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The internal classification of the Romance languages is a complex and sometimes controversial topic which may not have one single answer. Several classifications have been proposed, based on different criteria.
The comparative method used by linguists to build family language trees is based on the assumption that the member languages evolved from a single proto-language by a sequence of binary splits, separated by many centuries. With that hypothesis, and the glottochronological assumption that the degree of linguistic change is roughly proportional to elapsed time, the sequence of splits can be deduced by measuring the differences between the members.
However, the history of Romance languages, as we know it, makes the first assumption rather problematic. While the Roman Empire lasted, its educational policies and the natural mobility of its soldiers and administrative officials probably ensured some degree of linguistic homogeneity throughout its territory. Even if there were differences between the Vulgar Latin spoken in different regions, it is doubtful whether there were any sharp boundaries between the various dialects. On the other hand, after the Empire's collapse, the population of Latin speakers was separated—almost instantaneously, by the standards of historical linguistics—into a large number of politically independent states and feudal domains whose populations were largely bound to the land. These units then interacted, merged and split in various ways over the next fifteen centuries, possibly influenced by languages external to the family (as in the so-called Balkan language area).
In summary, the history of Latin and Romance-speaking peoples can hardly be described by a binary branching pattern; therefore, one may argue that any attempt to fit the Romance languages into a tree structure is inherently flawed. [1] In this regard, the genealogical structure of languages forms a typical linkage . [2]
On the other hand, the tree structure may be meaningfully applied to any subfamilies of Romance whose members did diverge from a common ancestor by binary splits. That may be the case, for example, of the dialects of Spanish and Portuguese spoken in different countries, or the regional variants of spoken standard Italian (but not the so-called "Italian dialects", which are distinct languages that evolved directly from Vulgar Latin).
The two main avenues to attempt classifications are historical and typological criteria: [3]
By applying the comparative method, some linguists have concluded that Sardinian became linguistically developed separately from the remainder of the Romance languages at an extremely early date. [11] Among the many distinguishing features of Sardinian are its articles (derived from Latin IPSE instead of ILLE) and lack of palatalization of /k/ and /ɡ/ before /ieɛ/ [12] and other unique conservations such as domo ‘house’ (< domo). [13] Sardinian has plurals in /s/ but post-vocalic lenition of voiceless consonants is normally limited to the status of an allophonic rule, which ignores word boundaries (e.g. [k]ane 'dog' but su [ɡ]ane or su [ɣ]ane 'the dog'), and there are a few innovations unseen elsewhere, such as a change of /au/ to /a/. [14] This view is challenged in part by the existence of definite articles continuing ipse forms (e.g. sa mar 'the sea') in some varieties of Catalan, best known as typical of Balearic dialects. Sardinian also shares develarisation of earlier /kw/ and /ɡw/ with Romanian: Sard. abba, Rum. apă 'water'; Sard. limba, Rom. limbă 'language' (cf. Italian acqua, lingua).
According to this view, the next split was between Common Romanian in the east, and the other languages (the Italo-Western languages) in the west. One of the characteristic features of Romanian is its retention of three of Latin's seven noun cases. The third major split was more evenly divided, between the Italian branch, which comprises many languages spoken in the Italian Peninsula, and the Gallo-Iberian branch.
However, this is not the only view. Another common classification begins by splitting the Romance languages into two main branches, East and West. The East group includes Romanian, the languages of Corsica and Sardinia, [9] and all languages of Italy south of a line through the cities of Rimini and La Spezia (see La Spezia–Rimini Line ). Languages in this group are said to be more conservative, i.e. they retained more features of the original Latin.
The West group split into a Gallo-Romance group, which became the Oïl languages (including French), Gallo-Italian, Occitan, Franco-Provençal and Romansh, and an Iberian Romance group which became Spanish and Portuguese.
