document_title: Italian language

question_text: what language was spoken in italy before italian

question_tokens: what language was spoken in italy before italian

text: Italian language

text: History[edit]

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text: Origins[edit]

text: During the Middle Ages, the established written language in Europe was Latin. With the great majority of people being illiterate, however, only a handful were well versed in the language. In the Italian peninsula, as in most of Europe, the majority would instead speak a local vernacular. These dialects (as they are commonly referred to as) were born to Vulgar Latin over the course of centuries, evolving naturally unaffected by formal standards and teachings, and are not truly "dialects" of Standard Italian, that itself started off being one of these local tongues. Since they often provide poor mutual intelligibility with standard Italian, they are better classified as distinct languages.[22]:13

text: The standard Italian language has a poetic and literary origin in the writings of Tuscan writers of the 12th century, and, even though the grammar and core lexicon are basically unchanged from those used in Florence in the 13th century,[23] the modern standard of the language was largely shaped by relatively recent events. However, Italian as a language spoken in the Appenine peninsula has a longer history. In fact, the earliest surviving texts that can definitely be called Italian (or more accurately, vernacular, as distinct from its predecessor Vulgar Latin) are legal formulae known as the Placiti Cassinesi from the Province of Benevento that date from 960–963, although the Veronese Riddle, probably from the 8th or early 9th century, contains a late form of Vulgar Latin that can be seen as a very early sample of an Italian dialect.[24]

text: The language which came to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante's epic poems, known collectively as the Commedia, to which another Tuscan poet Giovanni Boccaccio later affixed the title Divina, were read throughout the peninsula and his written dialect became the "canonical standard" that all educated Italians could understand. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language. In addition to the widespread exposure gained through literature, the Florentine dialect also gained prestige due to the political and cultural significance of Florence at the time and the fact that it was linguistically an intermediate between the northern and the southern Italian dialects.[22]:22 Thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the official language of Italy.

text: Italian was progressively made an official language of most of the Italian states predating unification, slowly replacing Latin, even when ruled by foreign powers (like Spain in the Kingdom of Naples, or Austria in the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia), even though the masses kept speaking primarily vernacular languages and dialects. Italian was also one of the many recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

text: Italy has always had a distinctive dialect for each city because the cities, until recently, were thought of as city-states. Those dialects now have considerable variety. As Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. The most characteristic differences, for instance, between Roman Italian and Milanese Italian are the gemination of initial consonants and the pronunciation of stressed "e", and of "s" in some cases: e.g. va bene "all right": is pronounced [va ˈbːɛne] by a Roman (and by any standard-speaker), [va ˈbene] by a Milanese (and by any speaker whose native dialect lies to the north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line); a casa "at home" is [a ˈkːasa] for Roman and standard, [a ˈkaza] for Milanese and generally northern.

text: In contrast to the Gallo-Italic linguistic panorama of northern Italy, the Italo-Dalmatian Neapolitan and its related dialects were largely unaffected by the Franco-Occitan influences introduced to Italy mainly by bards from France during the Middle Ages, but after the Norman conquest of southern Italy, Sicily became the first Italian land to adopt Occitan lyric moods (and words) in poetry. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are careful not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages.

text: The economic might and relatively advanced development of Tuscany at the time (Late Middle Ages) gave its language weight, though Venetian remained widespread in medieval Italian commercial life, and Ligurian (or Genoese) remained in use in maritime trade alongside the Mediterranean. The increasing political and cultural relevance of Florence during the periods of the rise of the Banco Medici, Humanism, and the Renaissance made its dialect, or rather a refined version of it, a standard in the arts.

text: Renaissance[edit]

text: The Renaissance era, known as il Rinascimento in Italian, was seen as a time of "rebirth", which is the literal meaning of both renaissance (from French) and rinascimento (Italian).

text: During this time, long-existing beliefs stemming from the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church began to be understood from new a perspectives as humanists—individuals who placed emphasis on the human body and its full potential—began to shift focus from the church to human beings themselves.[25] Humanists began forming new beliefs in various forms: social, political, and intellectual. The ideals of the Renaissance were evident throughout the Protestant Reformation, which took place simultaneously with the Renaissance. The Protestant Reformation began with Martin Luther's rejection of the selling of indulgences by Johann Tetzel and other authorities within the Roman Catholic Church, resulting in Luther's eventual break-off from the Roman Catholic Church in the Diet of Worms. After Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church, he founded what was then understood to be a sect of Catholicism, later referred to as Lutheranism.[25] Luther's preaching in favor of faith and scripture rather than tradition led him to translate the Bible into many other languages, which would allow for people from all over Europe to read the Bible. Previously, the Bible was only written in Latin, but after the Bible was translated, it could be understood in many other languages, including Italian. The Italian language was able to spread even more with the help of Luther and the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg. The printing press facilitated the spread of Italian because it was able to rapidly produce texts, such as the Bible, and cut the costs of books which allowed for more people to have access to the translated Bible and new pieces of literature.[26] The Roman Catholic Church was losing its control over the population, as it was not open to change, and there was an increasing number of reformers with differing beliefs.[27]

text: Italian became the language used in the courts of every state in the Italian peninsula. The rediscovery of Dante's De vulgari eloquentia and a renewed interest in linguistics in the 16th century, sparked a debate that raged throughout Italy concerning the criteria that should govern the establishment of a modern Italian literary and spoken language. This discussion, known as "questione della lingua" (i. e., the problem of the language), ran through the Italian culture until the end of the 19th century, often linked to the political debate on achieving a united Italian state. Renaissance scholars divided into three main factions:

text:
The purists, headed by Venetian Pietro Bembo (who, in his Gli Asolani, claimed the language might be based only on the great literary classics, such as Petrarch and some part of Boccaccio). The purists thought the Divine Comedy was not dignified enough because it used elements from non-lyric registers of the language.
Niccolò Machiavelli and other Florentines preferred the version spoken by ordinary people in their own times.
The courtiers, like Baldassare Castiglione and Gian Giorgio Trissino, insisted that each local vernacular contribute to the new standard.

text: A fourth faction claimed the best Italian was the one that the papal court adopted, which was a mix of Florentine and the dialect of Rome. Eventually, Bembo's ideas prevailed, and the foundation of the Accademia della Crusca in Florence (1582–1583), the official legislative body of the Italian language led to publication of Agnolo Monosini's Latin tome Floris italicae linguae libri novem in 1604 followed by the first Italian dictionary in 1612.

text: The continual advancements in technology plays a crucial role in the diffusion of languages. After the invention of the printing press in the fifteen century, the number of printing presses in Italy grew rapidly and by the year 1500 reached a total of 56, the biggest number of printing presses in all of Europe. This allowed to produce more pieces of literature at a lower cost and as the dominant language, Italian spread.[28]

text: Modern era[edit]

text: An important event that helped the diffusion of Italian was the conquest and occupation of Italy by Napoleon in the early 19th century (who was himself of Italian-Corsican descent). This conquest propelled the unification of Italy some decades after and pushed the Italian language into a lingua franca used not only among clerks, nobility, and functionaries in the Italian courts but also by the bourgeoisie.

text: Contemporary times[edit]

text: Italian literature's first modern novel, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed), by Alessandro Manzoni, further defined the standard by "rinsing" his Milanese "in the waters of the Arno" (Florence's river), as he states in the Preface to his 1840 edition.

text: After unification, a huge number of civil servants and soldiers recruited from all over the country introduced many more words and idioms from their home languages ("ciao" is derived from Venetian word "s-cia[v]o" (slave), "panettone" comes from Lombard word "panetton" etc.). Only 2.5% of Italy's population could speak the Italian standardized language properly when the nation was unified in 1861.[29]

text: Classification[edit]

text: Italian is a Romance language, and is therefore a descendant of Vulgar Latin (the spoken form of non-classical Latin).[note 1] Standard Italian is based on Tuscan, especially its Florentine dialect, and is therefore an Italo-Dalmatian language, to which Sicilian and the extinct Dalmatian also belong, among a few others.

text: Unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latin's contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive. In particular, among the Romance languages, Italian is the closest to Latin in terms of vocabulary.[31] Lexical similarity is 89% with French, 87% with Catalan, 85% with Sardinian, 82% with Spanish, 78% with Ladin, and 77% with Romanian.[12][32][33]

text: One study analyzing the degree of differentiation of Romance languages in comparison to Latin (comparing phonology, inflection, discourse, syntax, vocabulary, and intonation) estimated that among the languages analyzed the distance between Italian and Latin is only higher than that between Sardinian and Latin.[34]

text: Geographic distribution[edit]

text: Europe and the Mediterranean Region[edit]

text: Italian is an official language of Italy and San Marino and is spoken fluently by the majority of the countries' populations. Italian is official, together with French, German and Romansch in Switzerland, with most of the 0.5 million speakers concentrated in the south of the country, in the cantons of Ticino and southern Graubünden (predominately in Italian Grigioni). Italian is the third most spoken language in Switzerland (after German and French), and its use has modestly declined since the 1970s.[35] Italian is also used in administration and official documents in Vatican City.[36]

text: Italian is widely spoken in Malta, where nearly two-thirds of the population can speak it fluently.[37] Italian served as Malta's official language until 1934, when it was abolished by the British colonial administration amid strong local opposition.[38] Italian is also recognized as an official language in Istria County, Croatia, and Slovenian Istria, where there are significant and historic Italian populations.[39][40][41]

text: It is used as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a Roman Catholic chivalric order which, while not a nation per se, is still recognized as a sovereign subject of international law.

text: In Albania, it is one of the most spoken languages. This is due to the strong historical ties between Italy and Albania but also the Albanian communities in Italy, and the 19,000 Italians living in Albania.[42] It is reported as high as 70% of the Albanian adult population has some form of knowledge of Italian. Furthermore, the Albanian government has pushed to make Italian a compulsory second language in schools.[43] Today, Italian is the third most spoken language in the country after Albanian and Greek.

