Languages of Vatican City

Vatican City uses Italian for its official documents and as its main working language. Even though Italian is the primary language, many other languages are also used there. This is because Vatican City is home to important groups like the Holy See and the Swiss Guard, as well as people from many different countries. Because of this mix, you can hear many languages spoken in Vatican City, making it a special and diverse place.

History

During the time of the Roman Empire, people in the area that is now Vatican City spoke Latin. Later, the Papal States also used Latin for important documents. In 1870, this area became part of the Kingdom of Italy, which used Italian as its main language.

In 1929, the Lateran Treaty created Vatican City as its own country. The laws of Vatican City are published in Italian, even though the country’s official document system is mostly in Latin. Many old buildings in Vatican City have writings in Latin, but also in Italian, Greek, French and German.

Present languages

Many languages are spoken in Vatican City because people there come from many different countries. Italian is the main language used there and became the official language of the Synod of Bishops in 2014, replacing Latin. The Holy See, which has authority over Vatican City but is separate from it, uses Latin as its official language and Italian for everyday work. Sometimes, French is also used for diplomatic talks.

In the Swiss Guard, Swiss German is used for giving commands, but guards take their loyalty oath in their own languages, which can be German, French, Italian, or Romansh. Over time, the native languages of the popes have included Italian, Polish, German, Spanish, and English.

Websites

The official website of Vatican City is in Italian. Earlier versions were also available in English, French, German and Spanish.

The official website of the Holy See is mainly in Italian, but it also has versions in English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. Some parts are available in Arabic, Chinese and Latin. You can also find information in many other languages like Albanian, Belarusian, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Russian, Slovak, Slovene, Swahili and Ukrainian.

The Holy See's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano is published in Italian, English, French, German, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. The Vatican News website is available in many languages including Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, English, Esperanto, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hindi, Hungarian, Kannada, Malayalam, Macedonian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Tigrinya, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.