Romance
Geographic distribution:	Originally Europe; now also Latin America, Quebec and much of Western Africa
Genetic classification:	Indo-European  Italic   Romance
Subdivisions:	Italo-Western Eastern Romance Southern Romance
ISO 639-2:	roa
Distribution of major Romance languages:      Spanish      French      Portuguese      Italian      Romanian

Indo-European topics
Indo-European languages
Albanian · Armenian · Baltic Celtic · Germanic · Greek Indo-Iranian (Indo-Aryan, Iranian) Italic · Slavic   extinct: Anatolian · Paleo-Balkans (Dacian, Phrygian, Thracian) · Tocharian
Indo-European peoples
Albanians · Armenians Balts · Celts · Germanic peoples Greeks · Indo-Aryans Iranians · Latins · Slavs historical: Anatolians (Hittites, Luwians) Celts (Galatians, Gauls) · Germanic tribes Illyrians · Italics  · Sarmatians Scythians  · Thracians  · Tocharians Indo-Iranians (Rigvedic tribes, Iranian tribes)
Proto-Indo-Europeans
Language · Society · Religion
Urheimat hypotheses
Kurgan hypothesis Anatolia · Armenia · India · PCT
Indo-European studies

The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of ancient Rome. Quebec (kwɨˈbɛk West Africa or Western Africa is the Westernmost Region of the African Continent. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family's Centum branch The Eastern Romance languages, sometimes known as the Vlach languages, are a group of Romance languages that developed in Southeastern Europe The Southern Romance languages are a sub-group of the family of Romance languages that includes the Sardinian, the Corsican language, with the Gallurese ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages Albanian (sq ''Gjuha shqipe'' ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ is an Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million peoplewhile others claim that it derives from Daco - The Armenian language (hy հայերեն լեզու hajɛɹɛn lɛzu —, conventional short form) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages The Indo-Aryan languages (within the context of Indo-European studies also Indic) are a branch of the Indo-European language family The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily Indo-Iranian. The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family's Centum branch The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) a group of closely related Languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language The Paleo-Balkan languages were the Indo-European languages that were spoken in the Balkans in Ancient times. The Dacian language was spoken by the ancient inhabitants of Dacia. The Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians a people from Thrace who later migrated to Asia Minor. The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe Tocharian or Tokharian is one of the branches of the Indo-European language family. } Albanians (Shqiptarët are an Ethnic group and a Nation, in the sense of sharing a common Albanian culture speaking the Albanian language The Armenians (Հայեր Hayer) are a Nation and Ethnic group originating in the Caucasus and in the Armenian Highlands A large The Balts or Baltic peoples (People who live by the Baltic Sea) defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European Modern Celts are those peoples who are speakers of Celtic languages, or who consider themselves or have been considered by others to participate in a Celtic culture This is a list of Germanic peoples. Classical philosophy The Greeks assigned names to populations they considered distinct based on the city-state ( The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions The Iranian people are a collection of Ethnic groups defined along linguistic lines as speaking Iranian languages. Latin European peoples are those who speak Romance languages, descended from Vulgar Latin, spread during the time of the Roman Empire. Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established Luwian (sometimes spelled Luvian) is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European -speaking peoples originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic Illyrians has come to refer to a broad ill-defined " Indo-European " group of peoples who inhabited the western Balkans ( Illyria, roughly Ancient peoples of Italy are all those peoples that lived in Italy (including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia) before the Roman domination The Sarmatians, Sarmatae or Sauromatae ( Old Iranian Sarumatah 'archer' Σαρμάτες The Scythians or Scyths (Σκύθες Σκύθοι were an Iranian speaking people of horse-riding Nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic "Thracians" also refers to modern inhabitants of Thrace, regardless of ethnicity The Tocharians were the Tocharian -speaking inhabitants of the Tarim basin, making them the easternmost speakers of an Indo-European language in antiquity Indo-Iranian peoples consist of the Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Dardic and Nuristani peoples that is speakers of Indo-Iranian languages The Indo-Aryan tribes mentioned in the Rigveda are described as semi- Nomadic pastoralists subdivided into temporary settlements ( vish, viś and headed Ancient Iranian peoples who settled Greater Iran in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BC. The Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, who likely lived around 4000 BC, during the Copper Age and the The society of the Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE existed during the Bronze Age (roughly fifth to fourth millennium BC and has been reconstructed The existence of similarities among the deities and religious practices of the Indo-European (IE peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-European The question of the homeland ( Urheimat) of the Proto-Indo-European peoples and their Proto-Indo-European language has been a recurring topic in Indo-European The Kurgan hypothesis (also theory or model) is a model of early Indo-European origins, which postulates that the Kurgan culture of the Pontic steppe The Anatolian hypothesis is also called Renfrew's NDT; it proposes that the dispersal ( Discontinuity) of Proto-Indo-Europeans originated in Neolithic The Armenian hypothesis of the Proto-Indo-European Urheimat, based on the Glottalic theory suggests that the Proto-Indo-European language The Out of India theory ( OIT, also called the Indian Urheimat Theory) is the proposition that the Indo-European language family originated in The Paleolithic Continuity Theory (or PCT,Italian La teoria della continuità) is a Hypothesis suggesting that the hypothetical Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies is a field of Linguistics dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC They have more than 700 million native speakers worldwide, mainly in the Americas, Europe, and Africa, as well as many smaller regions scattered throughout the world. The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, consisting of the Continents of North America and South America

Romance languages have their roots in Vulgar Latin, the popular sociolect of Latin spoken by soldiers, settlers and merchants of the Empire, as distinguished from the Classical form of the language spoken by the Roman upper classes, the form in which the language was generally written. Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin In Linguistics, a sociolect is the variety of language characteristic of a social background or status Between 350 BC and 150 AD, the expansion of the Empire, together with its administrative and educational policies, made Latin the dominant native language in continental Western Europe. From its origin as a city-state in Italy in 9th century BC the rise as an empire covering much of Eurasia and North Latin also exerted a strong influence in southeastern Britain, the Roman province of Africa, and the Balkans north of the Jireček Line. Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410 The Roman province of Africa was established after the Romans defeated Carthage in the Third Punic War. The Jireček Line is an imaginary line through the ancient Balkans that divided the influences of the Latin (in the north and Greek (in the south languages