text: Italian is also spoken by a minority in Monaco and France (especially in the southeast region of the country).[44][45]

text: Africa[edit]

text: Due to heavy Italian influence during the Italian colonial period, Italian is still understood by some in former colonies.[12] Although it was the primary language in Libya since colonial rule, Italian greatly declined under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi, who expelled the Italian Libyan population and made Arabic the sole official language of the country.[46] Nevertheless, Italian continues to be used in economic sectors in Libya. In Eritrea, Italian is at times used in commerce and the capital city Asmara still has one Italian-language school.[47] Italian was also introduced to Somalia through colonialism and was the sole official language of administration and education during the colonial period but fell out of use after government, educational and economic infrastructure were destroyed in the Somali Civil War. Italian is still understood by some elderly and other people. The official languages of the Somali Republic are Somali (Maay and Maxaatiri) and Arabic. The working languages during the Transitional Federal Government were Italian and English.[48]

text: Immigrant communities[edit]

text: Although over 17 million Americans are of Italian descent, only a little over one million people in the United States speak Italian at home.[49] Nevertheless, an Italian language media market does exist in the country.[50] On the other hand, although technology allows for the Italian language to spread globally, there has been a decrease in the number of Italian speakers in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Italian speakers in 1980 was 1,614,344. In 1990, the number of Italian speakers in the United States dropped to 1,308,648. In 2000, the number of speakers decreased to 1,008,370, and finally, in 2010, the number of Italian speakers plummeted to 725,223. The percent change from 1980–2010 was a negative 55.2.[51]

text: In Canada, Italian is the second most spoken non-official language when varieties of Chinese are not grouped together, with over 660,000 speakers (or about 2.1% of the population) according to the 2006 Census.[52]

text: In Australia, Italian is the second most spoken foreign language after Chinese, with 1.4% of the population speaking it as their home language.[53]

text: Italian immigrants to South America have also brought a presence of the language to that continent. Italian is the second most spoken language in Argentina[54] after the official language of Spanish, with over 1 million (mainly of the older generation) speaking it at home, and Italian has also influenced the dialect of Spanish spoken in Argentina and Uruguay, mostly in phonology, as well as the Portuguese prosody of the Brazilian state of São Paulo which itself has 15 million Italian descendants. This form of Spanish is known as Rioplatense Spanish.[55] Italian bilingual speakers can be found in the Southeast of Brazil as well as in the South. In Venezuela, Italian is the second most spoken language after Spanish, with around 200,000 speakers.[56] Smaller Italian-speaking minorities on the continent are also found in Paraguay and Ecuador.

text: In Costa Rica, Central America, Italian is one of the most important immigration community languages, after English. It is spoken in the southern area of the country in cities like San Vito and other communities of Coto Brus, near the south borderline with Panama.[57]

text: Number of speakers by country[edit]

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text:
Country
Number of speakers

 Italy
57,700,000

 Romania
1,502,950

 France
829,000

  Switzerland
666,000

 Croatia
618,600

 Australia
300,000

 Brazil
50,000

 San Marino
25,000

 Japan
6,900

 Monaco
5,600

 Somalia
4,000

 Slovenia
3,760

  Vatican City
330

text: Education[edit]

text: Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world, but rarely as the first foreign language. Italian is the fourth[16][59] most frequently taught foreign language in the world.[60] In the 21st century, technology also allows for the continual spread of the Italian language, as people have new ways for one to learn how to speak, read, and write languages at their own pace and at any given time. For example, the free website and application Duolingo has 28.1 million English speakers learning the Italian language.[61]

text: According to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, every year there are more than 200,000 foreign students who study the Italian language; they are distributed among the 90 Institutes of Italian Culture that are located around the world, in the 179 Italian schools located abroad, or in the 111 Italian lecturer sections belonging to foreign schools where Italian is taught as a language of culture.[62]

text: In the United States, Italian is the fourth most taught foreign language after Spanish, French, and German, in that order (or the fifth if American Sign Language is considered).[63] In central-east Europe Italian is first in Montenegro, second in Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, and Ukraine after English, and third in Hungary, Romania and Russia after English and German.[62] But throughout the world, Italian is the fifth most taught foreign language, after English, French, German, and Spanish.[64]

text: In the European Union statistics, Italian is spoken as a native language by 13% of the EU population, or 65 million people,[1] mainly in Italy. In the EU, it is spoken as a second language by 3% of the EU population, or 14 million people. Among EU states, the percentage of people able to speak Italian well enough to have a conversation is 66% in Malta, 15% in Slovenia, 14% in Croatia, 8% in Austria, 5% in France and Luxembourg, and 4% in the former West Germany, Greece, Cyprus, and Romania.[65] Italian is also one of the national languages of Switzerland, which is not a part of the European Union.[66] The Italian language is well-known and studied in Albania,[67] another non-EU member, due to its historical ties and geographical proximity to Italy and to the diffusion of Italian television in the country.[68]

text: Influence and derived languages[edit]

text: From the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, thousands of Italians settled in Argentina, Uruguay, southern Brazil, and Venezuela, where they formed a physical and cultural presence.

text: In some cases, colonies were established where variants of regional languages of Italy were used, and some continue to use this regional language. Examples are Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, where Talian is used, and the town of Chipilo near Puebla, Mexico; each continues to use a derived form of Venetian dating back to the nineteenth century. Another example is Cocoliche, an Italian–Spanish pidgin once spoken in Argentina and especially in Buenos Aires, and Lunfardo.

text: Rioplatense Spanish, and particularly the speech of the city of Buenos Aires, has intonation patterns that resemble those of Italian languages because Argentina has had a continuous large influx of Italian settlers since the second half of the nineteenth century: initially primarily from northern Italy; then, since the beginning of the twentieth century, mostly from southern Italy.

text: Lingua franca[edit]

text: Starting in late medieval times in much of Europe and the Mediterranean, Latin was replaced as the primary commercial language by Italian language variants (especially Tuscan and Venetian). These variants were consolidated during the Renaissance with the strength of Italy and the rise of humanism and the arts.

text: During that period, Italy held artistic sway over the rest of Europe. It was the norm for all educated gentlemen to make the Grand Tour, visiting Italy to see its great historical monuments and works of art. It thus became expected to learn at least some Italian. In England, while the classical languages Latin and Greek were the first to be learned, Italian became the second most common modern language after French, a position it held until the late eighteenth century when it tended to be replaced by German. John Milton, for instance, wrote some of his early poetry in Italian.

text: Within the Catholic church, Italian is known by a large part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and is used in substitution for Latin in some official documents.

text: Italian loanwords continue to be used in most languages in matters of art and music (especially opera), in the design and fashion industries, in some sports like football[69] and especially, in culinary terms.

text: Dialects[edit]

text: Throughout Italy, regional variations of Standard Italian, called Regional Italian, are spoken. In Italy, almost all Romance languages are spoken as the vernacular—other than standard Italian and distantly-related, non-Romance languages spoken in border regions or among immigrant communities—are often imprecisely called "Italian dialects",[70] even though they are quite different, with some belonging to different branches of the Romance language family. The only exceptions to this are Sardinian, Ladin and Friulian, which are officially recognized as distinct minority languages by the law. On the other hand, Corsican (a language spoken on the French island of Corsica) is closely related to Tuscan, from which Standard Italian derives and evolved.

text: The differences in the evolution of Latin in the different regions of Italy can be attributed to the presence of three other types of languages: substrata, superstrata, and adstrata. The most prevalent were substrata (the language of the original inhabitants), as the Italian dialects were most likely simply Latin as spoken by native cultural groups. Superstrata and adstrata were both less important. Foreign conquerors of Italy that dominated different regions at different times left behind little to no influence on the dialects. Foreign cultures with which Italy engaged in peaceful relations with, such as trade, had no significant influence either.[22]:19-20

text: Regional differences can be recognized by various factors: the openness of vowels, the length of the consonants, and influence of the local language (for example, in informal situations the contraction annà replaces andare in the area of Rome for the infinitive "to go"; and nare is what Venetians say for the infinitive "to go").

text: There is no definitive date when the various Italian variants of Latin—including varieties that contributed to modern Standard Italian—began to be distinct enough from Latin to be considered separate languages. From a linguistic perspective, two language variants are considered separate languages (rather than variant dialects of a single language) when they are no longer mutually intelligible. For the Italian Romance languages, the first extant written evidence of varieties that can be considered no longer to be Latin comes from the ninth and tenth centuries C.E. These written sources demonstrate certain vernacular characteristics and sometimes explicitly mention the use of the vernacular in Italy. Full literary manifestations of the vernacular began to surface around the 13th century in the form of various religious texts and poetry.[22]:21Although these are the first written records of Italian varieties separate from Latin, the spoken language had likely diverged long before the first written records appear, since those who were literate generally wrote in Latin even if they spoke other Romance varieties in person.

