Italian Language Translation

World class Italian language translation from qualified professional linguists

We offer professional translation services between Italian and all of the languages of the world.

• Number of English native speakers globally: 67 million
• Number of countries where English is an official language: 6
• Approx. percentage of world trade conducted in Italian: 4.1%

Renowned for its beauty and elegance, Italian is also a major business language and an important tongue in many technical fields. Italy is frequently ranked in the top 10 global economies by GDP, with Italian boasting over 67 million native speakers. This number rises to over 87 million when including learned speakers.

At Alexika, we’ve been providing expert, fully-authentic Italian translations since 1998. Our experienced native translators cover a wide range of industries and sectors.

Expert, Professional Italian Translation: More about the Language

The famous boot-shaped country of Italy is home to the beautiful Italian language (italiano, lingua italiana). A descendent of the spoken Latin of the Roman Empire, Italian is an official language in Italy, Switzerland, Vatican City and San Marino as well as of the European Union. Amongst the Romance languages, it is the closest to Latin in terms of vocabulary.

Thanks to the language’s long period of evolution, Italian boasts a variety of dialects throughout its different regions, some of the most common being Neapolitan, Sicilian, Milanese and Venetian. The ‘standard’ Italian derives from the Tuscan dialect, having been established by author Alessandro Manzoni after the unification of Italy in 1861.

It is widely believed that the language variant used in the masterpieces of Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarca was also a key factor in the choice of Tuscan as the standard. The use of English loan-words is widespread in the Italian language, often being seen in marketing, engineering and IT-related documentation.

When translating your material, it’s very important to bear your intended audience in mind. With its fascinating range of dialects, cultural awareness and language localisation are very important to Italian speakers. This can make the use of a professional language service provider (LSP) essential. 

Interestingly, Italian is the sole official language of the south-eastern Canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The Italian spoken in these areas of Switzerland has some subtle but important differences to that spoken in Italy. 

Another tip to bear in mind is to allow flexibility in the layout of your translated documents. Italian-to-English translations typically contract by about 15% depending on the subject matter, whereas English-to-Italian translation typically expands by about 15%.