During the Empire's decline, and after its fragmentation and collapse in the 5th century, dialects of Latin began to diverge within each local area at an accelerated rate, and eventually evolved into languages of their own right. The overseas empires established by Spain, Portugal and France from the 15th century onward spread their languages to the other continents, to such an extent that about 70% of all Romance speakers today live outside Europe. The Spanish Empire (Imperio Español was one of the largest Empires in history and one of the first Global empires In the 15th and 16th centuries The Portuguese Empire was the earliest and longest lived of the modern European colonial empires spanning almost six centuries from the capture of Ceuta France was a dominant empire in the world from the 1600s to the late 1960s possessing many colonies in various locations around the world

Despite influences from pre-Roman languages and from later invasions, the phonology, morphology, lexicon, and syntax of all Romance languages are predominantly evolutions of Vulgar Latin. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning Morphology is the field of Linguistics that studies the internal structure of words In Linguistics, the lexicon (from Greek Λεξικόν of a language is its Vocabulary, including its words and expressions In Linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek grc συν- syn-, "together" and grc τάξις táxis, "arrangement" is the Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin In particular, with only one or two exceptions, Romance languages have lost the declension system of Classical Latin and, as a result, have SVO sentence structure and make extensive use of prepositions. In Linguistics, declension (or declination) is the occurrence of Inflection in Nouns Pronouns and Adjectives indicating In Linguistic typology, subject-verb-object ( SVO) is a sentence structure where the subject comes first the Verb second and the object In Grammar, a preposition is a Part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase.

Contents 1 Name 2 Sample 2.1 Etymology 3 History 3.1 Vulgar Latin 3.2 Fall of the Roman Empire 3.3 Latent incubation 3.4 Recognition of the vernaculars 3.5 Uniformization and standardization 4 Current status 5 Classification and related languages 5.1 Proposed subfamilies 5.2 Pidgins, creoles, and mixed languages 5.3 Auxiliary and constructed languages 6 Linguistic features 6.1 Common Indo-European features 6.2 Features inherited from Classical Latin 6.3 Features inherited from Vulgar Latin 6.3.1 Sound changes 6.3.2 Lexical stress 6.4 Other shared features 7 Writing systems 7.1 Letters 7.2 Digraphs and trigraphs 7.2.1 Double consonants 7.3 Diacritics and special characters 7.4 Upper and lower case 8 Vocabulary comparison 9 See also 10 Footnotes 11 External links

Name

The term "Romance" comes from the Vulgar Latin adverb romanice, derived from Romanicus: used, for instance, in the expression romanice loqui, "to speak in Roman" (that is, the Latin vernacular), contrasted with latine loqui, "to speak in Latin" (Medieval Latin, the conservative version of the language used in writing and formal contexts or as a lingua franca), and with barbarice loqui, "to speak in Barbarian" (the non-Latin languages of the peoples that conquered the Roman Empire). Vernacular refers to the Native language of a country or a locality Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the Liturgical language of the medieval The Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache ( framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analysing and categorising the status of language varieties A lingua franca (from Italian, literally meaning Frankish language, see etymology under Sabir and Italian below is any Language widely "Barbarian" is a pejorative term for an uncivilized person either in a general reference to a member of a nation or Ethnos perceived The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial ^[1] From this adverb the noun romance originated, which applied initially to anything written romanice, or "in the Roman vernacular".

The word romance with the modern sense of romance novel or love affair has the same origin. A romance novel is a literary Genre developed in Western culture, mainly in English-speaking countries In the medieval literature of Western Europe, serious writing was usually in Latin, while popular tales, often focusing on love, were composed in the vernacular and came to be called "romances". Medieval literature is a broad subject encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe beyond and during the Middle Ages (encompassing the one thousand As a Literary genre of High culture, romance or chivalric romance refers to a style of heroic Prose and verse Narrative

Sample

Lexical and grammatical similarities among the Romance languages, and between Latin and each of them, are apparent from the following examples:

Latin	Illa claudit1 semper2 fenestram3 ante quam cenat4. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome.
Aragonese	Ella tranca/zarra siempre2 la finestra3 antis de zenar4.
Asturian	Ella pieslla siempre2 la ventana primero de cenar4. Asturian (Asturian Asturianu or Bable) is a Romance language of the West Iberian group, Astur-Leonese Subgroup, spoken in the
Catalan	Ella tanca sempre2 la finestra3 abans de sopar. Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official
French	Elle ferme toujours la fenêtre3 avant de dîner/souper. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people
Walloon	Ele sere todis li finiesse3 divant di soper. Walloon ( Walon) is a Romance language spoken as a second language by some in Wallonia, Belgium.
Galician	Ela pecha sempre2 a fiestra3/(xanela) antes de cear4.
Italian	Lei(/Ella) chiude1 sempre2 la finestra3 prima di cenare4. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy.
Milanese (Western Lombard variant)	Lé la sara semper2 su la finestra3 primma de disnà. Milanese ( milanes, milanées, meneghin, meneghìn) is the central variety of Western Lombard language spoken in the
Neapolitan	Chella sempre2 chiud'1 'a fenesta3 prima 'e mangià5. Neapolitan (autonym napulitano; napoletano is the name given to the varied Italo-Western group of dialects of Southern Italy or more specifically the
Occitan	Ela barra sempre2 la fenèstra3 abans de sopar. Occitan ( IPA BrE: /ˈɒksɪtn/ AmE: /ˈɑksəˌtɑn/ known also as Lenga d'òc or Langue d'oc (native name occitan
Piedmontese	Chila a sara sèmper2 la fnestra3 dnans da fé sin-a4.
Portuguese	Ela sempre2 fecha a janela antes de jantar. Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal.
Mirandese	Eilha cerra siempre2 la bentana/jinela atrás de jantar. The Mirandese language (autonym mirandés or lhéngua mirandesa; Portuguese: mirandês or língua mirandesa) is a Romance language
Romanian	Ea închide1 întotdeauna fereastra3 înainte de a cina4. Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance
Sardinian	Issa sempere2 serrad su balcone primmu de chenade4. Sardinian ( Sardu, Saldu) is after Italian the main language spoken in the island of Sardinia, Italy, remarkable for being the most conservative
Sicilian	Idda chjùi1 sempri2 a finestra3 avànti chi mmància5. Sicilian (scn '''''lu sicilianu''''' lingua siciliana, also known as Siculu or Calabro-Sicilian) is a Romance language.
Spanish	Ella siempre2 cierra la ventana antes de cenar.
Venetian	Ła sera sempre2 ła finestra3 prima de senar4. Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken by over two million people mostly in the Veneto region of Italy.
Translation	She always closes the window before dining.