text: Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the use of Standard Italian became increasingly widespread and was mirrored by a decline in the use of the dialects. An increase in literacy was one of the main driving factors (one can assume that only literates were capable of learning Standard Italian, whereas those who were illiterate had access only to their native dialect). The percentage of literates rose from 25% in 1861 to 60% in 1911, and then on to 78.1% in 1951. Tullio De Mauro, an Italian linguist, has asserted that in 1861 only 2.5% of the population of Italy could speak Standard Italian. He reports that in 1951 that percentage had risen to 87%. The ability to speak Italian did not necessarily mean it was in everyday use, and most people (63.5%) still usually spoke their native dialects. In addition, other factors such as mass emigration, industrialization, and urbanization, and internal migrations after World War II contributed to the proliferation of Standard Italian. The Italians who emigrated during the Italian diaspora beginning in 1861 were often of the uneducated lower class, and thus the emigration had the effect of increasing the percentage of literates, who often knew and understood the importance of Standard Italian, back home in Italy. A large percentage of those who had emigrated also eventually returned to Italy, often more educated than when they had left.[22]:35

text: The Italian dialects have declined in the modern era, as Italy unified under Standard Italian and continues to do so aided by mass media, from newspapers to radio to television.[22]:37

text: Phonology[edit]

text: This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

text:
Consonant phonemes

Bilabial
Labio-
dental
Dental/
Alveolar
Post-
alveolar
Palatal
Velar

Nasal

m

n

ɲ

Stop
p
b

t
d

k
ɡ

Affricate

t͡s
d͡z
t͡ʃ
d͡ʒ

Fricative

f
v
s
z
ʃ

Approximant

j

w

Lateral

l

ʎ

Trill

r

text: Notes:

text:
Between two vowels, or between a vowel and an approximant or liquid (/l r/ or /w j/), consonants can be either single or geminated. Geminated consonants shorten the preceding vowel (or block phonetic lengthening) and the first geminated element is unreleased. For example, /fato/ [ˈfaː.to] ~ /fatto/ [ˈfat.to] (first one means "fate, destiny" and the second means "fact", see "fato" and "fatto"). However, /ɲ/, /ʃ/, /ʎ/, are always geminated word-internally.[71] Similarly, nasals, liquids, and sibilants are pronounced slightly longer before medial consonant clusters.[72]
/z/ is the only consonant that cannot be geminated.
/t d t͡s d͡z s z/ are denti-alveolar, while /l n/ are alveolar.[73][74]
The trill /r/ is sometimes reduced to a single vibration when not geminated, but it is not a flap *[ɾ][clarification needed].
Nasals assimilate to the point of articulation of whatever consonant they precede. For example, /nɡ/ is realized as [ŋɡ].
The distinction between /s/ and /z/ is neutralized before consonants and at the beginning of words: the former is used before voiceless consonants and before vowels at the beginning of words; the latter is used before voiced consonants (meaning [z] is an allophone of /s/ before voiced consonants). The two are only contrasted between two vowels within a word. According to Canepari,[75] though, the traditional standard has been replaced by a modern neutral pronunciation which always prefers /z/ when intervocalic, except when the intervocalic s is the initial sound of a word or a morpheme, if the compound is still felt as such: for example, presento /preˈsɛnto/[76] ('I foresee', with pre meaning 'before' and sento meaning 'I see') vs. presento /preˈzɛnto/[77] ('I present'). There are many words in which dictionaries now indicate that both pronunciations with /z/ and with /s/ are acceptable. The two phonemes have merged in many regional varieties of Italian, either into /z/ (Northern-Central) or /s/ (Southern-Central). Geminate /ss/ can be pronounced as single [s].

text: Italian has a seven-vowel system, consisting of /a, ɛ, e, i, ɔ, o, u/, as well as 23 consonants. Compared with most other Romance languages, Italian phonology is conservative, preserving many words nearly unchanged from Vulgar Latin. Some examples:

text:
Italian quattordici "fourteen" < Latin quattuordecim (cf. Romanian paisprezece/paișpe, Spanish catorce, French quatorze /kaˈtɔʁz/, Catalan and Portuguese catorze)
Italian settimana "week" < Latin septimāna (cf. Romanian săptămână, Spanish and Portuguese semana, French semaine /s(ə)ˈmɛn/, Catalan setmana)
Italian medesimo "same" < Vulgar Latin *medi(p)simum (cf. Spanish mismo, Portuguese mesmo, French même /mɛm/, Catalan mateix; note that Italian usually uses the shorter stesso)
Italian guadagnare "to win, earn, gain" < Vulgar Latin *guadanyāre < Germanic /waidanjan/ (cf. Spanish ganar, Portuguese ganhar, French gagner /ɡaˈɲe/, Catalan guanyar)

text: The conservativeness of Italian phonology is partly explained by its origin. Italian stems from a literary language that is derived from the 13th-century speech of the city of Florence in the region of Tuscany, and has changed little in the last 700 years or so. Furthermore, the Tuscan dialect is the most conservative of all Italian dialects, radically different from the Gallo-Italian languages less than 100 miles to the north (across the La Spezia–Rimini Line).

text: The following are some of the conservative phonological features of Italian, as compared with the common Western Romance languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, Catalan). Some of these features are also present in Romanian.

text:
Little or no lenition of consonants between vowels, e.g. vīta > vita "life" (cf. Romanian viață, Spanish vida [biða], French vie), pedem > piede "foot" (cf. Spanish pie, French pied /pje/).
Preservation of doubled consonants, e.g. annum > anno "year" (cf. Spanish año /aɲo/, French an /ɑ̃/, Portuguese ano /ˈã.nu/).
Preservation of all Proto-Romance final vowels, e.g. pacem > pace "peace" (cf. Romanian pace, Spanish paz, French paix /pɛ/), octō > otto "eight" (cf. Romanian opt Spanish ocho, French huit /ɥi(t)/), fēcī > feci "I did" (cf. Spanish hice, French fis /fi/).
Preservation of most intertonic vowels (those between the stressed syllable and either the beginning or ending syllable). This accounts for some of the most noticeable differences, as in the forms quattordici and settimana given above.
Slower consonant development, e.g. folia > Italo-Western /fɔʎʎa/ > foglia /ˈfɔʎʎa/ "leaf" (cf. Romanian foaie /ˈfo̯aje/, Spanish hoja /ˈoxa/, French feuille /ˈfœj/; but note Portuguese folha /ˈfoʎɐ/).

text: Compared with most other Romance languages, Italian has a large number of inconsistent outcomes, where the same underlying sound produces different results in different words, e.g. laxāre > lasciare and lassare, captiāre > cacciare and cazzare, (ex)dēroteolāre > sdrucciolare, druzzolare and ruzzolare, rēgīna > regina and reina, -c- > /k/ and /ɡ/, -t- > /t/ and /d/. Although in all these examples the second form has fallen out of usage, the dimorphism is thought to reflect the several-hundred-year period during which Italian developed as a literary language divorced from any native-speaking population, with an origin in 12th/13th-century Tuscan but with many words borrowed from languages farther to the north, with different sound outcomes. (The La Spezia–Rimini Line, the most important isogloss in the entire Romance-language area, passes only about 20 miles to the north of Florence.)

text: Some other features that distinguish Italian from the Western Romance languages:

text:
Latin ce-,ci- becomes /tʃe, tʃi/ rather than /(t)se, (t)si/.
Latin -ct- becomes /tt/ rather than /jt/ or /tʃ/: octō > otto "eight" (cf. Spanish ocho, French huit, Portuguese oito).
Vulgar Latin -cl- becomes cchi /kkj/ rather than /ʎ/: oclum > occhio "eye" (cf. Portuguese olho /oʎu/, French oeil /œj/ < /œʎ/); but Romanian ochi /okʲ/.
Final /s/ is not preserved, and vowel changes rather than /s/ are used to mark the plural: amico, amici "male friend(s)", amica, amiche "female friend(s)" (cf. Romanian amic, amici,amică, amice, Spanish amigo(s) "male friend(s)", amiga(s) "female friend(s)"); trēs, sex → tre, sei "three, six" (cf. Romanian trei, șase, Spanish tres, seis).

text: Standard Italian also differs in some respects from most nearby Italian languages:

text:
Perhaps most noticeable is the total lack of metaphony, though metaphony is a feature characterizing nearly every other Italian language.
No simplification of original /nd/, /mb/ (which often became /nn/, /mm/ elsewhere).

text: Assimilation[edit]

text: Italian phonotactics do not usually permit verbs and polysyllabic nouns to end with consonants, excepting poetry and song, so foreign words may receive extra terminal vowel sounds.

text: Writing system[edit]

text: The Italian alphabet is typically considered to consist of 21 letters. The letters j, k, w, x, y are traditionally excluded, though they appear in loanwords such as jeans, whisky, taxi, xenofobo, xilofono. The letter ⟨x⟩ has become common in standard Italian with the prefix extra-, although (e)stra- is traditionally used; it is also common to use of the Latin particle ex(-) to mean "former(ly)" as in: la mia ex ("my ex-girlfriend"), "Ex-Jugoslavia" ("Former Yugoslavia"). The letter ⟨j⟩ appears in the first name Jacopo and in some Italian place-names, such as Bajardo, Bojano, Joppolo, Jerzu, Jesolo, Jesi, Ajaccio, among others, and in Mar Jonio, an alternative spelling of Mar Ionio (the Ionian Sea). The letter ⟨j⟩ may appear in dialectal words, but its use is discouraged in contemporary standard Italian.[78] Letters used in Foreign words can be replaced with phonetically equivalent native Italian letters and digraphs: ⟨gi⟩, ⟨ge⟩, or ⟨i⟩ for ⟨j⟩; ⟨c⟩ or ⟨ch⟩ for ⟨k⟩ (including in the standard prefix kilo-); ⟨o⟩, ⟨u⟩ or ⟨v⟩ for ⟨w⟩; ⟨s⟩, ⟨ss⟩, ⟨z⟩, ⟨zz⟩ or ⟨cs⟩ for ⟨x⟩; and ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ for ⟨y⟩.