A three-way division is made primarily based on the outcome of Vulgar Latin (Proto-Romance) vowels:
| Classical Latin | Proto-Romance | Southern | Italo-Western | Eastern |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| short A | */a/ | /a/ | /a/ | /a/ |
| long A | ||||
| short E | */ɛ/ | /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ |
| long E | */e/ | /e/ | /e/ | |
| short I | */ɪ/ | /i/ | ||
| long I | */i/ | /i/ | /i/ | |
| short O | */ɔ/ | /ɔ/ | /ɔ/ | /o/ |
| long O | */o/ | /o/ | ||
| short U | */ʊ/ | /u/ | /u/ | |
| long U | */u/ | /u/ |
Italo-Western is in turn split along the so-called La Spezia–Rimini Line in northern Italy, [15] which is a bundle of isoglosses separating the central and southern Italian languages from the so-called Western Romance languages to the north and west. Some noteworthy differences between the two are:
Recent scholarship argues for a more nuanced view. All of the "southeast" characteristics apply to all languages southeast of the line, and all of the "northwest" characteristics apply to all languages in France and (most of) Spain yet the Gallo-Italic languages are somewhere in between. These languages do have the "northwest" characteristics of lenition and loss of gemination however other seemingly clear boundaries are often obscured by local variations: [16]
The likely cause for this partition is that the focal point of innovation was located in central France and was related directly to the level of Carolingian influence, from which a series of innovations spread out as areal changes. The La Spezia–Rimini Line would then represent the farthest point to the southeast that these innovations reached, corresponding to the northern chain of the Apennine Mountains, which cuts straight across northern Italy and forms a major geographic barrier to further language spread. This would explain why some of the "northwest" features (almost all of which can be characterized as innovations) end at differing points in northern Italy, and why some of the languages in geographically remote parts of Spain (in the south, and high in the Pyrenees) are lacking some of these features. It also explains why the languages in France (especially standard French) seem to have innovated earlier and more extensively than other Western Romance languages. [17]
On top of this, the medieval Mozarabic language in southern Spain, at the far end of the "northwest" group, may have had the "southeast" characteristics of lack of lenition and palatalization of /k/ to /tʃ/. [18] Certain languages around the Pyrenees (e.g. some highland Aragonese dialects) also lack lenition, and northern French dialects such as Norman and Picard have palatalization of /k/ to /tʃ/ (although this is possibly an independent, secondary development, since /k/ between vowels, i.e. when subject to lenition, developed to /dz/ rather than /dʒ/, as would be expected for a primary development). [19]
Many of the "southeast" features also apply to the Eastern Romance languages (particularly, Romanian), despite the geographic discontinuity. Examples are lack of lenition, maintenance of intertonic vowels, use of vowel-changing plurals, and palatalization of /k/ to /tʃ/. This has led some researchers, following Walther von Wartburg, to postulate a basic two-way east–west division, with the "Eastern" languages including Romanian and central and southern Italian, although this view is troubled by the contrast of numerous Romanian phonological developments with those found in Italy below the La Spezia-Rimini line. Among these features, in Romanian geminates reduced historically to single units, and /kt/ developed into /pt/, whereas in central and southern Italy geminates are preserved and /kt/ underwent assimilation to /tt/. [20]
Linguists like Jean-Pierre Chambon claim that the various regional languages did not evolve in isolation from their neighbours; on the contrary, they see many changes propagating from the more central regions (Italy and France) towards the periphery (Iberian Peninsula and Romania). [21] These authors see the Romance family as a linkage rather than a tree-like family, and insist that the Wave model is better suited than the Tree model for representing the history of Romance.
In a study by linguist Mario Pei (1949), the degrees of phonological modification of stressed vowels of seven Romance languages with respect to Vulgar Latin were found to be as follows (with higher percentages indicating greater divergence from the stressed vowels of Vulgar Latin): [22] [23]
The study emphasized, however, that it represented only "a very elementary, incomplete and tentative demonstration" of how statistical methods could measure linguistic change, assigned "frankly arbitrary" point values to various types of change, and did not compare languages in the sample with respect to any characteristics or forms of divergence other than stressed vowels, among other caveats. [24]
Part of the difficulties met in classifying Romance languages is due to the seemingly messy distribution of linguistic innovations across members of the Romance family. While this is a problem for followers of the dominant Tree model, this is in fact a characteristic typical of linkages and dialect continuums generally: this has been an argument for approaching this family with the tools based on the Wave model, including dialectology and Historical glottometry.
What follows is a sample of some significant linguistic traits (innovations since Vulgar Latin) that run across the Romance linkage.
The differences among Romance languages occur at all levels, including the sound systems, the orthography, the nominal, verbal, and adjectival inflections, the auxiliary verbs and the semantics of verbal tenses, the function words, the rules for subordinate clauses, and, especially, in their vocabularies. While most of those differences are clearly due to independent development after the breakup of the Roman Empire (including invasions and cultural exchanges), one must also consider the influence of prior languages in territories of Latin Europe that fell under Roman rule, and possible heterogeneity in Vulgar Latin itself.