As an alternative to lei (originally the accusative form), Italian has the pronoun ella, a cognate of the other words for "she", but it has become disused in most dialects.

Note that some of the lexical divergence above comes from different Romance languages using the same root word with different meanings (semantic change). In diachronic (or historical linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. Portuguese, for example, has the word fresta, which is a cognate of French fenêtre, Italian finestra, Romanian fereastra and so on, but now means "slit" as opposed to "window. " Likewise, Portuguese also has the word cear, a cognate of Italian cenare and Spanish cenar, but uses it in the sense of "to have a late supper" in most dialects, while the preferred word for "to dine" is actually jantar (related to archaic Spanish yantar) because of semantic changes in the 19th century. Galician has both fiestra (from medieval fẽestra which is the ultimate origin of standard Portuguese fresta), and the less frequently used ventá and xanela.

Etymology

• ¹ Latin 'claudire'
• ² Latin 'semper'
• ³ Latin 'fenestra'
• ⁴ Latin 'cenare'
• ⁵ Late Latin 'manducare' (chew)

History

Vulgar Latin

Main article: Vulgar Latin

There is a lack of documentary evidence about Vulgar Latin for the purposes of comprehensive research, and the literature is often hard to interpret or generalise upon. Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin Many of its speakers were soldiers, slaves, displaced peoples and forced resettlers, more likely to be natives of conquered lands than natives of Rome. It is believed that Vulgar Latin already had most of the features that are shared by all Romance languages, which distinguish them from Classical Latin, such as the almost complete loss of the Latin case system and its replacement by prepositions; the loss of the neuter gender, comparative inflections, and many verbal tenses; the use of articles; and the initial stages of the palatalization of the plosives c, g, and t. In Grammar, the case of a Noun or Pronoun indicates its Grammatical function in a greater Phrase or Clause; such as the In Grammar, a preposition is a Part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase. Latin is an inflected language and as such its nouns pronouns and adjectives must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function Palatalization or palatalisation (ˌpælətəlɨˈzeɪʃən generally refers to two phenomena As a process or the result of a process There are some modern languages, such as Finnish, which have similar, quite sharp, differences between their printed and spoken form. Finnish ( or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% As of 2006) and by ethnic Finns outside This perhaps suggests that the form of Vulgar Latin that evolved into the Romance languages was around during the time of the empire, and was spoken alongside the written Classical Latin, reserved for official and formal occasions.

Fall of the Roman Empire

During the political decline of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, there were large-scale migrations into the empire, and the Latin-speaking world was fragmented into several independent states. The Decline of the Roman Empire, leading to the Fall of the Roman Empire, or the Fall of Rome, was the end of the Western Roman Empire. The Migration Period, also called Barbarian Invasions, or sometimes Völkerwanderung ( German for "wandering of peoples" is the English name Central Europe and the Balkans were occupied by the Germanic and Slavic tribes, as well as by the Huns, which isolated the Vlachs from the rest of Latin Europe. The Huns were an early confederation of Central Asian equestrian nomads or semi-nomads with a Turkic core of aristocracy Vlachs is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe Latin disappeared completely from southeastern Britain and the Roman province of Africa, where it had been spoken by much of the urban population. Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410 The Roman province of Africa was established after the Romans defeated Carthage in the Third Punic War. But the Germanic tribes that had penetrated Italy, Gaul, and Hispania eventually adopted Latin and the remnants of Roman culture, and so Latin remained the dominant language there. Italia, under the Roman Republic and later Empire, was the name of the Italian peninsula. Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Hispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal, Spain, Andorra, Gibraltar Endless such activities were also conducted in other cities under ancient Rome

Latent incubation

Between the fifth and tenth centuries, the dialects of spoken Vulgar Latin diverged in various parts of their domain, eventually becoming distinct languages. This evolution is poorly documented because the literary language, Medieval Latin, remained close to the older Classical Latin. A literary language is a register of a Language that is used in Literary Writing. Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the Liturgical language of the medieval

Recognition of the vernaculars

Between the 10th and 13th centuries, some local vernaculars developed a written form and began to supplant Latin in many of its roles. Vernacular refers to the Native language of a country or a locality In some countries, such as Portugal, this transition was expedited by force of law; whereas in others, such as Italy, many prominent poets and writers used the vernacular of their own accord. Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest

Uniformization and standardization

The invention of the press apparently slowed down the evolution of Romance languages from the 16th century on, and brought a tendency towards greater uniformity of standard languages within political boundaries, at the expense of other Romance languages and dialects less favored politically. A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium (such as paper or cloth thereby transferring an image A standard language (also standard dialect, standardized dialect, or standardised dialect) is a particular variety of a Language that A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of In France, for instance, the dialect spoken in the region of Paris gradually spread to the entire country, and the Occitan of the south lost ground. Occitan ( IPA BrE: /ˈɒksɪtn/ AmE: /ˈɑksəˌtɑn/ known also as Lenga d'òc or Langue d'oc (native name occitan

Current status

The Romance language most widely spoken natively today is Spanish, followed by Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian and Catalan, all of which are official languages in at least one country. Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official An official language is a Language that is given a special legal status in a particular Country, State, or other territory A few other languages have official status on a regional or otherwise limited level, for instance Friulian, Sardinian and Valdôtain in Italy; Romansh in Switzerland; and Galician in Spain. Friulian ( or affectionately marilenghe in Friulian friulano in Italian) (also Eastern Ladin) is a Romance language belonging Sardinian ( Sardu, Saldu) is after Italian the main language spoken in the island of Sardinia, Italy, remarkable for being the most conservative Franco-Provençal ( Francoprovençal) or Arpitan ( Vernacular: frp francoprovençâl arpitan patouès; francoprovenzale arpitano dialetto Romansh (also spelled Romansch, Rumants(ch or Romanche) is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Romanian are also official languages of the European Union. The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, and Catalan are the official languages of the Latin Union; and French and Spanish are two of the six official languages of the United Nations. The Latin Union is an International organization of nations that use a Romance language. The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security

