Italian language in the United States
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The Italian language has been a widely spoken language in the United States of America for more than one hundred years, due to large-scale immigration beginning in the late 19th century. Today it is the eighth most spoken language in the country.
The first Italian Americans began to immigrate en masse began around 1880. The first Italian immigrants, mainly from Sicily and other parts of Southern Italy, were largely men, and many planned to return to the Italy after making money in the US, so the speaker population of Italian was not always constant or continuous. Between 1890 and 1900, 655,888 Italians went to the United States, and more than 2 million between 1900 and 1910, though around 40% of these eventually returned to Italy. All told, between 1820 and 1978, some 5.3 million Italians went to the United States. Like many ethnic groups, such as the Germans in Little Germany, French Canadians in Little Canadas, and Chinese in Chinatowns, who emigrated to the Americas, the Italians often lived in ethnic enclaves, often known as Little Italies, especially in New York City, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia, and continued to speak their original languages.
During World War II
During World War Two, use of the Italian language was discouraged. In addition, many Italian-Americans were interned property was confiscated, and Italian-language periodicals were closed[.
The language today
Today, though 15,638,348 American citizens report themselves as Italian Americans, only 1,008,370 of these report speaking the Italian language at home (0.384% of the population). The largest community of is in New York State, where the 294,265 Italian speakers (140,000 of whom live in New York City) constitute 1.65% of the total population. The second largest is New Jersey, with 116,365 speakers, and there are large communities throughout New England. Cities with large Italian speaking communities include Chicago, with 12,000 speakers, Philadelphia, with 15,000. Assimilation has played a large role in the decreasing amount of Italian speakers today. Of those who speak Italian at home in the United States, 361,245 are over the age of 65, and only 68,030 are below the age of 17.
[edit] Forms of Italian
Traditionally, most Italian Americans did not speak Standard Italian, but many spoke Italian dialects, particularly from Southern Italy, such as Sicilian, Neapolitan, and others Southern Italian dialects. Today, the Standard Italian language is used in schools instead of the original dialects.
[edit] Media
Although the Italian language is much less used today than it has been previously, there are still several Italian-only media outlets, among which are the New Jersey daily paper America Oggi and ICN Radio.
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