Romanian, together with other related languages, like Aromanian, has a number of grammatical features which are unique within Romance, but are shared with other non-Romance languages of the Balkans, such as Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian and Turkish. These include, for example, the structure of the vestigial case system, the placement of articles as suffixes of the nouns ( cer = "sky", cerul = "the sky"), and several more. This phenomenon, called the Balkan language area, may be due to contacts between those languages in post-Roman times.
Some Romance languages form plurals by adding /s/ (derived from the plural of the Latin accusative case), while others form the plural by changing the final vowel (by influence of Latin nominative plural endings, such as /i/) from some masculine nouns.
Some Romance languages use a version of Latin plus, others a version of magis.
Although the Classical Latin word for "nothing" is nihil , the common word for "nothing" became nulla in Italian (from neuter plural nulla, "no thing", [26] or from nulla res; [27] Italian also has the word " niente "), nudda [ˈnuɖːa] in Sardinian, nada in Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician (from (rem) natam, "thing born"; [28] Galician also has the word " ren "), rien in French, res in Catalan, cosa and res in Aragonese, ren in Occitan (from rem, "thing", [29] or else from nominative res), [30] nimic in Romanian, nagut in Romansh, gnente in Venetian and Piedmontese, gnent and nagott in Lombard, and nue and nuie in Friulian. Some argue that most roots derive from different parts of a Latin phrase nullam rem natam ("no thing born"), an emphatic idiom for "nothing".[ citation needed ] Meanwhile, Italian and Venetian niente and gnente would seem to be more logically derived from Latin ne(c) entem ("no being"), ne inde or, more likely, ne(c) (g)entem, which also explains the French cognate word néant. [31] [32] The Piedmontese negative adverb nen also comes directly from ne(c) (g)entem, [27] while gnente is borrowed from Italian.
Romanian constructs the names of the numbers 11–19 by a regular Slavic-influenced pattern that could be translated as "one-over-ten", "two-over-ten", etc. All the other Romance languages use a pattern like "one-ten", "two-ten", etc. for 11–15, and the pattern "ten-and-seven, "ten-and-eight", "ten-and-nine" for 17–19. For 16, however, they split into two groups: some use "six-ten", some use "ten-and-six": [33]
Classical Latin uses the "one-ten" pattern for 11–17 (ūndecim, duodecim, ... , septendecim), but then switches to "two-off-twenty" (duodēvigintī) and "one-off-twenty" (ūndēvigintī). For the sake of comparison, note that many of the Germanic languages use two special words derived from "one left over" and "two left over" for 11 and 12, then the pattern "three-ten", "four-ten", ... , "nine-ten" for 13–19.
The verbs derived from Latin habēre "to have", tenēre "to hold", and esse "to be" are used differently in the various Romance languages, to express possession, to construct perfect tenses, and to make existential statements ("there is"). [34] [35] If we use T for tenēre, H for habēre, and E for esse, we have the following distribution:
For example:
| Language | Possessive predicate | Perfect | Existential | Pattern |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | I have | I have done | There is | HHE |
| Italian | (io) ho | (io) ho fatto | c'è | HHE |
| Friulian | (jo) o ai | (jo) o ai fat | a 'nd è, al è | HHE |
| Venetian | (mi) go | (mi) go fato | ghe xe, ghi n'é | HHE |
| Lombard (Western) | (mi) a gh-u | (mi) a u fai | al gh'è, a gh'è | HHE |
| Piedmontese | (mi) i l'hai | (mi) i l'hai fàit | a-i é | HHE |
| Romanian | (eu) am | (eu) am făcut | este / e | HHE |
| Neapolitan | (ijo) tengo | (ijo) aggio fatto | ce sta [36] | TH– |
| Sardinian | (deo) apo (deu) apu | (deo) apo fattu (deu) apu fattu | bi at / bi est nc(h)'at / nc(h)'est | HHH |
| Romansh | (jau) hai | (jau) hai fatg | igl ha | HHH |
| French | j'ai | j'ai fait | il y a | HHH |
| Catalan | (jo) tinc | (jo) he fet | hi ha | THH |
| Aragonese | (yo) tiengo (yo) he (dialectally) | (yo) he feito | bi ha | THH |
| Spanish | (yo) tengo | (yo) he hecho | hay | THH |
| Galician | (eu) teño | — [no present perfect] | hai | T–H |
| Portuguese | (eu) tenho | — [no present perfect] | há/tem | T–H or T–T |
Ancient Galician-Portuguese used to employ the auxiliary H for permanent states, such as Eu hei um nome "I have a name" (i.e. for all my life), and T for non-permanent states Eu tenho um livro "I have a book" (i.e. perhaps not so tomorrow), but this construction is no longer used in modern Galician and Portuguese. Portuguese also uses the T verb even in the existential sense, e.g. Tem água no copo "There is water in the glass". Sardinian employs both H and E for existential statements, with different degrees of determination.