Outside Europe, French, Spanish and Portuguese are spoken and enjoy official status in various countries that emerged from their respective colonial empires. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. See Colony and Colonization for examples of colonialism which do not refer to Western colonialism French is an official language of Canada, Haiti, many countries in Africa, and some in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, as well as France's current overseas possessions. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Haiti ( English: ˈheɪ·tiː or haɪ·ˈjiː·tiː French Haïti a·i·ti Haitian Creole: The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's Oceanic divisions covering about 20% of the water on the Earth 's surface The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions Spanish is an official language of Mexico, much of South America, Central America and the Caribbean, and of Equatorial Guinea in Africa. The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting The Republic of Equatorial Guinea ( República de Guinea Ecuatorial,) is a country in Central Africa. Portuguese is the official language of Brazil, being the most spoken language in South America, and official in six African countries. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld Although Italy also had some colonial possessions, its language did not remain official after the end of the colonial domination, resulting in Italian being spoken only as a minority or secondary language by immigrant communities in North and South America and Australia or African countries like Libya, Eritrea and Somalia. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Libya ( ليبيا ar-Latn Lībiyā; Libyan vernacular: Lībya; Amazigh:) officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Eritrea () ( Ge'ez: ኤርትራ ʾErtrā, Arabic: إرتريا Iritriya) officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in Somalia ( Soomaaliya; الصومال) officially the Somali Republic ( Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, جمهورية الصومال) and formerly known Romania did not establish a colonial empire, but the language spread outside of Europe through emigration, notably in Western Asia; Romanian has flourished in Israel, where it is spoken by some 5% of the total population as mother tongue,^[2] and by many more as a secondary language, considering the large population of Romanian-born Jews who moved to Israel after World War II. Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including ^[3]

The total native speakers of Romance languages are divided as follows (with their ranking within the languages of the world in brackets):^[4]

• Spanish 47% (2nd)
• Portuguese 26% (7th)
• French 11% (11th)
• Italian 9% (18th)
• Romanian 4% (34th)
• Catalan 1% (93rd)
• Others 2%

The remaining Romance languages survive mostly as spoken languages for informal contact. Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official National governments have historically viewed linguistic diversity as an economic, administrative or military liability, as well a potential source of separatist movements; therefore, they have generally fought to eliminate it, by extensively promoting the use of the official language, restricting the use of the "other" languages in the media, characterizing them as mere "dialects", or even persecuting them. Separatism refers to the advocacy of a state of cultural ethnic tribal religious racial or gender separation from the larger group often with demands for greater political autonomy

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, however, increased sensitivity to the rights of minorities have allowed some of these languages to start recovering their prestige and lost rights. Yet it is unclear whether these political changes will be enough to reverse the decline of minority Romance languages.

Classification and related languages

Main articles: Classification of Romance languages and List of Romance languages

The classification of the Romance languages is inherently difficult, since most of the linguistic area can be considered a dialect continuum, and in some cases political biases can come into play. The internal classification of the Romance languages is a complex and sometimes controversial topic which may not have a unique answer The Romance languages include 47 ( SIL estimate Languages and Dialects spoken in Europe; this language group is a part of the Italic A dialect continuum is a range of Dialects spoken across a large geographical area differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close and gradually decreasing Nevertheless, according to SIL counts, 47 Romance languages and dialects are spoken in Europe. SIL International (the official name of what was originally the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is a worldwide U Along with Latin (which is not included among the Romance languages) and a few extinct languages of ancient Italy, they make up the Italic branch of the Indo-European family. The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family's Centum branch

Note that Dalmatian is now generally grouped under Proto-Italian rather than Eastern Romance. Dalmatian is an extinct Romance language formerly spoken in the Dalmatia region of Croatia, and as far south as Kotor in Montenegro

Proposed subfamilies

The main subfamiles that have been proposed by Ethnologue within the various classification schemes for Romance languages are:

• Italo-Western, the largest group which includes languages such as Italian, Spanish, and French
• Eastern Romance, which includes the Romance languages of Eastern Europe such as Romanian
• Southern Romance, which includes a few languages with particularly archaic features such as Sardinian and Corsican

Pidgins, creoles, and mixed languages

Some languages have developed from mixtures of a Romance language with another language. Ethnologue Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics a Christian The Eastern Romance languages, sometimes known as the Vlach languages, are a group of Romance languages that developed in Southeastern Europe The Southern Romance languages are a sub-group of the family of Romance languages that includes the Sardinian, the Corsican language, with the Gallurese Sardinian ( Sardu, Saldu) is after Italian the main language spoken in the island of Sardinia, Italy, remarkable for being the most conservative Corsican ( Corsu or Lingua Corsa) is a Romance language spoken and written on the islands of Corsica ( France) and northern Sardinia It is not always clear whether they should be classified as pidgins, creole languages, or mixed languages. A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common in situations such as Trade A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable Language that originates seemingly as a nativized Pidgin. A mixed language is a Language that arises through the fusion of two source languages normally in situations of thorough Bilingualism.

Auxiliary and constructed languages

Main articles: Constructed language and International auxiliary language

Latin and the Romance languages have also served as the inspiration and basis of numerous auxiliary and constructed languages, such as Interlingua, its reformed version Modern Latin,^[5] Latino sine flexione, Occidental, Lingua Franca Nova, Ido and Esperanto, as well as languages created for artistic purposes only, such as Brithenig, Wenedyk and Talossan. A constructed or artificial language known colloquially or informally as a conlang is a Language whose Phonology, Grammar An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) or interlanguage is a Language meant for communication between people from Interlingua is an International auxiliary language (IAL developed between 1937 and 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA Latino sine flexione ( Latin without Inflections is an Auxiliary language invented by the Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano (1858 - 1932 The Language Occidental, later Interlingue, is a planned language created by the Balto-German naval officer and teacher Edgar de Wahl Lingua Franca Nova (abbreviated LFN) is an auxiliary Constructed language created by Dr Ido (ˈiːdoʊ is a Constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier is by far the most widely spoken constructed International auxiliary language in the world Brithenig is an invented language or Constructed language ("conlang" Wenedyk (in English Venedic is a Constructed language of the naturalistic kind created by the Dutch translator Jan van Steenbergen. The Talossan language ( El Glheþ Talossán/El Glheþ Talossan) is a Constructed language created by R

Linguistic features

Common Indo-European features

As members of the Indo-European family, Romance languages have a number of features that are shared with other members of this family, and in particular with English; but which set them apart from languages of other families, including:

