Romance languages

Romance languages

The Romance languages (also known as Romanic languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family that evolved from Vulgar Latin, the colloquial form of the Latin language spoken by the Roman Empire's soldiers, settlers, and merchants.

Pronunciation

Romance languages: /rəˈmæns ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒɪz/

Etymology

The term "Romance" comes from the Vulgar Latin adverb romanice, derived from Romanicus meaning "in the Roman style". The first documents to show traces of what was to become the future Romance languages were written in the Latin language.

Related terms

• Latin language
• Indo-European language family
• Vulgar Latin
• Roman Empire

Romance languages

The Romance languages include, but are not limited to:

• Italian
• French
• Spanish
• Portuguese
• Romanian
• Catalan
• Occitan

Each of these languages has its own dialects and regional variations, and they all share certain grammatical features that were not present in Classical Latin.

See also

• List of Romance languages
• Romance studies
• Romance-speaking world

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