Italian is also spoken by some in former Italian colonies

Italian is also spoken by some in former Italian colonies in Africa (Libya and Eritrea). However, its use has dropped sharply since the colonial period. In Eritrea, Italian is widely understood.[24] In fact, for fifty years, during the colonial period, Italian was the language of education, but as of 1997, there is only one Italian-language school remaining, with four hundred seventy pupils yearly. The name of the only Italian-language school in Eritrea is Scuola Italiana di Asmara,[25] which was also the only Italian-language school in Ethiopia, when Eritrea was a province of Ethiopia.[26] The number of Italian speakers may increase a little when the number of students at that school increases and because it is still spoken in commerce,[27] and Eritrea will be the only African nation where Italian is widely spoken and understood. In Libya, since 1969, Italian has been wiped out by the Libyan Revolution’s Arabization programmes in education and media. In Egypt and Tunisia, it is spoken mostly by Italian Egyptians, Italian Tunisians, and some professionals of non-Italian descent. In all of the above former Italian African colonies, most of the fluent Italian speakers are people who grew up in officially Italian-speaking nations, especially Italy, and returned to Africa.



R4i Card
Play Free Online Games