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Italian
- the lengthening language
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Egidio
Del Boca, director of Vercelli's Centre for Lexicography
and expert in the Italian language, analysed an amazing
114 thousand different Italian words. Here are some
of his findings
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Most commonly used letters
Vowels and consonants alternated at the top of the
table with "I" at number one spot with
131,293 usages. Popular consonants included "R",
followed by "T" and then "N".
The longest word
Esofagodermatodigiunoplastica with its
29 letters is the longest word in the Italian language.
Most commonly used Italian words weigh in between
7 and 12 letters.
A lengthening language
Del Boca discovered that the Italian language
is growing longer through the ages. Indeed words
have lengthened by some 20% since the 1800s. The
phenomenon is due to an increase in compound words
as well the tendency to adopt foreign terms in the
Italian tongue.
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MARCELLO
PARMEGGIANI |
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Nov.
21st, 2001
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