• Almost all their words are classified into four major classes — nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs — each with a specific set of possible syntactic roles. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. In Grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a Noun or Pronoun, giving more information about the
• Nouns, adjectives, determiners and some pronouns inflect according to grammatical gender and grammatical number. A determiner is a Noun modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun phrase including quantity rather than its attributes as expressed In Linguistics and Grammar, a pronoun is a Pro-form that substitutes for a (including a noun phrase consisting of a single Noun) with or In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one"
• Inflection is normally marked with suffixes. In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word
• A variety of grammatical distinctions are expressed on verbs (either through inflection or compounding), such as:
  • Person and number;
  • Tense, mood, and aspect. In Linguistics, periphrasis is a device by which a grammatical category or relationship is expressed by a Free morpheme (typically one or more Function Grammatical person, in Linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event such as the speaker the Addressee, or others Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at during or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. In Linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a Verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof in the described event or state
  • Voice. In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified
• They are verb-centered; meaning that the basic clause structure consists of a verb, expressing an action involving one or more nouns — the arguments of the verb — that play specific semantic roles in the action and specific syntactic roles in the clause. In Grammar, a clause is a word or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in some Languages and some types of A syntactic verb argument, in Linguistics, is a Phrase that appears in a relationship with the Verb in a Clause.
• They are fusional, nominative-accusative languages. For fusion in Word formation, see Compound (linguistics. A fusional language (also called inflecting language) is a In Linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the system used to distinguish between the arguments of Transitive verbs and those of Intransitive

Features inherited from Classical Latin

The Romance languages share a number of features that were inherited from Classical Latin, and collectively set them apart from most other Indo-European languages:

• Word stress remains predominantly on the penultimate syllable in most languages, although there have been significant changes with respect to classical Latin. In Linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain Syllables in a word In Linguistics, the penult is the Penultimate Syllable of a word that is the second-to-last syllable An exception is French, whose stress is fixed, falling predictably on the last syllable that does not contain a schwa. In Linguistics, specifically Phonetics and Phonology, schwa can mean the following An unstressed and toneless neutral Stress patterns of similar languages usually match each other perfectly. French is the noticeable exception, as stress almost always falls on the last syllable.
• They have two grammatical numbers, singular and plural (no dual). Dual is a Grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and Plural.
• In most languages, personal pronouns have different forms according to their grammatical function in a sentence, a remnant of the Latin case system; there is usually a form for the subject (inherited from the Latin nominative) another for the object (from the accusative or the dative), and a third set of personal pronouns used after prepositions or in stressed positions (see Prepositional pronoun and Disjunctive pronoun, for further information). Personal pronouns are Pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common Nouns. In Linguistics, a subjective pronoun is a Personal pronoun that is used as the subject of a sentence An objective pronoun in Grammar functions as the target of a Verb, as distinguished from a Subjective pronoun, which is the initiator of a verb A prepositional pronoun is a special form of a Personal pronoun that is used as the object of a preposition. A disjunctive pronoun is a stressed form of a Personal pronoun reserved for use in isolation or in certain syntactic contexts Third person pronouns often have different forms for the direct object (accusative), the indirect object (dative), and the reflexive.
• Most are null-subject languages. In Linguistic typology, a null subject language is a Language whose Grammar permits an Independent clause to lack an explicit subject French is a notable exception.
• Verbs have many conjugations, including in most languages:
  • A present tense, a preterite, an imperfect, a pluperfect and a future tense in the indicative mood, for statements of fact. In Linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a Verb, Noun or Adjective from its Principal parts by Inflection Present Tense is the first Sagittarius album released in 1968 by Columbia Records. This article is about the grammatical term To see the article relating to Eschatology and the Book of Revelation, see Preterism. The imperfect tense, in the classical grammar of several Indo-European languages, denotes a Past tense with an Imperfective aspect. The pluperfect tense (from Latin plus quam perfectum more than perfect also called past perfect in English, is a Perfective In Grammar, the future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet but expected to happen in the future (in an Absolute tense
  • Present and preterite subjunctive tenses, for hypothetical or uncertain conditions. In Grammar, the subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a Verb mood that exists in many languages Several languages (for example, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish) have also imperfect and pluperfect subjunctives.
  • An imperative mood, for direct commands.
  • Three non-finite forms: infinitive, gerund, and past participle. In Linguistics, a non-finite verb (or a verbal) is a Verb form that is not limited by a subject and more generally is not fully inflected by
  • Distinct active and passive voices, as well as an impersonal passive voice. The impersonal passive voice is a Verb voice that decreases the valency of an Intransitive verb (which has valency one to zero
• Several tenses, especially of the indicative mood, have been preserved with little change in most languages, as shown in the following table for the Latin verb dīcere (to say), and its descendants.

	Infinitive	Indicative			Subjunctive	Imperative
		Present	Preterite	Imperfect	Present	Present
Latin	dīcere	dīcit	dīxit	dicēbat	dīcat/dīcet	dīc
Aragonese	dizir	diz	dizié	deziba	diga	diz
Catalan	dir	diu	digué	deia	digui	digues
French	dire	il dit	il dit	il disait	il dise	dis
Galician	dicir	di	dixo	dicía	diga	di
Italian	dire	dice	disse	diceva	dica	dì
Milanese	dì	el dis	l'ha dit	el diseva	el diga	dì
Neapolitan	dicere	dice	dicette	diceva
Occitan	dire1	ditz	diguèt	disiá	diga	diga
Piedmontese	dì	a dis	a dìsser2	a disìa	a disa	dis
Portuguese	dizer	diz	disse	dizia	diga	diz3
Romanian	a zice	zice	zise	zicea	zică	zi
Sicilian	diri	dici	dissi	dicìa	dici	dica
Spanish	decir	dice	dijo	decía	diga	di
Venetian	dir	dixe	dise	dixea	diga	dì
Basic meaning	to say	he says	he has said	he used to say	[that] he may say	say! [you]

¹With the variant díser.

²Until the 18th century.

³With the disused variant dize.

• The main tense and mood distinctions that were made in classical Latin are generally still present in the modern Romance languages, though many are now expressed through compound rather than simple verbs. In Linguistics, periphrasis is a device by which a grammatical category or relationship is expressed by a Free morpheme (typically one or more Function The passive voice, which was mostly synthetic in classical Latin, has been completely replaced with compound forms.

Features inherited from Vulgar Latin

Main article: Vulgar Latin

Romance languages also have a number of features that are not shared with Classical Latin. Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin Most of these are thought to have been inherited from Vulgar Latin. Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin Even though the Romance languages are all derived from Latin, they are arguably much closer to each other than to their common ancestor, owing to a core of common developments. The main difference is the loss of the case system of Classical Latin, an essential feature which allowed great freedom of word order, and has no counterpart in any Romance language except Romanian. In this regard, the distance between any modern Romance language and Latin is comparable to that between Modern English and Old English. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States While speakers of French, Italian or Spanish, for example, can quickly learn to see through the phonological changes reflected in spelling differences, and thus recognize many Latin words, they will often fail to understand the meaning of Latin sentences.

