Languages of the Vatican City

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The official language of the Vatican City is Latin, the variety employed by the church being known as Ecclesiastical Latin, which has a standardized system of pronunciation. However, the status of Latin is more a historical, symbolic gesture than a practical one. Inscriptions in the Vatican's churches, including St. Peter's Basilica, are for the most part in Latin, and occasionally in Koine Greek. Italian is the main language used for practical purposes, due to the fact that the microstate is completely surrounded by the city of Rome. Other languages used by the government, for its official website or otherwise, are German, English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, is printed daily in both Italian and English.

[edit] Swiss Guard

German is the official language used by members of the Swiss Guard, the Vatican's mercenary military service, who constitute 104 of the 555 people with Vatican citizenship.

[edit] Historical Languages of the Papal States

Prior to the unification of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the Papal States represented the temporal power of the Pope, and a number of languages were spoken there, including many Italian dialects, such as Tuscan, and Emiliano-Romagnolo, a separate Romance language.

This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook (2006 edition) which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain.