospitale to Carbonin  [ it ] . At its centre stand

23790-412: 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

23973-480: The northern side, at the foot of Mount Lagazuoi , by Forte Tre Sassi . The first action took place on 8 June 1915 when Italian batteries on Monte Padon and Col Toront bombarded the La Corte and Tre Sassi forts as well as Austro-Hungarian infantry positions. The attack was repeated a week later, and expanded to strike at Livinallongo del Col di Lana . If the assault had begun earlier the weak Austro-Hungarian presence might have been easily dislodged, but between May and

24156-430: The northern slope of the summit, to strike at a possible Italian advance from the Monte Croce pass. Nevertheless the early months of the war were calm, mainly because snow made the peaks above 3,000m impassable. On 7 July Italian artillery destroyed the Zsigmondy refuge , and in August Italian troops occupied the upper Fiscalina valley, pushing up to the Zsigmondy ridge. Despite enormous difficulties they succeeded in taking

24339-408: 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

24522-630: 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

24705-584: 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:

24888-403: 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

25071-418: The passes were closed, both sides maintained a static posture. The major challenge for both armies was to sustain modern warfare in such a hostile environment. The difficult terrain meant supplies had to be brought up on the backs of pack animals or of the men themselves, including heavy artillery and munitions. As the conflict developed a network of roads, mule tracks and pathways was established, reaching even

25254-409: The peaks of Cristallo itself at 3221m and Piz Popena at 3152m. The Cristallo subgroup had been occupied by the Italians in the early days of the war. For their part the Austro-Hungarians garrisoned the peaks that looked down towards the Ospitale - Carbonin road, the Forame at Forcella Verde and Forcella Gialla and the Costabella chain. The north-facing summit of the Rauhkofel/Cima Fumo was fortified and

25437-455: The political advantage of capturing some Bavarian Jägers at Ponte Alto, which unequivocally demonstrated the presence of German troops deployed offensively, despite the fact that Italy was not still at war with Germany. These attacks were followed by exactly one year of truce, and in June 1916 the Italians attempted a new assault, this time concentrated against the Croda dell'Ancona and the coston del Forame. Taking these positions would have allowed

25620-426: The population however, in 1916 the Italian commanders moved away, and life in Cortina went on quietly until November 5, 1917, when the Austro-Hungarians, following the rout of Caporetto, took possession of it once again. The last winter of the war also coincided with the hardest period for the civilian population, with the terrible food shortage that hit the Habsburg Empire, compelling the Austro-Hungarian troops to seize

25803-406: 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

25986-469: 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

26169-465: 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

26352-415: 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

26535-420: 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

26718-441: The retirement of authority, and re-admitting him to service with retroactive effect from 1916. Having reached the age limit, however, he was placed in the reserves. This measure did not satisfy him as he would have wanted a solemn reparation of the wrong suffered amidst so much clamor. In addition, if the recall to service canceled the retirement, he did not remove the torpedo received by Cadorna. However, at that time public opinion

26901-410: The road and rail systems did not allow the Italian commander Luigi Cadorna to mass his forces here, so instead he concentrated on the Isonzo front further east, where he hoped to make a decisive breakthrough. From Bovec on the upper Isonzo to the Swiss border at the Stelvio Pass stretched around 400 km of border at an altitude above 2,000m. Halfway along this border, between the Trentino and

27084-403: The rough rule applies that in 1915–1918, on the mountain front, two thirds of the dead were victims of the elements (avalanches, frostbite , landslides , cold, exhaustion) and only one third victims of direct military action." Servicing the troops on the front line required enormous manpower. To maintain a garrison of 100 men on a 3,000m peak, 900 porters were required, working in relays. On

27267-405: The same day thanks to the Landesschützen of Captain Kostantin Valentini  [ it ] , and the Italians withdrew just below the summit, only 80 meters from the Austro-Hungarian trenches. Italian language Italian ( italiano , pronounced [itaˈljaːno] , or lingua italiana , pronounced [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna] ) is a Romance language of

27450-405: The same year, he was appointed Senator of the Kingdom, taking the oath on March 22, 1915. The 1st Army had its headquarters in Verona and under the orders of General Luigi Cadorna , it had to maintain a strategically defensive attitude, not only during the period of mobilization but also for the entire time in which the 4th Army of General Luigi Nava would have operated from Cadore to open

27633-410: The slopes and peaks, the Austrians exploited the Dolomite terrain very effectively, securing every possible advantage in an attempt to confine the Italians to the lower valleys and prevent them from accessing the strategic passes. The peacetime defence doctrine of Austria-Hungary assumed that not an inch of land was to be conceded to an invader, and on this basis fortifications had been built up right on