• Vulgar Latin borrowed many words, often from Germanic languages that replaced words from Classical Latin during the Migration Period, including some basic vocabulary. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. The Migration Period, also called Barbarian Invasions, or sometimes Völkerwanderung ( German for "wandering of peoples" is the English name Notable examples are *blancus (white), which replaced Classical Latin albus in most major languages; *guerra (war), which replaced bellum; and the words for the cardinal directions, where cognates of English "north", "south", "east" and "west" replaced the Classical Latin words borealis (or septentrionalis), australis (or meridionalis), orientalis, and occidentalis, respectively, in the vernacular. Cognates in Linguistics are words that have a common origin They may occur within a language such as shirt and skirt as two English words descended from Vernacular refers to the Native language of a country or a locality (See History of French - The Franks. French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended from Latin) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance Dialects spoken in Northern )
• There are definite and indefinite articles, derived from Latin demonstratives and the numeral unus (one). Demonstratives are deictic words (they depend on an external frame of reference that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others
• Nouns have only two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine. In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong Most Latin neuter nouns became masculine nouns in Romance. However, in Romanian, one class of nouns—including the descendants of many Latin neuter nouns—behave like masculines in the singular and feminines in the plural (e. Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance g. un deget "one finger" vs două degete "two fingers", cf. Latin digitum, pl. digita). The same phenomenon is observed non-productively in Italian (e. g. il dito "the finger" vs le dita "the fingers").
• Apart from gender and number, nouns, adjectives and determiners are not inflected. Cases have generally been lost, though a trace of them survives in the personal pronouns. In Grammar, the case of a Noun or Pronoun indicates its Grammatical function in a greater Phrase or Clause; such as the Personal pronouns are Pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common Nouns. An exception is Romanian, which retains a combined genitive-dative case. Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another
• Adjectives generally follow the noun they modify.
• Many Latin combining prefixes were incorporated in the lexicon as new roots and verb stems, e. g. Italian estrarre (to extract) from Latin ex- (out of) and trahere (to drag).
• Many Latin constructions involving nominalized verbal forms (e. g. the use of accusative plus infinitive in indirect discourse and the use of the ablative absolute) were dropped in favor of constructions with subordinate clause. Free indirect speech (also free indirect discourse, free indirect style, or discours indirect libre in French) is a style of The grammar of Latin, like that of other ancient Indo-European languages, is highly inflected, which allows for a large degree of flexibility when choosing word order Exceptions can be found in Italian, for example, Latin tempore permittente > Italian tempo permettendo; L. hoc facto > I. fatto ciò.
• The normal clause structure is SVO, rather than SOV, and is much less flexible than in Latin. In Linguistic typology, subject-verb-object ( SVO) is a sentence structure where the subject comes first the Verb second and the object In Linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and Verb of a sentence appear or usually
• Owing to sound changes which made it homophonous with the preterite, the Latin future indicative tense was dropped, and replaced with a periphrasis of the form infinitive + present tense of habēre (to have). In linguistics a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same pronunciation but have different meanings and are usually spelled differently In Grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages Eventually, this structure was reanalysed as a new future tense. In Historical linguistics, grammaticalisation (also known as grammaticisation or grammatisation) is a process of linguistic change by which a Content In Grammar, the future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet but expected to happen in the future (in an Absolute tense
• In a similar process, an entirely new conditional form was created. The conditional mood is the form of the verb used in Conditional sentences to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs or an uncertain event that is contingent on another set
• While the synthetic passive voice of classical Latin was abandoned in favour of periphrastic constructions, most of the active voice remained in use. In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified In Linguistics, periphrasis is a device by which a grammatical category or relationship is expressed by a Free morpheme (typically one or more Function However, several tenses have changed meaning, especially subjunctives. For example:
  • The Latin pluperfect indicative became a conditional in Catalan and Sicilian, and an imperfect subjunctive in Spanish. The conditional mood is the form of the verb used in Conditional sentences to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs or an uncertain event that is contingent on another set In Grammar, the subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a Verb mood that exists in many languages
  • The Latin pluperfect subjunctive developed into an imperfect subjunctive in all languages except Romansh, where it became a conditional, and Romanian, where it became a pluperfect indicative. Romansh or Romansch may refer to Romansh language Romansh people The pluperfect tense (from Latin plus quam perfectum more than perfect also called past perfect in English, is a Perfective
  • The Latin preterite subjunctive, together with the future perfect indicative, became a future subjunctive in Old Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician.
  • The Latin imperfect subjunctive became a personal infinitive in Portuguese and Galician. In Grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages
• Many Romance languages have two verbs "to be", derived from the Latin stare (mostly used for temporary states) and esse (mostly used for essential attributes). In French, however, stare and esse had become ester and estre by the late Middle Ages. Owing to phonetic developments, there were the forms êter and être, which eventually merged to être, and the distinction was lost. In Italian, the two verbs share the same past participle, stato. See Romance copula, for further information. The Copula or copulae (the verb or verbs meaning "to be" in all Romance languages derive mostly from the Latin verbs SVM and

For a more detailed illustration of how the verbs have changed with respect to classical Latin, see Romance verbs. Romance verbs refers to the Verbs of the Romance languages. In the transition from Latin to the Romance languages verbs went through many phonetic

Sound changes

The vocabularies of Romance languages have undergone considerable change since their birth, by various phonological processes that were characteristic of each language. Those changes applied more or less systematically to all words, but were often conditioned by the sound context, morphological structure, or regularizing tendencies.

Most languages have lost sounds from the original Latin words. French, in particular, elision progressed more than in any other of the languages (although its conservative etymological spelling does not always make this apparent). Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a Vowel, a Consonant, or a whole Syllable) in a word or phrase producing a result that is easier Etymology is the study of the History of Words &mdash when they entered a language from what source and how their form and meaning have changed over time In general, all final vowels were dropped, and sometimes also the preceding consonant: thus Latin lupus and luna became Italian lupo and luna but French loup [lu] and lune [lyn]. (See also Use of the circumflex in French. The Circumflex (^ is one of the five Diacritics used in the French language. ) Catalan, Occitan, many Northern Italian dialects, and Romanian (Daco-Romanian) lost the final vowels in most masculine nouns and adjectives, but retained them in the feminine. See also Origin of Romanians Daco-Romanian continuity Other languages, including Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Galician and Romanian have retained those vowels.

