Italian language in Brazil

The Italian language in Brazil has been widespread since the second half of the 19th century, particularly due to Italian emigration to Brazil. Today there are an estimated 26 million descendants of Italians residing in the country; among them, Italian is estimated to be spoken as a first language by about 50,000 people. On the other hand, there were 407,924 Italian citizens residing in Brazil in 2013. In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, a Venetian linguistic island is still active, whose language is called talian (or vêneto brasileiro). Italian is also being learned as a foreign language in Brazil by tens of thousands of students a year, partly due to the descendants of immigrants gradually recovering their origins.

In Brazil, the Italian language is co-official in the municipalities of Encantado (Rio Grande do Sul), José Boiteux (Santa Catarina), Santa Tereza (Espírito Santo), Santo Ângelo (Rio Grande do Sul), São Bento do Sul (Santa Catarina) and Venda Nova do Imigrante (Espírito Santo).