Languages that have not grammaticalised *tenēre have kept it with its original sense "hold", e.g. Italian tieni il libro, French tu tiens le livre, Romanian ține cartea, Friulian Tu tu tegnis il libri "You're holding the book". The meaning of "hold" is also retained to some extent in Spanish and Catalan.
Romansh uses, besides igl ha, the form i dat (literally: it gives), calqued from German es gibt.
Some languages use their equivalent of 'have' as an auxiliary verb to form the compound forms (e. g. French passé composé) of all verbs; others use 'be' for some verbs and 'have' for others.
In the latter type, the verbs which use 'be' as an auxiliary are unaccusative verbs, that is, intransitive verbs that often show motion not directly initiated by the subject or changes of state, such as 'fall', 'come', 'become'. All other verbs (intransitive unergative verbs and all transitive verbs) use 'have'. For example, in French, J'ai vu or Italian ho visto 'I have seen' vs. Je suis tombé, sono caduto 'I have (lit. am) fallen'. Note, however, the difference between French and Italian in the choice of auxiliary for the verb 'be' itself: Fr. J'ai été 'I have been' with 'have', but Italian sono stato with 'be'. In Southern Italian languages the principles governing auxiliaries can be quite complex, including even differences in persons of the subject. A similar distinction exists in the Germanic languages, which share a language area [ citation needed ]; German, Dutch, Danish and Icelandic use 'have' and 'be', while English, Norwegian and Swedish use 'have' only (although in modern English, 'be' remains in certain relic phrases: Christ is risen, Joy to the world: the Lord is come).
"Be" is also used for reflexive forms of the verbs, as in French j'ai lavé 'I washed [something]', but je me suis lavé 'I washed myself', Italian ho lavato 'I washed [something]' vs. mi sono lavato 'I washed myself'.
Tuscan uses si forms identical to the 3rd person reflexive in a usage interpreted as 'we' subject, triggering 'be' as auxiliary in compound constructions, with the subject pronoun noi 'we' optional. If the verb employed is one that otherwise selects 'have' as auxiliary, the past participle is unmarked: si è lavorato = abbiamo lavorato 'we (have) worked'. If the verb is one that otherwise selects 'be', the past participle is marked plural: si è arrivati = siamo arrivati 'we (have) arrived'.
| Form ("to sing") | Latin | Nuorese Sardinian | Italian | Spanish | Portuguese | Languedocien Occitan | Classical Catalan 2 | Milanese Lombard | Romanian | Bolognese Emilian | French |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | cantāre | cantare [kanˈtare̞] | cantare [kanˈtaːre] | cantar [kanˈtar] | cantar [kɐ̃ˈtaɾ] [kɐ̃ˈtaʁ]1 | cantar [kanˈta] | cantar [kənˈta] [kanˈtaɾ] | cantar [kanˈta] | a cânta [akɨnˈta] | cantèr [kaŋˈtɛːr] | chanter [ʃɑ̃ˈte] |
| Past participle | cantātum | cantatu [kanˈtatu] | cantato [kanˈtaːto] | cantado [kanˈtaðo̞] | cantado [kɐ̃ˈtadu] | cantat [kanˈtat] | cantat [kənˈtat] [kanˈtat] | cantad [kanˈtaː] | cântat [kɨnˈtat] | cantè [kaŋˈtɛː] | chanté [ʃɑ̃ˈte] |