text:
The acute accent is used over word-final ⟨e⟩ to indicate a stressed front close-mid vowel, as in perché "why, because". In dictionaries, it is also used over ⟨o⟩ to indicate a stressed back close-mid vowel (azióne). The grave accent is used over word-final ⟨e⟩ to indicate a front open-mid vowel, as in tè "tea". The grave accent is used over any vowel to indicate word-final stress, as in gioventù "youth". Unlike ⟨é⟩, a stressed final ⟨o⟩ is always a back open-mid vowel (andrò), making ⟨ó⟩ unnecessary outside of dictionaries. Most of the time, the penultimate syllable is stressed. But if the stressed vowel is the final letter of the word, the accent is mandatory, otherwise it is virtually always omitted. Exceptions are typically either in dictionaries, where all or most stressed vowels are commonly marked. Accents can optionally be used disambiguate words that differ only by stress, as for prìncipi "princes" and princìpi "principles", or àncora "anchor" and ancóra "still/yet". For monosyllabic words, the rule is different: when two identical monosyllabic words with different meanings exist, one is accented and the other is not (example: è "is", e "and").
The letter ⟨h⟩ distinguishes ho, hai, ha, hanno (present indicative of avere "to have") from o ("or"), ai ("to the"), a ("to"), anno ("year"). In the spoken language, the letter is always silent. The ⟨h⟩ in ho additionally marks the contrasting open pronunciation of the ⟨o⟩. The letter ⟨h⟩ is also used in combinations with other letters. No phoneme [h] exists in Italian. In nativized foreign words, the ⟨h⟩ is silent. For example, hotel and hovercraft are pronounced /oˈtɛl/ and /ˈɔverkraft/ respectively. (Where ⟨h⟩ existed in Latin, it either disappeared or, in a few cases before a back vowel, changed to [ɡ]: traggo "I pull" ← Lat. trahō.)
The letters ⟨s⟩ and ⟨z⟩ can symbolize voiced or voiceless consonants. ⟨z⟩ symbolizes /dz/ or /ts/ depending on context, with few minimal pairs. For example: zanzara /dzanˈdzaːra/ "mosquito" and nazione /natˈtsjoːne/ "nation". ⟨s⟩ symbolizes /s/ word-initially before a vowel, when clustered with a voiceless consonant (⟨p, f, c, ch⟩), and when doubled; it symbolizes /z/ when between vowels and when clustered with voiced consonants. Intervocalic ⟨s⟩ varies regionally between /s/ and /z/, with /z/ being more dominant in northern Italy and /s/ in the south.
The letters ⟨c⟩ and ⟨g⟩ vary in pronunciation between plosives and affricates depending on following vowels. The letter ⟨c⟩ symbolizes /k/ when word-final and before the back vowels ⟨a, o, u⟩. It symbolizes /tʃ/ as in chair before the front vowels ⟨e, i⟩. The letter ⟨g⟩ symbolizes /ɡ/ when word-final and before the back vowels ⟨a, o, u⟩. It symbolizes /dʒ/ as in gem before the front vowels ⟨e, i⟩. Other Romance languages and, to an extent, English have similar variations for ⟨c, g⟩. Compare hard and soft C, hard and soft G. (See also palatalization.)
The digraphs ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨gh⟩ indicate or preserve hardness (/k/ and /ɡ/) before ⟨i, e⟩. The digraphs ⟨ci⟩ and ⟨gi⟩ indicate or preserve softness (/tʃ/ and /dʒ/) before ⟨a, o, u⟩. For example:

text:
Before back vowel (A, O, U)
Before front vowel (I, E)

Plosive
C
caramella /karaˈmɛlla/ candy
CH
china /ˈkiːna/ India ink

G
gallo /ˈɡallo/ rooster
GH
ghiro /ˈɡiːro/ edible dormouse

Affricate
CI
ciambella /tʃambɛlla/ donut
C
Cina /ˈtʃiːna/ China

GI
giallo /ˈdʒallo/ yellow
G
giro /ˈdʒiːro/ round, tour

text: Italian has geminate, or double, consonants, which are distinguished by length and intensity. Length is distinctive for all consonants except for /ʃ/, /dz/, /ʎ/, /ɲ/, which are always geminate, and /z/, which is always single. Geminate plosives and affricates are realized as lengthened closures. Geminate fricatives, nasals, and /l/ are realized as lengthened continuants. There is only one vibrant phoneme /r/ but the actual pronunciation depends on context and regional accent. Generally one can find a flap consonant [ɾ] in unstressed position whereas [r] is more common in stressed syllables, but there may be exceptions. Especially people from the Northern part of Italy (Parma, Aosta Valley, South Tyrol) may pronounce /r/ as [ʀ], [ʁ], or [ʋ].[79]

text: Of special interest to the linguistic study of Italian is the gorgia toscana, or "Tuscan Throat", the weakening or lenition of certain intervocalic consonants in the Tuscan language.

text: The voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/ is only present in loanwords: for example, garage [ɡaˈraːʒ].

text: Grammar[edit]

text: Italian grammar is typical of the grammar of Romance languages in general. Cases exist for personal pronouns (nominative, oblique, accusative, dative), but not for nouns.

text: There are two genders (masculine and feminine). Masculine nouns end in -o, which changes to -i in the plural, and feminine nouns ends in -a, which changes to -e in the plural. With few exceptions, masculine nouns refer to male people or animals, and feminine nouns refer to female people or animals. A last class of nouns end in -e in the singular and -i in the plural, and are arbitrarily assigned masculine or feminine. These nouns often denote inanimate objects. This is fixed by the grammar of Italian, and a dictionary would need to be consulted to figure out the gender.[80] There is a number of nouns that change their gender from the singular to plural, having a masculine singular and a feminine plural, and thus are sometimes considered neuter (those are derived from neuter Latin nouns). An instance of neuter gender also exists in pronouns of the third person singular.

text:
Definition
Gender
Singular Form
Plural Form

Son
Masculine
Figlio
Figli

House
Feminine
Casa
Case

Love
Masculine
Amore
Amori

Art
Feminine
Arte
Arti

text: Nouns, adjectives, and articles inflect for gender and number (singular and plural).

text: Like in English, common nouns are capitalized when occurring at the beginning of a sentence. Unlike English, nouns referring to languages (e.g. Italian), speakers of languages, or inhabitants of an area (e.g. Italians) are not capitalized.[80]

text: There are three types of adjectives: descriptive, invariable and form-changing. Descriptive adjectives are the most common, and their endings change to match the number and gender of the noun they modify. Invariable adjectives are adjectives whose endings do not change. The form changing adjectives "buono (good), bello (beautiful), grande (big), and santo (saint)" change in form when placed before different types of nouns. Italian has three degrees for comparison of adjectives: positive, comparative, and superlative.[80]

text: The order of words in the phrase is relatively free compared to most European languages.[78] The position of the verb in the phrase is highly mobile. Word order often has a lesser grammatical function in Italian than in English. Adjectives are sometimes placed before their noun and sometimes after. Subject nouns generally come before the verb. Italian is a null-subject language, so that nominative pronouns are usually absent, with subject indicated by verbal inflections (e.g. amo 'I love', ama 's/he loves', amano 'they love'). Noun objects normally come after the verb, as do pronoun objects after imperative verbs, infinitives and gerunds, but otherwise pronoun objects come before the verb.

text: There are both indefinite and definite articles in Italian. There are four indefinite articles, which vary based on the gender and first letter of the noun they modify. Uno is used before a masculine singular noun beginning with z, s+consonant, gn, or ps. Un is used before masculine singular nouns beginning with any other letters. Una is used before a feminine singular noun beginning with any consonant. Un' is used before a feminine singular noun beginning with any vowel. There are seven definite articles, both singular and plural. In the singular: lo, which corresponds to the uses of uno; il, which corresponds to the uses of un, la, which corresponds to the uses of una; l', used before both masculine and feminine nouns and corresponds to un' in the feminine and un in the masculine. In the plural: gli, the plural of lo and l'; i, the plural of il; and le, the plural of la and l'. If an adjective also precedes the noun, the article used corresponds with the adjective.[80]

text: There are numerous contractions of prepositions with subsequent articles. There are numerous productive suffixes for diminutive, augmentative, pejorative, attenuating etc., which are also used to create neologisms.

text: There are 27 pronouns, grouped in clitic and tonic pronouns. Personal pronouns are separated into three groups: subject, object (which take the place of both direct and indirect objects), and reflexive. Second person subject pronouns have both a polite and a familiar form. These two different types of address are very important in Italian social distinctions. All object pronouns have two forms: stressed and unstressed. Unstressed object pronouns are much more frequently used, and come before the verb. Stressed object pronouns come after the verb, and are used when emphasis is required or to avoid ambiguity. Aside from personal pronouns, Italian also has demonstrative, interrogative, possessive, and relative pronouns. There are two types of demonstrative pronouns: relatively near (this) and relatively far (that). Demonstratives in Italian are repeated before each noun, unlike in English.[80]

text: There are three regular sets of verbal conjugations, and various verbs are irregularly conjugated. Within each of these sets of conjugations, there are four simple (one-word) verbal conjugations by person/number in the indicative mood (present tense; past tense with imperfective aspect, past tense with perfective aspect, and future tense), two simple conjugations in the subjunctive mood (present tense and past tense), one simple conjugation in the conditional mood, and one simple conjugation in the imperative mood. Corresponding to each of the simple conjugations, there is a compound conjugation involving a simple conjugation of "to be" or "to have" followed by a past participle. "To have" is used to form compound conjugation when the verb is transitive ("Ha detto", "ha fatto": he/she has said, he/she has made/done), while "to be" is used in the case of verbs of motion and some other intransitive verbs ("È andato", "è stato": he/she has gone, he/she has been). "To be" may be used with transitive verbs, but in such a case it makes the verb passive ("Ê detto", "è fatto": it is said, it is made/done). This rule is not absolute, and some exceptions do exist.

text: Examples[edit]

text: Conversation[edit]

text:
English (inglese)
Italian (italiano)
Pronunciation

Yes
Sì
(listen) /ˈsi/

No
No
(listen) /ˈnɔ/

Of course!
Certo! / Certamente! / Naturalmente!
/ˈtʃɛrto/ /ˌtʃertaˈmente/ /naturalˈmente/

Hello!
Ciao! (informal) / Salve! (formal);
/ˈtʃaːo/

Cheers!
Salute!
/saˈluːte/

How are you?
Come stai? (informal) / Come sta? (formal) / Come state? (plural) / Come va? (general, informal)
/ˌkomeˈstai/; /ˌkomeˈsta/ /ˌkome ˈstaːte/ /ˌkome va/

Good morning!
Buongiorno! (= Good day!)
/ˌbwɔnˈdʒorno/

Good evening!
Buonasera!
/ˌbwɔnaˈseːra/

Good night!
Buonanotte! (for a good night sleeping) / Buona serata! (for a good night awake)
/ˌbwɔnaˈnɔtte/ /ˌbwɔna seˈraːta/

Have a nice day!
Buona giornata! (formal)
/ˌbwɔna dʒorˈnaːta/

Enjoy the meal!
Buon appetito!
/ˌbwɔn‿appeˈtiːto/

Goodbye!
Arrivederci (general) / ArrivederLa (formal) / Ciao! (informal)
(listen) /arriveˈdertʃi/

