Romance languages
The Romance languages, also known as the Latin languages, are the languages that directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family. The most prominent Romance languages include Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian and Catalan. The term Romance derives from the Vulgar Latin adverb romanice, 'in Roman,' from romanicus, used in the expression romanice loqui, 'to speak in Roman' (the Latin vernacular), contrasted with latine loqui and barbarice loqui.
- most widely spoken natively
- Spanish
- official in European Union
- French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian
- official in United Nations
- French and Spanish
- primary regions
- Americas, Europe, parts of Africa
- classification
- subgroup of Italic branch of Indo-European
Lore & Background
The Romance languages spread throughout the world owing to the period of European colonialism beginning in the 15th century. French, Spanish, and Portuguese also have many non-native speakers; they are widely used as lingua francas. There are also numerous regional Romance languages and dialects. All five of the most widely spoken Romance languages are also official languages of the European Union. Most of the Romance-speaking part of Europe has traditionally been a dialect continuum, where the speech variety of a location differs only slightly from that of a neighboring location, but over a longer distance these differences become so great that people from two remote locations unambiguously speak separate languages. This makes drawing language boundaries difficult, and thus there is no unambiguous way to divide the Romance varieties into individual languages. Even the criterion of mutual intelligibility can become ambiguous when it comes to determining whether two language varieties belong to the same language or not. The groupings of Romance languages include Ibero-Romance, Occitano-Romance, Gallo-Romance, Rhaeto-Romance, Gallo-Italic, Venetian (classification disputed), Central Romance, Eastern Romance, Southern Romance, and Southern Lucanian (classification disputed).
Reader's Guide
The Romance languages are significant as the direct descendants of Vulgar Latin, the vernacular form of Latin spoken across the Roman Empire. They represent the only surviving branch of the Italic languages within the Indo-European family. Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian serve as official languages of the European Union, while French and Spanish are official languages of the United Nations. In the Americas, Spanish is official in Spain, nine South American countries, six Central American countries, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Portuguese is the official language of Brazil, spoken by more than 200 million people, and of six African countries. French is official in Canada (Quebec, New Brunswick, Ontario) and in much of Africa, though with relatively few native speakers. Italian outside Italy and Switzerland is spoken mainly by immigrant communities. Romanian is dominant in Moldova and spoken in neighboring areas. The Romance languages also include numerous regional varieties and dialects, with classification disputes noted for Venetian and Southern Lucanian. Their legacy includes serving as lingua francas and as vehicles for literature, diplomacy, and international communication.
Did You Know?
- The term Romance derives from the Vulgar Latin adverb romanice, meaning 'in Roman.'
- Portuguese is the most spoken official Romance language in a single country, Brazil, with over 200 million speakers.
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