Some languages have lost the final vowel -e from verbal infinitives, e. g. dīcere → Portuguese dizer (to say). Other common cases of apocope are the verbal endings, e. g. Latin amāt → Italian ama (he loves), amābam → amavo (I loved), amābat → amava (he loved), amābatis → amavate (you loved), etc.

Sounds were often lost in the middle of words, too; e. g. Latin Luna → Galician and Portuguese Lua (Moon), crēdere → Spanish creer (to believe).

On the other hand, some languages have added epenthetic vowels to words in certain contexts. In Phonology, epenthesis (/əˈpɛnθəsɪs/ Ancient Greek ἐπένθεσις - epenthesis from epi "on" + en "in" Characteristic of the Iberian Romance languages is the insertion of a prosthetic e at the start of Latin words that began with s + consonant, such as sperō → espero (I hope). Prothesis in Linguistics (from Greek pro "before" + tithenai "to put" is the prepending of Phonemes at the beginning of a French originally did the same, but later dropped the s: spatula → arch. espaule → épaule (shoulder). In the case of Italian, a special article, lo for the definite and uno for the indefinite, is used for masculine words that begin with s + consonant words (sbaglio, "mistake" → lo sbaglio, "the mistake"), as well as all masculine words beginning with z (i. e. clusters /ts/ or /dz/) zaino, "backpack" → lo zaino, "the backpack".

A characteristic feature of the writing systems of almost all Romance languages is that the Latin letters c and g — which originally always represented the "hard" consonants /k/ and /g/ respectively — now represent "soft" consonants when they come before e, i, or y. This is due to a general palatalization of /k/ and /ɡ/ that occurred in the transition to Vulgar Latin. Palatalization or palatalisation (ˌpælətəlɨˈzeɪʃən generally refers to two phenomena As a process or the result of a process Since the written form of all the affected words was tied to the classical language, the shift was accommodated by a change in the pronunciation rules. The soft sounds of c and g vary from language to language. The consonant t, which was also palatalized, changes pronunciation in French (and English) orthography, but in the other Romance languages the spelling was altered to match the new sound. An exception is Sardinian, whose plosives remained hard before e and i in many words. Sardinian ( Sardu, Saldu) is after Italian the main language spoken in the island of Sardinia, Italy, remarkable for being the most conservative

The distinctions of vowel length present in Classical Latin were lost in most Romance languages (an exception is Friulian), and partly replaced with qualitative contrasts such as monophthong versus diphthong (Italian, Spanish; French to a lesser extent), or close vowel versus open vowel (as in Portuguese, Galician, Occitan and Catalan). In Linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a Vowel sound Friulian ( or affectionately marilenghe in Friulian friulano in Italian) (also Eastern Ladin) is a Romance language belonging A monophthong ( Greek μονόφθογγος "monophthongos" = single note) is a "pure" Vowel sound one whose articulation at In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as

For most languages in this family, consonant length is no longer phonemically distinctive or present. In Phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken Consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short Consonant. However some languages of Italy (Italian, Sardinian and Sicilian) do have long consonants like /bb/, /kk/, /dd/, etc. The official language of Italy is Standard Italian, a descendant of the Tuscan dialect and a direct descendant of Latin (some 75% of Italian words are of Latin origin Sardinian ( Sardu, Saldu) is after Italian the main language spoken in the island of Sardinia, Italy, remarkable for being the most conservative , where the doubling indicates a short hold before the consonant is released, in many cases with distinctive lexical value: e. g. note /ˈnɔ. te/ (notes) vs. notte /ˈnɔt. te/ (night), cade /ˈka. de/ (s/he, it falls) vs. cadde /ˈkad. de/ (s/he, it fell). They may even occur at the beginning of words in Romanesco, Neapolitan and Sicilian, and are occasionally indicated in writing, e. Romanesco is a Romance language spoken in Rome, Italy. It is one of the Central Italian dialects, and considered close to Tuscan g. Sicilian cchiù (more), and ccà (here). In general, the consonants /b/, /ts/, and /dz/ are long at the start of a word, while the archiphoneme |R| is realised as a trill /r/ in the same position. The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation.

The double consonants of Piedmontese exist only after stressed /ə/, written ë, and are not etymological: vëdde (Latin videre, to see), sëcca (Latin sicca, dry, feminine of sech). In standard Catalan and Occitan, there exists a geminate sound /lː/ written ŀl (Catalan) or ll (Occitan), but it is usually pronounced as a simple sound in colloquial (and even some formal) speech in both languages.

For more detailed descriptions of sound changes, see the articles Vulgar Latin, History of French, History of Portuguese, Latin to Romanian sound changes, and Linguistic history of Spanish. Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended from Latin) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance Dialects spoken in Northern The Portuguese language developed in the Western Iberian Peninsula from Latin brought there by Roman soldiers and colonists starting in the 3rd century This article presents the Sound changes that happened from Latin to Romanian. The Spanish language developed from Vulgar Latin, with loan-words from Basque in the north and Arabic in the southern part of the Iberian

Lexical stress

While word stress was rigorously predictable in classical Latin, this is no longer the case in most Romance languages, and stress differences can be enough to distinguish between words. In Linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain Syllables in a word For example, Italian Papa [ˈpa. pa] (Pope) and papà [pa. ˈpa] (daddy), or the Spanish imperfect subjunctive cantara ([if he] sang) and future cantará ([he] will sing). However, the main function of Romance stress appears to be a clue for speech segmentation — namely to help the listener identify the word boundaries in normal speech, where inter-word spaces are usually absent. Speech segmentation is the process of identifying the boundaries between Words Syllables or Phonemes in spoken Natural languages.

The position of the stressed syllable in a word generally varies from word to word in each Romance language. A syllable ( Greek:) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds Stress usually remains fixed on its assigned syllable within any language, however, even as the word is inflected. It is usually restricted to one of the last three syllables in the word, although Italian verb forms can violate this (e. g. teléfonano 'they telephone'). The limit may be exceeded also by verbs with attached clitics, provided the clitics are counted as part of the word; e. In Linguistics, a clitic is a grammatically independent and phonologically dependent Word. g. Spanish entregándomelo [en. tre. ˈɣan. do. me. lo] (delivering it to me), Italian mettiamocene [me. ˈtːjaː. mo. ʧe. ne] (let's put some of it in there), or Portuguese dávamo-vo-lo [ˈda. vɐ. mu. vu. lu] (we were giving it to you).