Good luck!
Buona fortuna! (general)
/ˌbwɔna forˈtuːna/

I love you
Ti amo (between lovers only) / Ti voglio bene (in the sense of "I am fond of you", between lovers, friends, relatives etc.)
/ti ˌvɔʎʎo ˈbɛːne/; /ti ˈaːmo/

Welcome [to...]
Benvenuto/-i (for male/males or mixed) / Benvenuta/-e (for female/females) [a / in...]
/beɱveˈnuːto/

Please
Per favore / Per piacere / Per cortesia
(listen) /per faˈvoːre/ /per pjaˈtʃeːre/ /per korteˈziːa/

Thank you!
Grazie! (general) / Ti ringrazio! (informal) / La ringrazio! (formal) / Vi ringrazio! (plural)
(listen) /ˈɡrattsje/ /ti riŋˈɡrattsjo/

You are welcome!
Prego!
/ˈprɛːɡo/

Excuse me / I am sorry
Mi dispiace (only "I am sorry") / Scusa(mi) (informal) / Mi scusi (formal) / Scusatemi (plural) / Sono desolato ("I am sorry", if male) / Sono desolata ("I am sorry", if female)
(listen) /ˈskuːzi/; /ˈskuːza/; /mi disˈpjaːtʃe/

Who?
Chi?
/ki/

What?
Che cosa? / Cosa? / Che?
/kekˈkɔːsa/ /ˈkɔːsa/ /ˈke/

When?
Quando?
/ˈkwando/

Where?
Dove?
/ˈdoːve/

How?
Come?
/ˈkoːme/

Why / Because
perché
/perˈke/

Again
di nuovo / ancora
/di ˈnwɔːvo/; /aŋˈkoːra/

How much? / How many?
Quanto? / Quanta? / Quanti? / Quante?
/ˈkwanto/

What is your name?
Come ti chiami? (informal) / Qual è il suo nome? (formal) / Come si chiama? (formal)
/ˌkome tiˈkjaːmi/ /kwal ˈɛ il ˌsu.o ˈnoːme/

My name is ...
Mi chiamo ...
/mi ˈkjaːmo/

This is ...
Questo è ... (masculine) / Questa è ... (feminine)
/ˌkwesto ˈɛ/ /ˌkwesta ˈɛ/

Yes, I understand.
Sì, capisco. / Ho capito.
/si kaˈpisko/ /ɔkkaˈpiːto/

I do not understand.
Non capisco. / Non ho capito.
(listen) /noŋ kaˈpisko/ /nonˌɔkkaˈpiːto/

Do you speak English?
Parli inglese? (informal) / Parla inglese? (formal) / Parlate inglese? (plural)
(listen) /parˌlate iŋˈɡleːse/ (listen) /ˌparla iŋˈɡleːse/

I do not understand Italian.
Non capisco l'italiano.
/noŋ kaˌpisko litaˈljaːno/

Help me!
Aiutami! (informal) / Mi aiuti! (formal) / Aiutatemi! (plural) / Aiuto! (general)
/aˈjuːtami/ /ajuˈtaːtemi/ /aˈjuːto/

You are right/wrong!
(Tu) hai ragione/torto! (informal) / (Lei) ha ragione/torto! (formal) / (Voi) avete ragione/torto! (plural)

What time is it?
Che ora è? / Che ore sono?
/ke ˌora ˈɛ/ /ke ˌore ˈsono/

Where is the bathroom?
Dov'è il bagno?
(listen) /doˌvɛ il ˈbaɲɲo/

How much is it?
Quanto costa?
/ˌkwanto ˈkɔsta/

The bill, please.
Il conto, per favore.
/il ˌkonto per faˈvoːre/

The study of Italian sharpens the mind.
Lo studio dell'italiano aguzza l'ingegno.
/loˈstuːdjo dellitaˈljaːno aˈɡuttsa linˈdʒeɲɲo/

text: Question Words[80][81][edit]

text:
English
Italian
IPA

what (adj.)
che
ke

what (standalone)
cosa
ˈkɔza

who
chi
ki

how
come
ˈkome

where
dove
ˈdove

why, because
perché
perˈke

which
quale
ˈkwale

when
quando
ˈkwando

how much
quanto
ˈkwanto

text:
English
Italian
IPA

today
oggi
ˈɔddʒi

yesterday
ieri
ˈjɛri

tomorrow
domani
doˈmani

second
secondo (-a)
/seˈkondo/

minute
minuto
(miˈnuto

hour
ora
ˈora

day
giorno
ˈdʒorno

week
settimana
settiˈmana

month
mese
ˈmese

year
anno
ˈanno

text: Numbers[edit]

text:
English
Italian
IPA

one
uno
/ˈuːno/

two
due
/ˈduːe/

three
tre
/ˈtre/

four
quattro
/ˈkwattro/

five
cinque
/ˈtʃiŋkwe/

six
sei
/ˈsɛi/

seven
sette
/ˈsɛtte/

eight
otto
/ˈɔtto/

nine
nove
/ˈnɔve/

ten
dieci
/ˈdjɛːtʃi/

English
Italian
IPA

eleven
undici
/ˈunditʃi/

twelve
dodici
/ˈdoːditʃi/

thirteen
tredici
/ˈtreːditʃi/

fourteen
quattordici
/kwatˈtorditʃi/

fifteen
quindici
/ˈkwinditʃi/

sixteen
sedici
/ˈseːditʃi/

seventeen
diciassette
/ditʃasˈsɛtte/

eighteen
diciotto
/diˈtʃɔtto/

nineteen
diciannove
/ditʃanˈnɔːve/

twenty
venti
/ˈventi/

English
Italian
IPA

twenty-one
ventuno
/venˈtuːno/

twenty-two
ventidue
/ˌventiˈduːe/

twenty-three
ventitré
/ˌventiˈtre/

twenty-four
ventiquattro
/ˌventiˈkwattro/

twenty-five
venticinque
/ˌventiˈtʃiŋkwe/

twenty-six
ventisei
/ˌventiˈsɛi/

twenty-seven
ventisette
/ˌventiˈsɛtte/

twenty-eight
ventotto
/venˈtɔtto/

twenty-nine
ventinove
/ˌventiˈnɔːve/

thirty
trenta
/ˈtrenta/

text:
English
Italian
IPA

one hundred
cento
/ˈtʃɛnto/

one thousand
mille
/ˈmille/

two thousand
duemila
/ˌdueˈmiːla/

two thousand and eighteen (2018)
duemiladiciotto
/dueˌmilaˈditˈɔtto/

one million
milione
/miˈljone/

one billion
miliardo
/miˈljardo/

text: Days of the week[edit]

text:
English
Italian
IPA

Monday
lunedì
/luneˈdi/

Tuesday
martedì
/marteˈdi/

Wednesday
mercoledì
/ˌmerkoleˈdi/

Thursday
giovedì
/dʒoveˈdi/

Friday
venerdì
/venerˈdi/

Saturday
sabato
/ˈsaːbato/

Sunday
domenica
/doˈmeːnika/

text: Months of the year[edit]

text:
English
Italian
IPA

January
gennaio
/dʒenˈnaːjo/

February
febbraio
/febˈbraːjo/

March
marzo
/ˈmartso/

April
aprile
/aˈpriːle/

May
maggio
/ˈmaddʒo/

June
giugno
/ˈdʒuɲɲo/

July
luglio
/ˈluʎʎo/

August
agosto
/aˈɡosto/

September
settembre
/setˈtɛmbre/

October
ottobre
/otˈtoːbre/

November
novembre
/noˈvɛmbre/

December
dicembre
/diˈtʃɛmbre/[82]

text: Sample texts[edit]

text: There is a recording of Dante's Divine Comedy read by Lino Pertile available online.[83]


document_title: Who Framed Roger Rabbit

question_text: when does who framed roger rabbit take place

root

text: Who Framed Roger Rabbit

text: Plot[edit]

text: In 1947 Los Angeles, "toons" act in theatrical cartoon shorts as with live-action films; they regularly interact with real people and animals and reside in Toontown. Private detective Eddie Valiant and his brother, Teddy, once worked closely with the toons on several famous cases, but after Teddy was killed by a toon, Eddie lapsed into alcoholism and vowed never to work for toons again.

tag: p

text: R.K. Maroon, head of Maroon Cartoon Studios, is concerned about the recent poor performances of one of his biggest stars, Roger Rabbit. Maroon hires Valiant to investigate rumors about Roger's voluptuous toon wife Jessica being romantically involved with businessman and gadget inventor, Marvin Acme, owner of both Acme Corporation and Toontown. After watching Jessica perform at the underground Ink and Paint Club, Valiant secretly photographs her and Acme playing patty-cake in her dressing room, which he shows to Roger. Maroon suggests to Roger that he should leave Jessica, but a drunken Roger refuses and flees.

text: The next morning, Acme is discovered dead at his factory by the Los Angeles Police Department with a safe dropped on his head, and evidence points to Roger's being responsible. While investigating, Valiant meets Judge Doom, Toontown's superior court judge, who has created a substance capable of killing a toon: a toxic "dip" made of turpentine, acetone, and benzene. Valiant runs into Roger's toon co-star, Baby Herman, who believes Roger is innocent and that Acme's missing will, which will give the toons ownership of Toontown, may be the key to his murder. Valiant finds Roger, who begs him to help exonerate him, hiding in his office. Valiant reluctantly hides Roger in a local bar, where his ex-girlfriend, Dolores, works. Jessica approaches Valiant and says that Maroon forced her to pose for the photographs so he could blackmail Acme.

text: Doom and his toon weasel henchmen discover Roger, but he and Valiant escape with Benny, an anthropomorphic taxicab. They flee to a theater, where Valiant tells Roger that a toon killed Teddy when they were investigating a bank robbery by dropping a piano on his head. As they leave with Dolores, Valiant sees a newsreel detailing the sale of Maroon Cartoons to Cloverleaf, a mysterious corporation that bought the city's trolley network shortly before Acme's murder. Valiant goes to the studio to confront Maroon, leaving Roger to guard outside, but Jessica knocks Roger out and puts him in the trunk. Maroon tells Valiant that he blackmailed Acme into selling his company so he could sell the studio, but is killed before he can explain the consequences of the missing will. Valiant spots Jessica fleeing the scene, and assuming she is the culprit, follows her into Toontown. Jessica reveals that Doom killed Acme and Maroon and gave her his will for safekeeping, but she discovered that the will was blank. She and Valiant are captured by Doom and the weasels.