| Gerund | cantandum | cantande [kanˈtande̞] | cantando [kanˈtando] | cantando [kanˈtando̞] | cantando [kɐ̃ˈtɐ̃du] | cantant [kanˈtan] | cantant [kənˈtan] [kanˈtant] | cantand [kanˈtant] | cântând [kɨnˈtɨnd] | cantànd [kaŋˈtaŋd] | chantant [ʃɑ̃ˈtɑ̃] |
| 1SGINDIC | cantō | canto [ˈkanto̞] | canto [ˈkanto] | canto [ˈkanto̞] | canto [ˈkɐ̃tu] | cante [ˈkante] | cant [ˈkan] [ˈkant] | canti [ˈkanti] | cânt [ˈkɨnt] | a3 cant [aˈkaŋt] | chante [ˈʃɑ̃t] |
| 2SGINDIC | cantās | cantas [ˈkantaza] | canti [ˈkanti] | cantas [ˈkantas] | cantas [ˈkɐ̃tɐʃ] [ˈkɐ̃tɐs] | cantas [ˈkantɔs] | cantes [ˈkantəs] [ˈkantes] | càntet [ˈkantɛt] | cânți [ˈkɨntsʲ] | t cant [tˈkaŋt] | chantes [ˈʃɑ̃t] |
| 3SGINDIC | cantat | cantat [ˈkantata] | canta [ˈkanta] | canta [ˈkanta] | canta [ˈkɐ̃tɐ] | canta [ˈkantɔ] | canta [ˈkantə] [ˈkanta] | canta [ˈkantɔ] | cântă [ˈkɨntə] | al canta [alˈkaŋtɐ] | chante [ˈʃɑ̃t] |
| 1PLINDIC | cantāmus | cantamus [kanˈtamuzu] | cantiamo [kanˈtjaːmo] | cantamos [kanˈtamo̞s] | cantamos [kɐ̃ˈtɐmuʃ] [kɐ̃ˈtɐ̃mus] | cantam [kanˈtam] | cantam [kənˈtam] [kanˈtam] | cantom [ˈkantum,kanˈtum] | cântăm [kɨnˈtəm] | a cantän [akaŋˈtɛ̃] | chantons [ʃɑ̃ˈtɔ̃] |
| 2PLINDIC | cantātis | cantates [kanˈtate̞ze̞] | cantate [kanˈtaːte] | cantáis [kanˈtajs] | cantais [kɐ̃ˈtajʃ] [kɐ̃ˈtajs] | cantatz [kanˈtats] | cantau [kənˈtaw] [kanˈtaw] | cantev [kanˈteː(f)] | cântați [kɨnˈtatsʲ] | a cantè [akaŋˈtɛ:] | chantez [ʃɑ̃ˈte] |
| 3PLINDIC | cantant | cantant [ˈkantana] | cantano [ˈkantano] | cantan [ˈkantan] | cantam [ˈkɐ̃tɐ̃w̃] | cantan [ˈkantan] | canten [ˈkantən] [ˈkanten] | canten/canta [ˈkantɛn,ˈkantɔ] | cântă [ˈkɨntə] | i cànten [iˈkaŋtɐn] | chantent [ˈʃɑ̃t] |
| 1SGSBJV | cantem | cante [ˈkante̞] | canti [ˈkanti] | cante [ˈkante̞] | cante [ˈkɐ̃tɨ] [ˈkɐ̃tᶴi] | cante [ˈkante] | cant [ˈkan] [ˈkant] | canta [ˈkantɔ] | cânt [ˈkɨnt] | a canta [aˈkaŋtɐ] | chante [ˈʃɑ̃t] |
| 2SGSBJV | cantēs | cantes [ˈkante̞ze̞] | canti [ˈkanti] | cantes [ˈkante̞s] | cantes [ˈkɐ̃tɨʃ] [ˈkɐ̃tᶴis] | cantes [ˈkantes] | cantes [ˈkantəs] [ˈkantes] | càntet [ˈkantɛt] | cânți [ˈkɨntsʲ] | t cant [tˈkaŋt] | chantes [ˈʃɑ̃t] |
| 3SGSBJV | cantet | cantet [ˈkante̞te̞] | canti [ˈkanti] | cante [ˈkante̞] | cante [ˈkɐ̃tɨ] [ˈkɐ̃tᶴi] | cante [ˈkante] | cant [ˈkan] [ˈkant] | canta [ˈkantɔ] | cânte [ˈkɨnte̞] | al canta [alˈkaŋtɐ] | chante [ˈʃɑ̃t] |
| 1PLSBJV | cantēmus | cantemus [kanˈte̞muzu] | cantiamo [kanˈtjaːmo] | cantemos [kanˈte̞mo̞s] | cantemos [kɐ̃ˈtemuʃ] [kɐ̃ˈtẽmus] | cantem [kanˈtem] | cantem [kənˈtəm] [kənˈtɛm] [kanˈtem] | cantom [ˈkantum,kanˈtum] | cântăm [kɨnˈtəm] | a cantaggna [akɐnˈtaɲɲɐ] | chantions [ʃɑ̃ˈtjɔ̃] |
| 2PLSBJV | cantētis | cantetis [kanˈte̞tizi] | cantiate [kanˈtjaːte] | cantéis [kanˈte̞js] | canteis [kɐ̃ˈtejʃ] [kɐ̃ˈtejs] | cantetz [kanˈtets] | canteu [kənˈtəw] [kənˈtɛw] [kanˈtew] | cantev [kanˈteː(f)] | cântați [kɨnˈtatsʲ] | a cantèdi [akaŋˈtɛ:di] | chantiez [ʃɑ̃ˈtje] |
| 3PLSBJV | cantent | cantent [ˈkante̞ne̞] | cantino [ˈkantino] | canten [ˈkante̞n] | cantem [ˈkɐ̃tẽj̃] | canten [ˈkanten] | canten [ˈkantən] [ˈkanten] | canten/canta [ˈkantɛn,ˈkantɔ] | cânte [ˈkɨnte̞] | i cànten [iˈkaŋtɐn] | chantent [ˈʃɑ̃t] |
