Italian evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Italian peninsula during the 9th and 10th centuries. The first significant literary works in Italian appeared during the 13th century, including Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Italian became the language of culture and literature in Italy and had a significant influence on the development of other European languages.
Today, Italian is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with over 60 million speakers. It is an official language of Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, and the Vatican City. It is also spoken by significant communities in the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, and Australia.
Italian is a member of the Indo-European language family and is closely related to the other Romance languages, including Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Romanian. Italian is characterized by its rich vocabulary and expressive grammar, and it is known for its beautiful and melodic sound.