text: At the Acme factory, Doom reveals his plot to destroy Toontown with a machine loaded with dip to build a freeway, the only way past Toontown since Cloverleaf (which Doom owns) has bought out Los Angeles' Pacific Electric Railway. Roger unsuccessfully attempts to save Jessica, and the couple is tied onto a hook in front of the machine's hose. Valiant performs a comedic vaudeville act, causing the weasels to die of laughter; Valiant kicks their leader into the machine's dip vat, killing him. Valiant fights Doom, who is flattened by a steamroller, but survives, revealing him as a toon. Doom reveals that he killed Teddy. Valiant uses a toon mallet with a spring-loaded boxing glove and fires it at a switch that causes the machine to empty its dip onto Doom, dissolving him.

text: The empty machine crashes through the wall into Toontown, where it is destroyed by a train. Toons run in to regard Doom's remains, and Roger discovers that he inadvertently wrote his love letter for Jessica on Acme's will, which was written in invisible ink. Roger shocks Valiant with a joy buzzer, and Valiant gives him a kiss, having regained his sense of humor. Valiant happily enters Toontown with Dolores, and Roger with Jessica, followed by the other toons.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Bob Hoskins, as Eddie Valiant, is an alcoholic private investigator who resents Toons. Executive producer Spielberg's first choice for the role was Harrison Ford, but Ford's price was too high. Bill Murray was also considered for the role, but due to his method of receiving offers for roles, he missed out.[8] Eddie Murphy reportedly turned down the role and later regretted it.[9]
Christopher Lloyd, as Judge Doom, is the cold-blooded and power-hungry judge of Toontown District's Superior Court. Lloyd was cast because he previously worked with Zemeckis and Amblin Entertainment in Back to the Future. Lloyd compared his part as Doom to his previous role as the Klingon commander Kruge in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, both being overly evil characters which he considered being "fun to play".[10] Lloyd avoided blinking his eyes while on camera to perfectly portray the character.[11]
Charles Fleischer as the voice of Roger Rabbit, an A-list Toon working for Maroon Cartoons, who is framed for the murder of Marvin Acme, and requests Eddie's help in proving his innocence. To facilitate Hoskins' performance, Fleischer dressed in a Roger bunny suit and "stood in" behind camera for most scenes.[12] Animation director Williams explained Roger Rabbit was a combination of "Tex Avery's cashew nut-shaped head, the swatch of red hair...like Droopy's, Goofy's overalls, Porky Pig's bow tie, Mickey Mouse's gloves, and Bugs Bunny-like cheeks and ears."[13]

Fleischer also voices Benny the Cab and two members of Doom's weasel gang, Psycho and Greasy. Lou Hirsch, who supplied the voice for Baby Herman, was the original choice for Benny the Cab, but was replaced by Fleischer.[12]

Stubby Kaye, as Marvin Acme, is the jester-like owner of the Acme Corporation. This was Kaye's last film before his retirement in 1988.
Joanna Cassidy, as Dolores, is Eddie's on-off girlfriend who works as a waitress.
Kathleen Turner provides the uncredited voice of Jessica Rabbit, Roger Rabbit's beautiful and flirtatious Toon wife,[14] She loves Roger because, as she says, "he makes me laugh". Amy Irving supplied the singing voice, while Betsy Brantley served as the stand-in.
Alan Tilvern, in his final film role, portrays R.K. Maroon, the short-tempered and manipulative owner of "Maroon Cartoon" studios.
Lou Hirsch provides the voice of Baby Herman, a mentally middle-aged smoker baby and co-star in Maroon Cartoons. Williams said Baby Herman was a mixture of "Elmer Fudd and Tweety crashed together".[13]

tag: ul

text: April Winchell provides the voice of Mrs. Herman and the "baby noises". Additionally, Richard LeParmentier has a minor role as Santino, a lieutenant of the Los Angeles Police Department. Joel Silver has a cameo appearance as Raoul J. Raoul, a director frustrated with Roger Rabbit's antics. David Lander voices Smart Ass, the leader of the weasels, Fred Newman voices Stupid, and June Foray voices Wheezy. Foray also voiced Lena Hyena, a hag toon woman who resembles Jessica Rabbit and provides a comical role which shows her falling for Eddie and pursuing him.

text: Mel Blanc voiced Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety, and Sylvester (Roger Rabbit was one of the final productions in which Blanc voiced his Looney Tunes characters before his death the following year). Joe Alaskey voiced Yosemite Sam and Foghorn Leghorn (in place of the elderly Blanc), Wayne Allwine voiced Mickey Mouse, Tony Anselmo voiced Donald Duck (with an archival recording of Clarence Nash, the original voice of Donald, used at the beginning of the scene[15]), Tony Pope voiced Goofy (also partially voiced by Bill Farmer[16]) and The Big Bad Wolf, Mae Questel reprised her role of Betty Boop, Russi Taylor voiced Minnie Mouse and some birds, Pat Buttram, Jim Cummings, and Jim Gallant voiced Valiant's animated bullets, Les Perkins voiced Mr. Toad, Mary Radford voiced Hyacinth Hippo from Fantasia, Nancy Cartwright voiced the dipped shoe, Cherry Davis voiced Woody Woodpecker, Peter Westy voiced Pinocchio, and Frank Welker voiced Dumbo. Animation director Richard Williams voiced Droopy.

text: Production[edit]

text: Development[edit]

text: Walt Disney Productions purchased the film rights to Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? shortly after its publication in 1981. Ron W. Miller, then president of Disney, saw it as a perfect opportunity to produce a blockbuster.[17] Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman were hired to write the script, penning two drafts. Robert Zemeckis offered his services as director in 1982,[13] but Disney declined as his two previous films (I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Used Cars) had been box-office bombs.[11] Between 1981 and 1983 Disney developed test footage with Darrell Van Citters as animation director, Paul Reubens voicing Roger Rabbit, Peter Renaday as Eddie Valiant, and Russi Taylor as Jessica Rabbit.[18] The project was revamped in 1985 by Michael Eisner, the then-new CEO of Disney. Amblin Entertainment, which consisted of Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, were approached to produce Who Framed Roger Rabbit alongside Disney. The original budget was projected at $50 million, which Disney felt was too expensive.[8]

text: Roger Rabbit was finally green-lit when the budget decreased to $30 million, which at the time still made it the most expensive animated film ever green-lit.[8] Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg argued that the hybrid of live action and animation would "save" Disney's animation department. Spielberg's contract included an extensive amount of creative control and a large percentage of the box-office profits. Disney kept all merchandising rights.[8] Spielberg convinced Warner Bros., Fleischer Studios, King Features Syndicate, Felix the Cat Productions, Turner Entertainment, and Universal Pictures/Walter Lantz Productions to "lend" their characters to appear in the film with (in some cases) stipulations on how those characters were portrayed; for example, Disney's Donald Duck and Warner's Daffy Duck appear as equally talented dueling pianists, and Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny also share a scene. Apart from this agreement, Warner Bros. and the various other companies were not involved in the production of Roger Rabbit. Additionally, the producers were unable to acquire the rights to use Popeye, Tom and Jerry, Little Lulu, Casper the Friendly Ghost, or the Terrytoons for appearances from their respective owners (King Features, Turner, Western Publishing, Harvey Comics, and Viacom).[13][11]

text: Terry Gilliam was offered the chance to direct, but he found the project too technically challenging. ("Pure laziness on my part," he later admitted, "I completely regret that decision.")[19] Robert Zemeckis was hired to direct in 1985, based on the success of Romancing the Stone and Back to the Future. Disney executives were continuing to suggest Darrell Van Citters to direct the animated sequences, but Spielberg and Zemeckis decided against it.[8] Richard Williams was eventually hired to direct the animation. Zemeckis wanted the film to imbue "Disney's high quality of animation, Warner Bros.' characterization, and Tex Avery humor".[20]

text: Casting[edit]

text: Harrison Ford was Spielberg's original choice to play Eddie Valiant.[21] Bill Murray was also considered for the part, but due to his method of receiving offers for roles, Murray missed out on it.[22] Eddie Murphy reportedly turned down the role of Eddie, but later regretted it.[9] Several other actors were also considered for the role of Eddie Valiant, including Chevy Chase, Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, Wallace Shawn, Ed Harris, Charles Grodin, and Don Lane.[23]

text: Tim Curry originally auditioned for the role of Judge Doom, but after his audition, the producers found him too terrifying for the role.[24] Christopher Lee was also considered for the role, but turned it down.[23] Several other actors were also considered for the role of Judge Doom, including John Cleese, Roddy McDowall, Eddie Deezen, and Sting.[23]

text: Writing[edit]

text: Price and Seaman were brought aboard to continue writing the script once Spielberg and Zemeckis were hired. For inspiration, the two writers studied the work of Walt Disney and Warner Bros. Cartoons from the Golden Age of American animation, especially Tex Avery and Bob Clampett cartoons. The Cloverleaf streetcar subplot was inspired by Chinatown.[13] Price and Seaman said that "the Red Car plot, suburb expansion, urban and political corruption really did happen," Price stated. "In Los Angeles, during the 1940s, car and tire companies teamed up against the Pacific Electric Railway system and bought them out of business. Where the freeway runs in Los Angeles is where the Red Car used to be."[11] In Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, the toons were comic-strip characters rather than movie stars.[13]

