Italian voice overs: what you need to know

Italian, one of the most popular languages in Europe, is a Romance language, native to around 67 million people . Additionally, more than 13 million people speak Italian as a second language.

Italian is the sole official language of Italy, Vatican City, and San Marino. It’s also one of the official languages in Switzerland. Italian is also a popular language in France as well as Croatia and Slovenia.

Language History

Just like all Romance languages, Italian descended from Vulgar Latin. The gradual development of Italian started after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. After the fall of the Empire, standard Latin was pushed out by various local varieties.

The first written texts in the Italian vernacular date back to the 10th century. However, the increase in literature written in Italian rose in the 13th and 14th centuries, thanks to the famous Italian poets: Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, and others.
Italian did not have a standardized language variant until 1861 – the year of Italian Unification. Even then, only 2.5% of Italians were able to speak the standard language. Instead, the locals spoke regional varieties.

Strangely enough, the introduction of television in the 1950s had a great effect on the spread of standardized Italian as well as literacy.

Close Relations

Italian shares similarities with other Romance languages derived from Latin, such as Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish. Most notably, French is exceptionally similar to Italian. Surprisingly, the two languages share as much as 85-90% of the vocabulary!

While Romance languages are not fully intelligible, they could be understood to a certain degree by the speakers of different Romance languages.

When it comes to Italian vocabulary, the majority of terms are inherited from Latin. However, Italian extensively borrowed from foreign languages too. Many terms of fashion were borrowed from French, terms of psychology – from German, and sports terms – from English.

Accents and Voice Over Tips

The Italian language is rich in the dialect department. It’s estimated that around 34 native languages and regional dialects are used in Italy today. There’s quite a lot of debate going on about whether some Italian dialects are actually independent languages.

The most used dialects of Italian are Florentine, Neapolitan, Venetian, Sicilian, and Romanesco. The standardized Italian is greatly based on the Florentine dialect.

While the standard language is understood in the whole country, regional varieties are usually preferred by the locals. So, the spoken language greatly varies based on geography. When recording a voice over, it’s wise to know whether standard Italian or a local variety should be used.

When it comes to spoken Italian, it’s pronunciation and tone is similar to other Romance languages.

Words per minute

Just like its relatives Spanish and French, Italian is one of the fastest spoken languages in the world! Averaging at 6.99 syllables per second, spoken Italian is definitely not slow. However, there’s no need to rush when speaking – make sure to choose a tempo that is suitable to your listeners.