27816-509: The strategic northern edge of the mountain. On the last day of the attack, July 20, the Italians reported 104 dead, 578 wounded and 151 missing, most of whom had been blown to pieces by enemy artillery. Assaults and counterattacks followed until September, when both sides stopped to prepare for the first winter of the war. The winter was particularly hard for the Austro-Hungarians in their precarious position, lacking water or fuel and supplied only by slow columns of porters ascending from Landro along

27999-409: The strength of Austro-Hungarian numbers, had no detailed plans for a campaign and were also risk-averse. The Austro-Hungarians were equally unprepared to take the offensive. In the decades before the war resources had been directed mainly to Galicia on the Russian front, and in 1915 the objective was simply to hold off any Italian invasion. As chief of staff, Conrad had also neglected the defence of

28182-424: The sun-scorched plains of Mesopotamia, nor in the frozen Mazurian marshes, nor in the blood-soaked mud of Flanders, does the fighting man lead so arduous an existence as up here on the roof of the world.” At the outbreak of the war, the border between Italy and Austria-Hungary was as determined at the Treaty of Vienna (1866) at the conclusion of the Third Italian War of Independence . One section along this border,

28365-419: The surrounding area (Col Rosson, Alpe di Specie, Col di Specie, Rautkofel). The forts of Haideck and Mitterberg (monte di Mezzo) in val di Sesto were intended to prevent any descent from the Monte Croce di Comelico pass towards Val Pusteria but they had not been modernised. To make up for this, Mount Dentro di Sesto was used as a fixed location for large calibre artillery. The pass between the Ampezzo basin and

28548-428: The survivors unable to advance. Nothing moved until at 14:30 Division ordered the action to stop. In two days the Italians had 897 casualties. Among the Bersaglieri 2 officers had died in action while five froze to death; among the men 29 had died in action, 111 were wounded, 20 missing and 318 had frozen to death. This was the last action of 1915 in this sector. In the summer of 1916 the Italians mounted fresh attacks on

28731-401: 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,

28914-410: 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

29097-421: The top of the Piccolo Lagazuoi, digging an over 1 km long tunnel system with a vertical drop of 500m. This also failed, but on 20 June 1917 the Italians succeeded in using 32 tons of dynamite to blow up the 2668m high summit of Piccolo Lagazuoi. Despite heavy losses the Austro-Hungarians were still able to hold the attackers off with machine gun fire. There was little movement in this sector following this until

29280-421: 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 ),

29463-432: The trench in the Acqua di Campo Croce valley up to the crest of the Ciadenes-I Zuoghi which encloses the Gotres valley. On 9 June a rapid enveloping action allowed the Italians to occupy Podestagno, a wooded cliff overlooking the Alemagna road. The Austro-Hungarian defences could not be breached in this sector however and on the evening of 14 June the Italian command suspended any further attempt to advance. No less unfortunate

29646-433: The view extended to Dobbiaco and San Candido . It was the towns of Moso and Sesto that suffered most from the Italian howitzers. Moso was evacuated by the Austrians and almost completely destroyed by the Italians to prevent the enemy from using it to store supplies. Sesto was not initially evacuated, leading to many civilian casualties as the Italians struck at lodgings, warehouses and telephone services. The bombardment of

29829-403: The villages to the rear of the Austro-Hungarian lines continued until 1917, when the artillery was withdrawn following the breakthrough of Caporetto. Fighting in the Lavaredo area was less intense and of less strategic importance than on other parts of the front. However because of the popularity of the Tre Cime and surrounding areas with climbers and skiers meant that attention to events there

30012-454: The war and commanding the 1st Army before being dismissed from commanding the regiment on May 8, 1916, which was 8 days before the Battle of Asiago which was led by Field Marshal Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf . He was born in Milan on July 3, 1850, as the son of Count Giuseppe and Teresa Aman. Following in the footsteps of his older brother Ugo , on 1863 he was admitted to attend the Military College of Florence and passing to Milan to enter

30195-411: The western edge of the front, deployed from the Stelvio Pass to the Cereda Pass, Italy positioned the 1st Army under General Roberto Brusati based in Verona , spread over an arc roughly 200 km long as the crow flies or about 300 km on the ground. The III and V Corps were deployed under the command of Generals Camerana and Aliprindi , and mixed with the troops of the fortress of Verona, under

30378-447: The wide plateau they were met with heavy fire from automatic weapons that cost large numbers and the loss of more than fifty prisoners, until the attack here was also suspended. This series of attacks did not obtain the desired objectives, but allowed the Italians to position themselves along a more advanced and more advantageous line that went from Ponte Alto to Rio Felizon, in the locality of Rufiedo. The Italian command failed to exploit