text: During the writing process, Price and Seaman were unsure of whom to include as the villain in the plot. They wrote scripts that had either Jessica Rabbit or Baby Herman as the villain, but they made their final decision with newly created character Judge Doom. Doom was supposed to have an animated vulture sit on his shoulder, but this was deleted due to the technical challenges this posed.[11] Doom would also have a suitcase of 12 small animated kangaroos that act as a jury, by having their joeys pop out of their pouches, each with letters, when put together would spell YOU ARE GUILTY. This was also cut for budget and technical reasons.[25] Doom's five-man weasel gang (Stupid, Smart Ass, Greasy, Wheezy, and Psycho) satirizes the Seven Dwarfs (Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey), who appeared in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Originally, seven weasels were to mimic the dwarf's complement, but eventually, two of them, Slimey and Slezey, were written out of the script.[11] Further references included The "Ink and Paint Club" resembling the Harlem Cotton Club, while Zemeckis compared Judge Doom's invention of "the dip" to eliminate all the toons as Hitler's Final Solution.[13] Doom was originally the hunter who killed Bambi's mother, but Disney objected to the idea.[25] Benny the Cab was first conceived to be a Volkswagen Beetle before being changed to a taxicab. Ideas originally conceived for the story also included a sequence set at Marvin Acme's funeral, whose attendees included Eddie, Foghorn Leghorn, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Tom and Jerry, Heckle and Jeckle, Chip n' Dale, Mighty Mouse, Superman, Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto, Clarabelle Cow, and the Seven Dwarfs in cameo appearances. However, the scene was cut for pacing reasons and never made it past the storyboard stage.[25] Before finally agreeing on Who Framed Roger Rabbit as the film's title, working titles included Murder in Toontown, Toons, Dead Toons Don't Pay Bills, The Toontown Trial, Trouble in Toontown, and Eddie Goes to Toontown.[26]

text: Filming[edit]

text: Animation director Richard Williams admitted he was "openly disdainful of the Disney bureaucracy"[27] and refused to work in Los Angeles. To accommodate his animators and him, production was moved to Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England. Disney and Spielberg also told Williams that in return for doing Roger Rabbit, they would help distribute his uncompleted film The Thief and the Cobbler.[27] Supervising animators included Dale Baer, James Baxter, David Bowers, Andreas Deja, Chris Jenkins, Phil Nibbelink, Nik Ranieri, and Simon Wells. The animation production, headed by associate producer Don Hahn, was split between Richard Williams' London studio and a specialized unit in Los Angeles, set up by Walt Disney Feature Animation and supervised by Dale Baer.[28] The production budget continued to escalate, while the shooting schedule lapsed longer than expected. When the budget reached $40 million, Disney president Michael Eisner seriously considered shutting down production, but Jeffrey Katzenberg talked him out of it.[27] Despite the budget escalating to over $50 million, Disney moved forward on production because they were enthusiastic to work with Spielberg.[8]

text: VistaVision cameras installed with motion-control technology were used for the photography of the live-action scenes which would be composited with animation. Rubber mannequins of Roger Rabbit, Baby Herman, and the weasels would portray the animated characters during rehearsals to teach the actors where to look when acting with "open air and imaginative cartoon characters".[12] Many of the live-action props held by cartoon characters were shot on set with either robotic arms holding the props or the props were manipulated by strings, similar to a marionette.[11] The voice of Roger, Charles Fleischer, insisted on wearing a Roger Rabbit costume while on the set, to get into character.[12] Filming began on December 2, 1986, and lasted for seven months at Elstree Studios, with an additional month in Los Angeles and at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) for blue screen effects of Toontown. The entrance of Desilu Studios served as the fictional Maroon Cartoon Studio lot.[29]

text: Animation and postproduction[edit]

text: Postproduction lasted for 14 months.[11] Because the film was made before computer animation and digital compositing were widely used, all the animation was done using cels and optical compositing.[12] First, the animators and lay-out artists were given black-and-white printouts of the live-action scenes (known as "photo stats"), and they placed their animation paper on top of them. The artists then drew the animated characters in relationship to the live-action footage. Due to Zemeckis' dynamic camera moves, the animators had to confront the challenge of ensuring the characters were not "slipping and slipping all over the place."[12][11] After rough animation was complete, it was run through the normal process of traditional animation until the cels were shot on the rostrum camera with no background. The animated footage was then sent to ILM for compositing, where technicians animated three lighting layers (shadows, highlights, and tone mattes) separately, to make the cartoon characters look three-dimensional and give the illusion of the characters being affected by the lighting on set.[12] Finally, the lighting effects were optically composited on to the cartoon characters, who were, in turn, composited into the live-action footage. One of the most difficult effects in the film was Jessica's dress in the nightclub scene, because it had flashing sequins, an effect accomplished by filtering light through a plastic bag scratched with steel wool.[13]

text: Music[edit]

text:
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture)

Soundtrack album by Alan Silvestri and the London Symphony Orchestra

Released
June 22, 1988

Recorded
April 3, 1988

Genre
Soundtrack

Length
45:57

Label
Buena Vista

tag: table

text: Regular Zemeckis collaborator Alan Silvestri composed the film score, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) under the direction of Silvestri. Zemeckis joked that "the British [musicians] could not keep up with Silvestri's jazz tempo". The performances of the music themes written for Jessica Rabbit were entirely improvised by the LSO. The work of American composer Carl Stalling heavily influenced Silvestri's work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.[12][11] The film's soundtrack was originally released by Buena Vista Records on June 22, 1988, and reissued by Walt Disney Records on CD on April 16, 2002.[30]

text:
No.
Title
Writer(s)
Performer(s)
Length

1.
"Maroon Logo"
Alan Silvestri
Alan Silvestri
0:19

2.
"Maroon Cartoon"
Silvestri
Silvestri
3:25

3.
"Valiant & Valiant"
Silvestri
Silvestri
4:22

4.
"The Weasels"
Silvestri
Silvestri
2:08

5.
"Hungarian Rhapsody (Dueling Pianos)"
arranged by Silvestri
Tony Anselmo, Mel Blanc
1:53

6.
"Judge Doom"
Silvestri
Silvestri
3:47

7.
"Why Don't You Do Right?"
Joseph "Kansas Joe" McCoy
Amy Irving
3:07

8.
"No Justice for Toons"
Silvestri
Silvestri
2:45

9.
"The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down (Roger's Song)"
Dave Franklin, Cliff Friend
Charles Fleischer
0:47

10.
"Jessica's Theme"
Silvestri
Silvestri
2:03

11.
"Toontown"
Silvestri
Silvestri
1:57

12.
"Eddie's Theme"
Silvestri
Silvestri
5:22

13.
"The Gag Factory"
Silvestri
Silvestri
3:48

14.
"The Will"
Silvestri
Silvestri
1:10

15.
"Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!"
Jack Meskill, Charles O'Flynn, Max Rich
Toon Chorus
1:17

16.
"End Title (Who Framed Roger Rabbit)"
Silvestri
Silvestri
4:56

text: Release[edit]

text: Michael Eisner, then CEO, and Roy E. Disney, Vice Chairman of the Walt Disney Company, felt Who Framed Roger Rabbit was too risqué with sexual references.[31] Eisner and Zemeckis disagreed over various elements of the film, but since Zemeckis had final cut privilege, he refused to make alterations.[12] Roy E. Disney, head of Feature Animation along with studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, felt it was appropriate to release the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner instead of the traditional Walt Disney Pictures banner.[31]

text: Who Framed Roger Rabbit opened in the United States on June 22, 1988, grossing $11,226,239 in 1,045 theaters during its opening weekend, ranking first place in the domestic box office.[32] The film went on to gross $156,452,370 in North America and $173,351,588 internationally, coming to a worldwide total of $329,803,958. At the time of release, Roger Rabbit was the 20th-highest grossing film of all time.[33] The film was also the second-highest grossing film of 1988, behind only Rain Man.[34]

text: Zemeckis has revealed a three-dimensional reissue could be possible.[35]

text: Home media[edit]

text: Who Framed Roger Rabbit was first released on VHS on October 12, 1989.[36] A Laserdisc edition was also released. A DVD version was first available on September 28, 1999.

text: On March 25, 2003, Buena Vista Home Entertainment released it as a part of the "Vista Series" line in a two-disc collection with many extra features including a documentary, Behind the Ears: The True Story of Roger Rabbit; a deleted scene in which a pig's head is "tooned" onto Eddie's own; the three Roger Rabbit shorts, "Tummy Trouble", "Roller Coaster Rabbit", and "Trail Mix-Up"; as well as a booklet and interactive games. The only short on the 2003 VHS release was "Tummy Trouble".

text: On March 12, 2013, Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released by Touchstone Home Entertainment on Blu-ray Disc and DVD combo pack special edition for the film's 25th anniversary.[37][38] The film was also digitally restored by Disney for its 25th Anniversary. Frame-by-frame digital restoration was done by Prasad Studios removing dirt, tears, scratches, and other defects.[39][40]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 97% based on 62 reviews and an average score of 8.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit is an innovative and entertaining film that features a groundbreaking mix of live action and animation, with a touching and original story to boot."[41] Aggregator Metacritic calculated a score of 83 out of 100 based on 15 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[42]

text: Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four, predicting it would carry "the type of word of mouth that money can't buy. This movie is not only great entertainment, but [also] a breakthrough in craftsmanship."[43] Ebert and his colleague Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune spent a considerable amount of time in the Siskel & Ebert episode in which they reviewed the film analyzing the film's painstaking filmmaking. Siskel also praised the film, and ranked it number two on his top-ten films list for 1988, while Ebert ranked it as number eight on a similar list.[44] Janet Maslin of The New York Times commented, "although this isn't the first time that cartoon characters have shared the screen with live actors, it's the first time they've done it on their own terms and make it look real".[45] Desson Thomson of The Washington Post considered Roger Rabbit to be "a definitive collaboration of pure talent. Zemeckis had Walt Disney Pictures' enthusiastic backing, producer Steven Spielberg's pull, Warner Bros.'s blessing, Canadian animator Richard Williams' ink and paint, Mel Blanc's voice, Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman's witty, frenetic screenplay, George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic, and Bob Hoskins' comical performance as the burliest, shaggiest private eye."[46] Gene Shalit on the Today Show also praised the film, calling it "one of the most extraordinary movies ever made".[47] Filmsite.org called it "a technically-marvelous film" and a "landmark" that resulted from "unprecedented cooperation" between Warner Bros. and Disney.[48]

