Venice has its own language

One of the interesting facts about Venice is that has its language. The Venexiàn dialect, which is used in the city, is maybe another form of disguise. Some linguists claim that it isn't an Italian dialect at all, but rather a whole other language. In his book of writings Italian Hours from 1909, Henry James calls Venexiàn "a wonderful garrulous language that allows them to make Venetian life a lengthy conversazione."

This language, the author claims, "has in it something essentially human and accommodating, with its gentle elisions, its weird transpositions, its friendly scorn for consonants and other disagreeable." Due to the long history of economic links, Venetian is heavily influenced by Latin culture but also has Greek and Arabic roots. Words like "fork," forchetta in Italian but pirn in Venexiàn, related to the Greek term piruni, show vestiges of these languages.

Because double consonants are typically spoken as a single consonant, Venexiàn is frequently referred to as the dialetto del mar (a dialect of the sea). For instance, a dish is called a piato in Venexiàn, as opposed to the Italian term piatto. You may also hear the Venexiàn phrases bacaro (meaning "local bar"), vin (meaning "wine"), bicier (meaning "glass"), ancuo (meaning "today"), and schei (meaning "money") throughout the city.