Romance languages, also known as Latin languages are all the languages that originated from Vulgar Latin, so no, they are not romantic languages (still, you may think they all sound romantic).
But.. why specifically Vulgar Latin and not the basic, old one?
Well, classical Latin was used in formal settings and appeared in official documents, while Vulgar Latin was used in casual conversations. So, as the Roman Empire conquered cities, this dialect travelled through different societies. When the Empire fell, the populations were isolated and the Latin dialects evolved and diverged into what we consider our modern-day languages.
Nowadays, there are approximately 800 million native speakers of Romance languages. The main derivations of romance languages are Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French and Romanian. In reality, more dialects have evolved from Vulgar Latin, but their number is so big you wouldn’t be able to keep count. For example, if you'd take a local from Rome and move them to Barcelona, they'd still be able to mostly understand each other. However, with the development of the countries as we know them now and the introduction of education, most old dialects collapsed into a smaller number of national languages. You can still find some regional or subnational Romance languages left, including Catalan, Occitan and Sardinian.
How can you tell that these languages come from Romance languages?
It’s quite simple, they all share similar grammar and syntax rules, and basically, they sound very similar when you hear them. For example, most Romance languages have gender-specific nouns which must be conjugated to fit with the sentence structure according to gender. The vocabulary can also be very similar, which can usually be seen in, for example, Spanish and Portuguese vocabulary. Just think of how similar “Buenos días” is to “Bom dia”, or “No comprendo” to “Não compreendo”. An estimation says that up to 80% of today's Spanish vocabulary is composed of words derived from Latin roots! This means that if you know one Romance language you will find it much easier to learn another Romance language, exactly because of how small the changes in pronunciation or spelling are.
Is the culture of these countries also similar?
The obvious answer is yes, of course. All countries where the Romance language was spoken have a rich culture with a long history highlighted by different figures. For example, Gabriel García Márquez is one of the most known Latin-American writers and very important to the Spanish culture. Similarly, Dante Alighieri is iconic for Italians. Furthermore, from literature and art to food, these countries shaped their cultures with the help of their Romance languages.
Romance Languages hold an important place in history as well as in today’s society. They have all evolved over time but still hold much of their original Latin roots, which makes them incredibly unique among other language families. Understanding how they divided and started to have independent features can help us better appreciate their importance as well as a sneak peek at how language has changed over time due to various influences, such as culture and geography.
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