| 2SG imperative | cantā | canta [ˈkanta] | canta [ˈkanta] | canta [ˈkanta] | canta [ˈkɐ̃tɐ] | canta [ˈkantɔ] | canta [ˈkantə] [ˈkanta] | canta [ˈkantɔ] | cântă [ˈkɨntə] | canta [ˈkaŋtɐ] | chante [ˈʃɑ̃t] |
| 2PL imperative | cantāte | cantate [kanˈtate̞] | cantate [kanˈtaːte] | cantad [kanˈtað] | cantai [kɐ̃ˈtaj] | cantatz [kanˈtats] | cantau [kənˈtaw] [kanˈtaw] | cantev [kanˈteːn(f)] | cântați [kɨnˈtatsʲ] | cantè [kaŋˈtɛ:] | chantez [ʃɑ̃ˈte] |
| 1 Also [ɾ̥ r̥ ɻ̝̊ x ħ h] are all possible allophones of [ɾ] in this position, as well as deletion of the consonant. 2 Its conjugation model is based according to the classical model dating to the Middle Ages, rather than the modern conjugations used in Catalonia, the Valencian Community or the Balearic Islands, which may differ accordingly. 3 Conjugated verbs in Bolognese require an unstressed subject pronoun cliticized to the verb. Full forms may be used in addition, thus 'you (pl.) eat' can be a magnè or vuèter a magnè, but bare *magnè is ungrammatical. Interrogatives require enclitics, which may not replicate proclitic forms: magnèv? 'are you (pl.) eating?/do you (pl.) eat?'. | |||||||||||
Catalan is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spain: Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, where it is called Valencian. It has semi-official status in the Italian comune of Alghero, and it is spoken in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France and in two further areas in eastern Spain: the eastern strip of Aragon and the Carche area in the Region of Murcia. The Catalan-speaking territories are often called the Països Catalans or "Catalan Countries".
Italian is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian. Spoken by about 85 million people, including 67 million native speakers (2024), Italian statistically ranks 21st as the most spoken language in the world, but depending on the year it ranks fourth or fifth as the most studied cultural language, especially in higher cultural institutes, academies, and universities.
The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family.
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Vulgar Latin as a term is both controversial and imprecise. Spoken Latin existed for a long time and in many places. Scholars have differed in opinion as to the extent of the differences, and whether Vulgar Latin was in some sense a different language. This was developed as a theory in the nineteenth century by Raynouard. At its extreme, the theory suggested that the written register formed an elite language distinct from common speech, but this is now rejected.
The Iberian Romance, Ibero-Romance or sometimes Iberian languages are a group of Romance languages that developed on the Iberian Peninsula, an area consisting primarily of Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Andorra and French Catalonia. They are today more commonly separated into West Iberian, East Iberian (Catalan/Valencian) and Mozarabic language groups. East Iberian's classification is a subject of ongoing scholarly debate, as some argue that the Occitano-Romance languages composed of Occitan along with the aforementioned two are better classified as Gallo-Romance languages.
