One notable defining moment in the history of the Italian language came between 1500 and 1850. It was due to invasion a proposito. The rulers of Spain invaded and occupied Italy down to Rome and the Vatican in the mid-16th century. This occupation left a lasting influence upon the formerly irregular Italian grammar, simplifying it to conform more with the dominant Spanish language.

Been trying to tell you how similar Spanish and Italian are.

It's interesting to note that Spain or what was to become Spain was invaded by the Romans and the Spanish language itself comes from Latin the same language Italian comes from. Latin was spoken in Spain for 840 years. So Spanish and Italian were already very similar and then this modern Spanish influence on top of it. For me this is all so interessante.

Amen Villa!

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Dimmi con chi vai e ti dirò chi sei.

Do you have a source for this information? I was under the impression that the Italian language was based on the Florentine dialect and was unaware of any lasting Spanish occupation in Florence. Thanks.

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God has given you your country as cradle, and humanity as mother; you cannot rightly love your brethren of the cradle if you love not the common mother.
Giuseppe Mazzini

YouTube - Spanish Empire Heritage (Italy) there are many many many more, Enjoy The blood of cuchulainn is the second songEIRE!!!!! O'
- Cached - Similar

What you say is true about the Florentine dialect ma it would seem there is this Spanish connection anche. Then there is the French connection anche. It's all about forgein domination e cosi via.

The languages are similar so it is sometimes difficult for a layman such as myself to tell the difference between parallel development from their common Latin source and foreign loan words which entered into Italian from fellow Romance languages.

If you see any books on the topic of French and/or Spanish influence on Italian, I would be keenly interested. Grazie.

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God has given you your country as cradle, and humanity as mother; you cannot rightly love your brethren of the cradle if you love not the common mother.
Giuseppe Mazzini

Similar Vocabulary between Italian and Spanish

In many cases, the Italian and Spanish words for something are very similar. In fact there are some simple rules for converting one to the other which work in many cases:

Almost all words in Italian end in a vowel, whereas many Spanish words do not. Compare giardino/jardín, partire/partir, migliore/mejor.

Italian 'o' or 'uo' often becomes 'ue' in Spanish when the syllable is stressed. E.g. morto/muerto, posto/puesto.

Italian 'e' often becomes 'ie' in Spanish when the syllable is stressed. E.g. concerto/concierto, tempo/tiempo.

Italian 'f' often becomes 'h' in Spanish when at the start of a word. E.g. fumo/humo, figlio/hijo.

Italian voiceless consonants 'c' and 't' often become voiced ('g' and 'd' respectively) in Spanish. E.g. amico/amigo, potere/poder, colpo/golpe.

Italian 'sc', 'sf', 'sp' and 'st' often become 'esc, 'esf', 'esp' and 'est' in Spanish, when at the start of a word. E.g. scrivere/escribir, sforzo/esfuerzo, speciale/especial, studente/estudiante.

The Italian suffixes '-tà' '-tù' and '-zione' become '-dad', '-tud' and '-ción' in Spanish. E.g. università/universidad, virtù/virtud, informazione/información.
Armed with this knowledge, you can easily learn the following pairs, which involve the 'o' to 'ue' rule:
l'accordo/el acuerdo, il collo/el cuello, il conto/la cuenta, la corda/la cuerda, il corno/el cuerno, il corpo/el cuerpo, il fuoco/el fuego, il mobile/el mueble, la mostra/la muestra, la noce/la nuez, la porta/la puerta, il porto/el puerto, il risposto/la respuesta, il racconto/el cuento, l'ospito/el huésped, l'osso/el hueso, lo sconto/el discuento, il posto/el puesto, l'uovo/el huevo, il volo/el vuelo, buono/bueno, forte/fuerte, morto/muerto, nostro/nuestro, nuovo/nuevo, fuori/fuera, dopo/después.

And these ones, which involve the 'e' to 'ie' rule:

il cervo/el ciervo, il concerto/el concierto, il dente/el diente, la febbre/la fiebre, la festa/la fiesta, il governo/el gobierno, l'inverno/el invierno, la nebbia/la niebla, la petra/la piedra, la pelle/la piel, il tempo/el tiempo, il vento/el viento, mentre/mientras, bene/bien, aperto/abierto, sempre/siempre, vecchio/viejo.

And these ones, which involve the initial 'f' rule:

la farina/la harina, la fata/el hada, il fegato/el hígado, il ferro/el hierro, il fico/el higo, il figlio/el hijo, il filo/el hilo, la foglia/la hoja, il fondo/el hondo, la formica/la hormiga, il forno/el horno, il fumo/el humo, fare/hacer, ferire/herir

I always wondered about the influences of these two languages, and never knew which one influenced which one. I also wonder about the similarities between the spanish and portuguese languages

Welcome to our community Moni. Benvenuto! What you have to remember is that Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese are all romance languages because they are derived from Latin. Therefore, the syntax, grammar, and even vocabulary are similar among all four.

Days of the week in Spanish:

lunes martes miércoles jueves viernes sábado domingo

Days of the week in Italian

lunedì martedì mercoledì giovedì venderdì sabato domenica

Days of the week in French

lundi mardi mercredi jeudi vendredi samedi dimanche

See how similar they all are?

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Dimmi con chi vai e ti dirò chi sei.

Why are Italy, Spain, their languages and people so similiar you might ask. Well Spain was Rome's number one colony for 640 years. The Latin language of Italy(Roman Empire) was spoken in Spain for 840 years. When Italian soldiers(Romans) would go to Spain many times they would stay there an intermarry with the locals and Spanish Roman soldiers who went to Rome would do the samething. Roman soldiers and their families would retire in Spain. There were Roman emperors, Roman generals and Popes from Spain. Spain was Rome and visa versa. Just imagine 640+ years of mixing.

Before all this there were Greek colonies in Spain just like in Italy. So the Greeks mixed in with the Spanish just like they did in Italy. Then you have the Phoenicians in Spain and Italy along with Arabs, Jews and Celts. The same type of Germanic people who invaded Spain also invaded Italy after the fall of the Roman Empire.(The so called Barbarians.) Most Italians look like hispanics and visa versa. Look at Giacomo's picture. He could pass for Cuban, Mexican, Greek, Spainsh(from Spain) e cosi via. There is an historical reason for this.