Literally, partenza means departure or starting point.
So lingua di partenza literally means language of departure, but in natural English it usually means:
This is a common expression in translation contexts.
Literally, arrivo means arrival.
So lingua di arrivo literally means language of arrival, but in natural English it usually means:
Again, this is especially common when talking about translation.
Here di links the noun lingua to another noun that describes its role or function.
So:
This is a very common Italian structure:
In this sentence, di partenza and di arrivo function almost like labels.
Italian often uses the definite article more than English does.
Here, la lingua di partenza and la lingua di arrivo refer to two specific roles: the source language and the target language. So the article sounds natural and expected.
In English, you might sometimes omit the, but in Italian the article is usually kept:
Also, the second la is part of dalla:
No. After diverso, the normal preposition is da, not a.
So this is correct:
This is not standard:
It is best to learn diverso da as a fixed pattern.
The given order is the most neutral and natural one:
Italian word order is somewhat flexible, but this standard order is best for learners:
You might move parts of the sentence for emphasis in special contexts, but the original version is the clearest and most normal.
Not exactly.
So in this sentence, lingua is the correct word because it refers to actual languages used in translation.
Examples:
Usually, yes. The expressions lingua di partenza and lingua di arrivo are especially common in translation and language-learning contexts.
They refer to:
So the sentence is saying that the source language and the target language are not the same language.
A very literal breakdown is:
So literally:
That literal version helps show the structure, even if in natural English you would usually say The source language is different from the target language.