30561-431: The winters of 1916 and 1917 brought some of the heaviest snows of the century, with the mountainsides often under 8 metres of snow, three times the annual average. This made it extremely difficult for the troops to stay at high altitudes, forcing the men to continually dig and clear the snow because of the risk of avalanches . Heinz Lichem von Löwenbourg stated: "On the basis of unanimous reports from fighters of all nations,

30744-430: 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 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

30927-405: The year in which he became commander of the 22nd Infantry Regiment "Cremona" stationed in Messina . In 1896, he became Chief of Staff of the Army Corps of Rome, promoted to major general in 1898. Later, he was commander of the Messina Brigade which was settled in Catania and then to Rome before being sent back to Catanzaro . With his promotion to lieutenant general in 1905, he obtained command of

31110-459: Was a lull for over a month, during which positions stabilized. The Italians decided to wait for the arrival of additional artillery and built up overwhelming numerical superiority and it was not until July 15 that General Ottavio Ragni launched the attack on enemy positions. For five days there were attacks in three directions, which managed to drive the Austro-Hungarians back off the southern plateau and conquer Forcella dei Castrati, but did not take

31293-430: Was a resident in Florence. In 1884, with the rank of major, he was transferred to the 64th Infantry Regiment which was based in Milan before being transferred to Foggia . In 1887, he was recalled to Rome as Head of the Western Exchequer Office of the Command of the Staff Corps, and then became head of the secretariat of the Deputy Commander of the same body. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1888 and colonel in 1892,

31476-439: 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

31659-419: 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

31842-432: Was fighting within the Austro-Hungarian Army . The police could no longer guarantee his safety and he had to go into hiding. Considering himself a victim, he closed himself in indignant silence, so as not to disturb the national war effort. After the war, Roberto requested for full justice to be done. On September 2, 1919, the Commission chaired by Admiral Felice Napoleone Canevaro absolved him of all charges, revoking

32025-406: Was finally occupied on the 29th by two Italian columns. Cortina became the seat of the Italian command as well as of hospitals and a resting place for the troops returning from the fighting in the sector; the whole basin was frequently subjected to fire from Austrian artillery, but the bombardments were never particularly intense and scarcely affected the town of Cortina. To avoid further distress to

32208-443: 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

32391-424: Was no further major action in the Lavaredo area. The winter of 1916–1917 was unusually hard, as early as late August, when snow fell it did not melt. By November some positions were effectively isolated by the weather, with cableways and men themselves often affected by avalanches. Both armies excavated an extensive maze of tunnels and shelters in the rock and ice to improve the safety of their soldiers. In early 1917

32574-406: 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

32757-443: Was taken and lost several times, until the Italians managed to hold it. Throughout that winter and the spring of 1917 the war of attrition continued, with bombings, clashes between patrols, attempts to infiltrate enemy lines and the excavation of mine tunnels, by both sides. The last major attack was carried out by the Austro-Hungarians on 22 October – just two days before the breakthrough of Caporetto – to divert Italian attention from

32940-433: Was the eastern column, which on 7 June, bypassing the Pamagognon, descended along the Val Grande and reached the Alemagna road near the locality of Ospitale. From here, going up the Gotres valley, the attack proceeded as far as the end of the valley, at the Lerosa fork, along wide meadows where the Austro-Hungarians were well entrenched. Divided into three assault groups, the Italians attacked on 9 June, but once they arrived on

33123-492: Was the occupation of the Alemagna road between Cortina and Carbonin  [ it ] . Thus at the end of May 1915 Italian troops advanced the "line of investment": Col Drusciè-Cadin-Staolin, a line from which the attack on the Som Pouses defense line would be attempted. The action planned by the Italian command anticipated attacking the Austrian defences with three assault columns, supported by field artillery and batteries of howitzers , 149mm guns and 210mm mortars placed on

33306-416: Was unwilling to criticize and without qualms about the war, nor did he want to write a controversial publication, even though he continued to collect material in defense of him. The advent of fascism gave him new hope. On November 3, 1922, General Armando Diaz granted him the War Merit Cross which was one of his first acts as the new Minister of War and immediately promoting Brusati to the rank of General of

33489-479: Was very great. Added to this, the death of the famous guide Sepp Innerkofler  [ it ] , who had accompanied clients from all over Europe, added greatly to the interest. Fighting started on the morning of May 24, 1915, with Italian cannon in Torre degli Scarpieri and Monte Rudo firing towards Monte Piana, to which the Austro-Hungarians responded by hitting the Italian positions of Forcella Lavaredo and Forcella Col di Mezzo. Here shrapnel struck two Alpini of

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