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The '''Romance languages''' are a branch of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language family]], originally spoken in southern and eastern [[Europe]] and descended from [[Latin language|Vulgar Latin]], the [[language]] of the [[Ancient Romans]]. Today, Romance languages are spoken all over the world, those with the most speakers being [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] and [[French language|French]].
[[File:Tabula Linguarum Romanicarum.png | thumb | 400px]]
The '''Romance languages''' are a branch of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language family]], originally spoken in southern, eastern and western [[Europe]] and descended from [[Latin language|Vulgar Latin]], the [[language]] of the [[Ancient Romans]]. Today, Romance languages are spoken all over the world, those with the most speakers being [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]] and [[Romanian language|Romanian]]. The Romance-speaking territories may be called [[Romania (linguistics)|Romania]] (not to be confused with the European country of [[Romania]]).


Estimating the number of languages in a [[language family]] is difficult because it depends on the definition of 'language', but one estimate puts the membership of the Romance branch at 47 (excluding Latin, with which the Romance languages form a 48-member branch, the Italic group).<ref>''Ethnologue'': '[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90057 Language Family Trees - Indo-European, Italic]'.</ref> The family branches further into Eastern, Italo-Western and Southern subdivisions, with Italo-Western the largest - the Eastern branch leads to [[Romanian language|Romanian]], while [[Corsican language|Corsican]] and [[Sardinian language|Sardinian]] comprise the southern Romance languages. Sardinian is somewhat controversially claimed to be closest to the Latin of the Romans in its structure.<ref>Presented in, for example, Bonfante (1999); a short review of this book (O'Donnell, 1999) is [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1999/1999-10-10.html available on-line].</ref>
These languages - more accurately, the '[[standard language|standard]]' [[dialect]]s of these languages - just happen to be among the most politically important or most widely-spoken Romance varieties in southern Europe and around the world today, and in [[linguistics|linguistic]] terms their dialects form the ends of much smaller 'twigs' in the Romance language family, intermingled with many others. For example, [[Occitan language|Occitan]] (or [[Provençal language|Provençal]]) is a major language of southern [[France]], [[Monaco]] and adjacent parts of [[Italy]] and [[Spain]], but is little-known as it lacks political prestige. It may even be mistakenly assumed to be a French dialect, when in fact French and Occitan are very different, with Occitan more closely related to Catalan than it is to French. Similarly, [[Northern Italian language|Northern Italian]] is closer to French than to modern standard Italian; today's political borders are therefore a poor guide to the membership of the Romance language family.


The Italo-Western branch does not divide simply into 'Spanish', 'Portuguese', 'French', 'Italian' and a few others. These languages - more accurately, the '[[standard language|standard]]' [[dialect]]s of these languages - just happen to be among the most politically important or most widely-spoken Romance varieties in southern Europe and around the world today, and in [[linguistics|linguistic]] terms their dialects form the ends of much smaller 'twigs' in the Romance language family, intermingled with many others. For example, [[Provençal language|Provençal]] is a major language of south-eastern [[France]], but is little-known, especially outside the country, as it lacks political prestige. It may even be mistakenly assumed to be a French dialect, when in fact French and Provençal are very different, with Provençal more closely related to Spanish than it is to French. Similarly, the 'Italian dialects' of northern Italy are closer to French than to modern standard Italian; today's political borders are therefore a poor guide to the membership of the Romance language family.
[[Sardinian language|Sardinian]] is somewhat controversially claimed to be closest to the Latin of the Romans in its structure.<ref>Presented in, for example, Bonfante (1999); a short review of this book (O'Donnell, 1999) is [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1999/1999-10-10.html available on-line].</ref>
 
==List and classification==
The following list of Romance languages is based on books written by recognized scholars, especially Pierre Bec<ref>BEC Pierre (1970-71) (collab. Octave NANDRIS, Žarko MULJAČIĆ), ''Manuel pratique de philologie romane'', Paris: Picard, 2 vol.</ref>, Jacques Allières<ref>ALLIÈRES Jacques (2001) ''Manuel de linguistique romane'', coll. Bibliothèque de grammaire et de linguistique, Paris: Honoré Champion</ref>, Rebecca Posner<ref>POSNER Rebecca (1996) ''The Romance languages'', coll. Cambridge language surveys, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press</ref>, Holtus & Meteltin & Schmitt <ref>HOLTUS Günter, & METZELTIN Michael, & SCHMITT Christian (1991) (dir.) ''Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik [LRL]'', Tübingen: Niemeyer, 8 vol.</ref> and M. Metzeltin<ref>METZELTIN  Miguel (2004) ''Las lenguas románicas estándar: historia de su formación y de su uso'', Oviedo/Uviéu: Academia de la Llingua Asturiana</ref>.  
* ''Balkano-Romance group''
** [[Romanian language]]
** [[Dalmatian language]] (extinct)
* ''Italo-Romance group''
** [[Sardinian language]] (its classification in the Italo-Romance group is debated)
** [[Italian language]]
** [[Corsican language]] (its inclusion in Italian is debated)
** [[Northern Italian language]] (its inclusion in Italian is debated, some scholars think that it is more related to the Rhaeto-Romance and Gallo-Romance groups)<ref>HULL Geoffrey (1982) ''The linguistic unity of Northern Italy and Rhaetia'' [PhD thesis], Sydney: University of Sydney, 2 vol.</ref>
* ''[[Rhaeto-Romance]] group'' (an overlap of Gallo-Romance and Italo-Romance)
** [[Friulian language]]
** [[Ladin language]]
** [[Romansh language]]
* ''Gallo-Romance group''
** [[French language]]
** [[Francoprovençal language]]
** [[Norman language]]
** [[Walloon language]]
** [[Jèrriais]]
** [[Guernesiais]]
** [[Sercquiais]]
** [[Auregnais]]
* ''Occitano-Romance group'' (an overlap of Gallo-Romance and Ibero-Romance)
** [[Occitan language]]
** [[Catalan language]]
* ''Ibero-Romance group''
** [[Spanish language]]
** [[Aragonese language]] (its inclusion in Spanish is debated)
** [[Asturian-Leonese language]] (its inclusion in Spanish is debated)
** [[Galician-Portuguese language]] (the split between [[Galician language]] and [[Portuguese language]] is debated)
** [[Mozarabic language]] (extinct)
** [[Ladino]], (Also called Sephardic,originally spoken by [[jewish people]], in moorish [[Spain]], diverged from Spanish the same way the [[Yiddish language]] diverged from the [[German language]], then spread across North Africa as Christians oppressed muslims and jews, and drove them out of Christian Spain)
** [[Ladao]] (spoken by [[jewish people]], in [[Portugal]], diverged from Portugese the same way the [[Yiddish language]] diverged from the [[German language]])
 
