...The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, Latin languages, Neolatin languages or Neo-Latin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of ancient Rome. There are more than 600 million native speakers worldwide, mainly in America, Europe, and Africa, as well as many smaller regions scattered throughout the world. Today, there are 25 surviving Latin languages; but perhaps many more were previously in existence which evolved from local vernaculars of Latin. The six most widely spoken Romance languages are Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, and Catalan. Among numerous other Romance languages are Corsican, Leonese, Occitan, Aromanian, Sardinian, Venetian and Galician. Read full entry
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- 1.Romance Languages - Wikipedia
- User-created entry on Romance languages, also called Romantic languages or New Latin languages. Lists the languages that fall within this family, their history as ...
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R
omance_languages
- 2.List of Romance languages - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article lists also the main groups of Romance-based Creole languages. ... 5 Extinct branches of the Romance language tree. 6 Pidgins and creoles ...
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L
ist_of_Romance_languages
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What is the easiest romance Im just curious. Wich romance
language takes the least
amount of time. Spanish not
included.
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Er... well, I guess I would say Italian or French... I don't know about how long they would take to learn, though I'm sure they may be a little easier since we borrow from them so much with the English language. But they're both definitely romance languages. |
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why are the french speaking a France is like Germany:
situated close to it, situated
at same latitudes than Germany
Netherlands or UK, is
surrounded by germanic
speaking nations only. It is
populated by people ethnically
descending from Franks, a
german tribe, so who look
nordic. How is it that their
language, french, is a romance
language since romance
languages are spoken in
southern Europe only.
Or is french really a romance
language? Or a mixed
germanic-Romance as English
is?
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French is definitely a Romance language. Romance languages are those derived from Latin (the language of the Romans), and the term "Romance" does not mean "romantic" or make French "the language of love" as stated in an entry above. The Romans invaded large chunks of Europe and their occupation lasted longer in some areas than in others therefore making a more profound mark on certain countries than in others. France is close to Germany but the geographical border between the two countries is relatively small compared to borders with other countries and the Roman occupation of Germany was very much shorter therefore having relatively little effect on the existing dialects there. The Franks were an invading tribe that settled and actually adopted the language that was in place. The population of France is not "ethnically descending"(sic) just from them, but from the Celts who were there first. In the same way the British are not all descendants of the Normans and a large proportion of them have Anglo-Saxon or Norse ancestors. The spread of a language does not just depend on its location but on the vagaries of History. You might just as well ask why North Americans speak a "mixed Germanic-Romance" (your terminology) language rather than ethnic North American, or why states in Southern America speak Spanish and Portuguese when in fact they are so far geographically from Europe and should speak Inca or original native languages. Likewise Australians should be speaking Arborigine. In many parts of the globe people have ended speaking the language of conquerors, invaders or colonialists that had the upper hand, imposed their culture, and stayed longest on the spot. The degree of purity retained, or of diversification, is related to how far back the invasion took place in History, and languages, though they still evolve, have remained more fixed since the general use of print, despite invasions, territorial exchanges etc...that took place in the last four hundred years. You might like to read about Romance languages and their spread in this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R omance_languages And, by the way, French children are taught that their true ancestors are "the Gauls". I was raised in France and remember the exact sentence in the primary school book I had which started : "Nos ancêtres les gaulois...." |
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why the french speak a romance while they derive from the
frankish empire, as well as
Germany, which, on its part
don't speak a romance
language.
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They were part of the Roman empire and therefore their language developed from latin |
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