Neapolitan language

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Neapolitan
Continental Southern Italian
napulitano
Native to	Italy
Region	Campania
Ethnicity	Mezzogiorno Italians
Native speakers	5.7 million (2002)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Latin Romance Italo-Western Italo-Dalmatian Italo-Romance Neapolitan
Dialects	Arianese Barese Benevento Cilentan Irpinian Molisan Tarantino Southern Latian Vastese Castelmezzano Cosentian
Language codes
ISO 639-2	nap
ISO 639-3	nap
Glottolog	neap1235  Continental Southern Italian sout3126  South Lucanian = (Vd) Lausberg
Southern Italo-Romance languages
Neapolitan as part of the European Romance languages[image reference needed]

Neapolitan (autonym: ('o n)napulitano [(o n)napuliˈtɑːnə]; Italian: napoletano) is a Romance language of the Italo-Romance group spoken in Naples and most of continental Southern Italy. It is named after the Kingdom of Naples, which once covered most of the area, since the city of Naples was its capital. On 14 October 2008, a law by the Region of Campania stated that Neapolitan was to be protected.^[2]

While this article mostly addresses the language group native to much of continental Southern Italy or the former Kingdom of Naples, the terms Neapolitan, napulitano or napoletano may also instead refer more narrowly to the specific variety spoken natively in the city of Naples and the immediately surrounding Naples metropolitan area and Campania.^[3][4]