Another classification, especially supported by Gerhard Rohlfs<ref>ROHLFS Gerhard (1937) ''La struttura linguistica dell’Italia'', Leipzig</ref>, divides the Romance languages between ''Eastern Romania'' and ''Western Romania'' (''[[Romania (linguistics)|Romania]]'' being a Latin name for the Romance-speaking world). The dividing line between the two groups splits Italy from La Spezia to Rimini (or more exactly from Carrara to Senigallia), setting Northern Italian in Western Romania and Italian proper in Eastern Romania.
* ''Eastern Romania'' comprises Romanian, Dalmatian, Italian proper and Corsican.
* ''Western Romania'' comprises Northern Italian, Friulian, Ladin, Romansh, French, Francoprovençal, Occitan, Catalan, Aragonese, Spanish, Asturian-Leonese, Galician-Portuguese and Mozarabic.
* The very conservative Sardinian language remains intermediary between the two groups.


==Footnotes==
==Footnotes==

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Tabula Linguarum Romanicarum.png

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, originally spoken in southern, eastern and western Europe and descended from Vulgar Latin, the language of the Ancient Romans. Today, Romance languages are spoken all over the world, those with the most speakers being Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian. The Romance-speaking territories may be called Romania (not to be confused with the European country of Romania).

These languages - more accurately, the 'standard' dialects of these languages - just happen to be among the most politically important or most widely-spoken Romance varieties in southern Europe and around the world today, and in linguistic terms their dialects form the ends of much smaller 'twigs' in the Romance language family, intermingled with many others. For example, Occitan (or Provençal) is a major language of southern France, Monaco and adjacent parts of Italy and Spain, but is little-known as it lacks political prestige. It may even be mistakenly assumed to be a French dialect, when in fact French and Occitan are very different, with Occitan more closely related to Catalan than it is to French. Similarly, Northern Italian is closer to French than to modern standard Italian; today's political borders are therefore a poor guide to the membership of the Romance language family.

Sardinian is somewhat controversially claimed to be closest to the Latin of the Romans in its structure.[1]

List and classification

The following list of Romance languages is based on books written by recognized scholars, especially Pierre Bec[2], Jacques Allières[3], Rebecca Posner[4], Holtus & Meteltin & Schmitt [5] and M. Metzeltin[6].

Another classification, especially supported by Gerhard Rohlfs[8], divides the Romance languages between Eastern Romania and Western Romania (Romania being a Latin name for the Romance-speaking world). The dividing line between the two groups splits Italy from La Spezia to Rimini (or more exactly from Carrara to Senigallia), setting Northern Italian in Western Romania and Italian proper in Eastern Romania.

  • Eastern Romania comprises Romanian, Dalmatian, Italian proper and Corsican.
  • Western Romania comprises Northern Italian, Friulian, Ladin, Romansh, French, Francoprovençal, Occitan, Catalan, Aragonese, Spanish, Asturian-Leonese, Galician-Portuguese and Mozarabic.
  • The very conservative Sardinian language remains intermediary between the two groups.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Presented in, for example, Bonfante (1999); a short review of this book (O'Donnell, 1999) is available on-line.
  2. ↑ BEC Pierre (1970-71) (collab. Octave NANDRIS, Žarko MULJAČIĆ), Manuel pratique de philologie romane, Paris: Picard, 2 vol.
  3. ↑ ALLIÈRES Jacques (2001) Manuel de linguistique romane, coll. Bibliothèque de grammaire et de linguistique, Paris: Honoré Champion
  4. ↑ POSNER Rebecca (1996) The Romance languages, coll. Cambridge language surveys, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ↑ HOLTUS Günter, & METZELTIN Michael, & SCHMITT Christian (1991) (dir.) Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik [LRL], Tübingen: Niemeyer, 8 vol.
  6. ↑ METZELTIN Miguel (2004) Las lenguas románicas estándar: historia de su formación y de su uso, Oviedo/Uviéu: Academia de la Llingua Asturiana
  7. ↑ HULL Geoffrey (1982) The linguistic unity of Northern Italy and Rhaetia [PhD thesis], Sydney: University of Sydney, 2 vol.
  8. ↑ ROHLFS Gerhard (1937) La struttura linguistica dell’Italia, Leipzig

See also

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