Was it spoken in pieces of broken Italian? (5)
I believe the answer is:
latin
'italian?' is the definition.
(italian is a kind of Latin)
'was it spoken in pieces of broken' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'it' could be 't' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis) and 't' is found within the answer.
'in' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'la' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for latin that I've seen before include "Romantic language" , "Cicero's tongue" , "ancient tongue" , "Learning it 'an honour' (Churchill)" , "Ancestor of French, Romanian" .)