text: Conversely, Richard Corliss, writing for Time, gave a mixed review. "The opening cartoon works just fine but too fine. The opening scene upstages the movie that emerges from it," he said. Corliss was mainly annoyed by the homages to the Golden Age of American animation.[49] Animation legend Chuck Jones made a rather scathing attack on the film in his book Chuck Jones Conversations. Among his complaints, Jones accused Robert Zemeckis of robbing Richard Williams of any creative input and ruining the piano duel that both Williams and he storyboarded.[50]

text: Accolades[edit]

text: Who Framed Roger Rabbit won three competitive Academy Awards and a Special Achievement Award. It became the first live-action/animation hybrid film to win multiple Academy Awards since Mary Poppins in 1964. It won Academy Awards for Best Sound Effects Editing (Charles L. Campbell and Louis Edemann), Best Visual Effects and Best Film Editing. Other nominations included Best Art Direction (Art Direction: Elliot Scott; Set Decoration: Peter Howitt), Best Cinematography and Best Sound (Robert Knudson, John Boyd, Don Digirolamo and Tony Dawe).[51] Richard Williams received a Special Achievement Academy Award "for animation direction and creation of the cartoon characters".[52] Roger Rabbit won the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, as well as Best Direction for Zemeckis and Special Visual Effects. Hoskins, Lloyd, and Cassidy were nominated for their performances, while Alan Silvestri and the screenwriters received nominations.[53] The film was nominated for four categories at the 42nd British Academy Film Awards and won for Best Visual Effects.[54] Roger Rabbit was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), while Hoskins was also nominated for his performance.[55] The film also won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation[56] and the Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie.

text:
AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs—Nominated
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:

"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."—Nominated

AFI's 10 Top 10—Nominated Fantasy Film

text: Legacy[edit]

text: The success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit rekindled an interest in the Golden Age of American animation, and sparked the modern animation scene.[57] In 1991, Walt Disney Imagineering began to develop Mickey's Toontown for Disneyland, based on the Toontown that appeared in the film. The attraction also features a ride called Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.[31] Three theatrical animated shorts were also produced; "Tummy Trouble" played in front of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, "Roller Coaster Rabbit" was shown with Dick Tracy, and "Trail Mix-Up" was included with A Far Off Place.[58][59] The film also inspired a short-lived comic-book and video-game spin-offs, including two PC games, the Japanese version of The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle (which features Roger instead of Bugs), a 1989 game released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and a 1991 game released on the Game Boy.[59]

text: In December 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

text: Controversy[edit]

text: With the film's laserdisc release, Variety first reported in March 1994 that observers uncovered several scenes of antics from the animators that supposedly featured brief nudity of the Jessica Rabbit character. While undetectable when played at the usual rate of 24 film frames per second, the Laserdisc player allowed the viewer to advance frame-by-frame to uncover these visuals. Whether or not they were actually intended to depict the nudity of the character remains unknown.[60][61] Many retailers said that within minutes of the Laserdisc debut, their entire inventory was sold out. The run was fueled by media reports about the controversy, including stories on CNN and various newspapers.[62]

text: Another frequently debated scene includes one in which Baby Herman extends his middle finger as he passes under a woman's dress and re-emerges with drool on his lip.[61][63] Also, controversy exists over the scene where Daffy Duck and Donald Duck are playing a piano duel, and during his trademark ranting gibberish, it is claimed that Donald calls Daffy a "goddamn stupid nigger"; however, this is a misinterpretation, with the line from the script being "doggone stubborn little—."[64][65][66]

text: Legal issue[edit]

text: Gary K. Wolf, author of the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, filed a lawsuit in 2001 against the Walt Disney Company. Wolf claimed he was owed royalties based on the value of "gross receipts" and merchandising sales. In 2002, the trial court in the case ruled that these only referred to actual cash receipts Disney collected and denied Wolf's claim. In its January 2004 ruling, the California Court of Appeal disagreed, finding that expert testimony introduced by Wolf regarding the customary use of "gross receipts" in the entertainment business could support a broader reading of the term. The ruling vacated the trial court's order in favor of Disney and remanded the case for further proceedings.[67] In a March 2005 hearing, Wolf estimated he was owed $7 million. Disney's attorneys not only disputed the claim, but also said Wolf actually owed Disney $500,000–$1 million because of an accounting error discovered in preparing for the lawsuit.[68] Wolf won the decision in 2005, receiving between $180,000 and $400,000 in damages.[69]

text: Proposed sequel[edit]

text: With the film's critical and financial success, Disney and Spielberg felt it was obviously time to plan a second installment. J. J. Abrams says that he met Spielberg in 1989 to discuss working on a sequel, to the extent of preparing an outline and storyboards.[70] More substantial work was done by Nat Mauldin, who wrote a prequel titled Roger Rabbit: The Toon Platoon, set in 1941. Similar to the previous film, Toon Platoon featured many cameo appearances by characters from the Golden Age of American animation. It began with Roger Rabbit's early years, living on a farm in the Midwestern United States.[57] With human Ritchie Davenport, Roger travels west to seek his mother, in the process meeting Jessica Krupnick (his future wife), a struggling Hollywood actress. While Roger and Ritchie are enlisting in the Army, Jessica is kidnapped and forced to make pro-Nazi Germany broadcasts. Roger and Ritchie must save her by going into Nazi-occupied Europe accompanied by several other Toons in their Army platoon. After their triumph, Roger and Ritchie are given a Hollywood Boulevard parade, and Roger is finally reunited with his mother, and father: Bugs Bunny.[57][71]

text: Mauldin later retitled his script Who Discovered Roger Rabbit. Spielberg left the project when deciding he could not satirize Nazis after directing Schindler's List.[72][73] Eisner commissioned a rewrite in 1997 with Sherri Stoner and Deanna Oliver. Although they kept Roger's search for his mother, Stoner and Oliver replaced the WWII subplot with Roger's inadvertent rise to stardom on Broadway and Hollywood. Disney was impressed and Alan Menken was hired to write five songs for the film and offered his services as executive producer.[73] One of the songs, "This Only Happens in the Movies", was recorded in 2008 on the debut album of Broadway actress Kerry Butler.[74] Eric Goldberg was set to be the new animation director, and began to redesign Roger's new character appearance.[73]

text: Spielberg had no interest in the project because he was establishing DreamWorks, although Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy decided to stay on as producers. Test footage for Who Discovered Roger Rabbit was shot sometime in 1998 at the Disney animation unit in Lake Buena Vista, Florida; the results were a mix of CGI, traditional animation, and live action that did not please Disney. A second test had the Toons completely converted to CGI; but this was dropped as the film's projected budget escalated well past $100 million. Eisner felt it was best to cancel the film.[73] In March 2003, producer Don Hahn was doubtful about a sequel being made, arguing that public tastes had changed since the 1990s with the rise of computer animation. "There was something very special about that time when animation was not as much in the forefront as it is now."[75]

text: In December 2007, Marshall stated that he was still "open" to the idea,[76] and in April 2009, Zemeckis revealed he was still interested.[77] According to a 2009 MTV News story, Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman were writing a new script for the project, and the animated characters would be in traditional two-dimensional, while the rest would be in motion capture.[78] However, in 2010, Zemeckis said that the sequel would remain hand-drawn animated and live-action sequences will be filmed, just like in the original film, but the lighting effects on the cartoon characters and some of the props that the Toons handle will be done digitally.[79] Also in 2010, Don Hahn, who was the film's original associate producer, confirmed the sequel's development in an interview with Empire. He stated, "Yeah, I couldn't possibly comment. I deny completely, but yeah... if you're a fan, pretty soon you're going to be very, very, very happy."[80] In 2010, Bob Hoskins stated he was interested in the project, reprising his role as Eddie Valiant.[81] However, he retired from acting in 2012 after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease a year earlier, and died from complications in 2014.[82] Marshall has confirmed that the film is a prequel, similar to earlier drafts, and that the writing was almost complete.[83] During an interview at the premiere of Flight, Zemeckis stated that the sequel was still possible, despite Hoskins' absence, and the script for the sequel was sent to Disney for approval from studio executives.[84]

text: In February 2013, Gary K. Wolf, writer of the original novel, said Erik Von Wodtke and he were working on a development proposal for an animated Disney buddy comedy starring Mickey Mouse and Roger Rabbit called The Stooge, based on the 1952 film of the same name. The proposed film is set to a prequel, taking place five years before Who Framed Roger Rabbit and part of the story is about how Roger met Jessica, his future wife. Wolf has stated the film is currently wending its way through Disney.[85]

text: In November 2016, while promoting his latest film, Allied, in England, Zemeckis took some time to have an interview with Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph. As the conversation shifted focus to the Roger Rabbit sequel, Zemeckis stated that the sequel "moves the story of Roger and Jessica Rabbit into the next few years of period film, moving on from film noir to the world of the 1950s". He also stated that the sequel would feature a "digital Bob Hoskins", as Eddie Valiant would return in "ghost form". While the director went on to state that the script is "terrific" and the film would still use hand-drawn animation, Zemeckis thinks that the chances of Disney green-lighting the sequel are "slim". As he explained more in detail, "The current corporate Disney culture [the current studio management of The Walt Disney Company] has no interest in Roger, and they certainly don't like Jessica at all."[86]

text: Roger Rabbit dance[edit]

text: Roger Rabbit was the inspiration for a popular dance move in America in the early 1990s, called "the Roger Rabbit" due to the floppy movements of the character in the film.[87][88]

text: Notes[edit]

text: Jump up ^ The budget has been commonly reported as $70 million, including by The New York Times in 1991, who subsequently issued an erratum to state that both Amblin and Touchstone insist the budget was "about $50 million".[2] Publications of the film's accounts since then indicate that the exact production cost of the film was $58,166,000,[3] including the production overhead which came to a total of $7,587,000, putting the net cost at $50,587,000.[4]

tag: ol