The Gallo-Romance branch of the Romance languages includes in the narrowest sense the langues d'oïl and Franco-Provençal. However, other definitions are far broader and variously encompass the Occitan or Occitano-Romance, Gallo-Italic or Rhaeto-Romance languages.
In the linguistics of the Romance languages, the La Spezia–Rimini Line, also known as the Massa–Senigallia Line, is a line that demarcates a number of important isoglosses that distinguish Romance languages south and east of the line from Romance languages north and west of it. The line divides northern and central Italy, running approximately between the cities of La Spezia and Rimini. Romance languages south and east of it include Italian and the Eastern Romance languages, whereas Catalan, French, Occitan, Portuguese, Romansh, Spanish, and the Gallo‒Italic languages are representatives of the Western group. In this classification, the Sardinian language is not part of either Western or Eastern Romance.
The plurals of the Romance languages, and their historical origin and development, are an important area of study in comparative and historical Romance linguistics. There are two general categories that Romance languages fall into based on the way they form plurals. Languages of the first category, belonging to Western Romance, generally employ a plural suffix morpheme -s. Languages of the second category, belonging to Italo-Dalmatian and Eastern Romance, form the plural by changing the final vowel of the singular form, or suffixing a new vowel to it.
French is a Romance language that specifically is classified under the Gallo-Romance languages.
The language known today as Spanish is derived from spoken Latin, which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans after their occupation of the peninsula that started in the late 3rd century BC. Today it is the world's 4th most widely spoken language, after English, Mandarin Chinese and Hindi. Influenced by the peninsular hegemony of Al-Andalus in the early middle ages, Hispano-Romance varieties borrowed substantial lexicon from Arabic. Upon the southward territorial expansion of the Kingdom of Castile, Hispano-Romance norms associated to this polity displaced both Arabic and the Mozarabic romance varieties in the conquered territories, even though the resulting speech also assimilated features from the latter in the process. The first standard written norm of Spanish was brought forward in the 13th century by Alfonso X the Wise, probably drawing from the speech of the upper classes of Toledo. Features associated with the Castilian patterns of Hispano-Romance also spread west and east to the kingdoms of León and Aragón for the rest of the middle ages, owing to the political prestige achieved by the Kingdom of Castile in the peninsular context and to the lesser literary development of their vernacular norms. From the 1560s onward the standard written form followed Madrid's.
Occitano-Romance is a branch of the Romance language group that encompasses the Catalan/Valencian, Occitan languages and sometimes Aragonese, spoken in parts of southern France and northeastern Spain.
Romance verbs are the most inflected part of speech in the language family. In the transition from Latin to the Romance languages, verbs went through many phonological, syntactic, and semantic changes. Most of the distinctions present in classical Latin continued to be made, but synthetic forms were often replaced with more analytic ones. Other verb forms changed meaning, and new forms also appeared.
As Classical Latin developed into Proto-Romance, its lexicon underwent numerous changes.
Western Romance languages are one of the two subdivisions of a proposed subdivision of the Romance languages based on the La Spezia–Rimini Line. They include the Ibero-Romance and Gallo-Romance. Gallo-Italic may also be included. The subdivision is based mainly on the use of the "s" for pluralization, the weakening of some consonants and the pronunciation of "Soft C" as /t͡s/ rather than /t͡ʃ/ as in Italian and Romanian.
The Reichenau Glossary is a collection of Latin glosses likely compiled in the 8th century in northern France to assist local clergy in understanding certain words or expressions found in the Vulgate Bible.
As a member of the dialect continuum of Romance languages, Catalan displays linguistic features similar to those of its closest neighbors. The following features represent in some cases unique changes in the evolution of Catalan from Vulgar Latin; other features are common in other Romance-speaking areas.
Palatalization is a historical-linguistic sound change that results in a palatalized articulation of a consonant or, in certain cases, a front vowel. Palatalization involves change in the place or manner of articulation of consonants, or the fronting or raising of vowels. In some cases, palatalization involves assimilation or lenition.
Sardinian is conventionally divided, mainly on phonological criteria, into three main varieties: Campidanese, Logudorese, and Nuorese. The last of these has a notably conservative phonology, compared not only to the other two varieties, but also to other Romance languages as well.
Romance linguistics is the scientific study of the Romance languages.
Palatalization in the Romance languages encompasses various historical sound changes which caused consonants to develop a palatal articulation or secondary articulation, as well as certain further developments such as affrication. It resulted in the creation of several consonants that had not existed in Classical Latin, such as the Italian.
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