Other shared features

The Romance languages also share a number of features that were not the result of common inheritance, but rather of various cultural diffusion processes in the Middle Ages — such as literary diffusion, commercial and military interactions, political domination, influence of the Catholic Church, and (especially in later times) conscious attempts to "purify" them in accordance with Classical Latin. Linguistic purism (or linguistic protectionism) is the definition of one language variety as purer than other varieties often in reference to a perceived decline Some of those features have in fact spread to other non-Romance (and even non-Indo-European) languages, chiefly in Europe. Some of these "late origin" shared features are:

• Most Romance languages have polite forms of address that change the person and/or number of 2nd person subjects (T-V distinction), such as the tu/vous contrast in French, the tu/Ella (or more often Lei) contrast in Italian, the tu/dumneavoastră (from dominus + vostre, literally meaning "your Lordship") in Romanian or the tú (or vos) /usted contrast in Spanish. In Sociolinguistics, a T-V distinction describes the situation wherein a Language has second-person Pronouns that distinguish varying levels of Italian also had another form (Voi) denoting more respect than a tu, but of a lesser degree than Ella; the use of Voi has been discontinued because it was strongly supported by fascists. Fascism is a totalitarian nationalist and corporatist ideology
• They all have a large collection of learned hellenisms and latinisms, with prefixes, stems, and suffixes retained or reintroduced from Greek and Latin, and used to coin new words. Hellenism, as a neoclassical movement distinct from other Roman or Greco-Roman forms of Neoclassicism emerging after the European Renaissance, is most often associated A Latinism (also called Latinity) is an Idiom, structure or word derived from or suggestive of the Latin language Most of these are also used in English, e. g. tele-, poly-, meta-, pseudo-, dis-, ex-, post-, -scope, -logy, -tion, though their spelling may differ slightly; for example, poly- becomes poli- in Romanian, Italian and Spanish.
• During the Renaissance, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and a few other Romance languages developed a progressive aspect which did not exist in Latin. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere The continuous and progressive aspects are Grammatical aspects that express incomplete action in progress at a specific time they are non-habitual imperfective In French, progressive constructions remain very limited, the imperfect aspect generally being preferred, as in Latin. The imperfective aspect is a Grammatical aspect. It refers to an action that is viewed from a particular viewpoint as ongoing habitual repeated or generally containing internal
• Many Romance languages now have a verbal construction analogous to the present perfect tense of English. The present perfect tense is a Perfect tense used to express action that has been completed with respect to the present In some, it has taken the place of the old preterite (at least in the vernacular); in others, the two coexist with somewhat different meanings (cf. This article is about the grammatical term To see the article relating to Eschatology and the Book of Revelation, see Preterism. English I did vs. I have done). A few examples:
  • preterite only: Galician, Sicilian, some dialects of Spanish;
  • preterite and present perfect: Occitan, Portuguese, standard Spanish;
  • present perfect predominant, preterite now literary: French, several dialects of Italian and Spanish.

Writing systems

Main article: Latin Alphabet

The Romance languages have kept the writing system of Latin, adapting it to their evolution. One exception was Romanian before the 19th century, where, after the Roman retreat, literacy was reintroduced through the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet by Slavic influences. The Romanian Cyrillic alphabet was used to write Romanian language before 1860–1862 when it was officially replaced by a Latin-based alphabet, although Also the non-Christian populations of Spain used the systems of their culture languages (Arabic and Hebrew) to write Romance languages such as Ladino and Mozarabic in aljamiado. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. The Hebrew alphabet (אָלֶף-בֵּית עִבְרִי alephbet ’ivri) consists of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. Mozarabic was a continuum of closely related Romance dialects spoken in Muslim dominated areas of the Iberian Peninsula during the early stages of the Aljamiado texts are manuscripts which utilize the Arabic alphabet for transcribing Romance languages such as Mozarabic or Ladino.

Letters

The Romance languages are written with the classical Latin alphabet of 22 letters — A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, V, X, Y, Z — subsequently modified and augmented in various ways. Variants of the Latin alphabet are used by the Writing systems of many languages throughout the world In particular, the letters K and W are seldom used in most Romance languages, only for unassimilated foreign names and words.

While most of the 22 basic Latin letters have maintained their phonetic value, for some of them it has diverged considerably; and the new letters added since the Middle Ages have been put to different uses in different scripts. Some letters, notably H and Q, have been variously combined in digraphs or trigraphs (see below) to represent phonetic phenomena not recorded in Latin, or to get around previously established spelling conventions. A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond A trigraph (from the Greek words treis = three and graphein = write is a group of three letters used to represent a single sound or a combination of sounds

The spelling rules of most Romance languages are fairly simple, but subject to considerable regional variation. To a first approximation, the phonetic values of the letters can be summarized as follows:

C: Generally a "hard" [k], but "soft" (fricative or affricate) before e, i, or y. Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together Affricate Consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or) but release as a fricative (such as or or occasionally into

G: Generally a "hard" [ɡ], but "soft" (fricative or affricate) before e, i, or y. In some languages, like Spanish, the hard g is pronounced as a fricative [ɣ] after vowels. In Romansch, the soft g is a voiced palatal plosive [ɟ]. The voiced palatal plosive is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that

H: Silent in most languages; used to form various digraphs. In an alphabetic writing system, a silent letter is a letter that in a particular word does not correspond to any sound in the word's Pronunciation. A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond But represents [h] in Romanian and Gascon Occitan.

J: Represents a fricative in most languages, or the palatal approximant [j] in Romansh and in several of the languages of Italy. The palatal approximant is a type of Consonantal sound used in many spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents Italian does not use this letter in native words. Usually pronounced like the soft g (except in Romansch and the languages of Italy).

Q: As in Latin, its phonetic value is that of a hard c, and in native words it is always followed by a (sometimes silent) u. Romanian does not use this letter in native words.

S: Generally voiceless [s], but voiced [z] between vowels in most languages. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless In Spanish, Romanian, Galician and several varieties of Italian, however, it is always pronounced voiceless. At the end of syllables, it may represent special allophonic pronunciations. In Phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar speech sounds ( Phones that belong to the same Phoneme.

W: No Romance language uses this letter in native words, with the exception of Walloon. Walloon ( Walon) is a Romance language spoken as a second language by some in Wallonia, Belgium.

X: Its pronunciation is rather variable, both between and within languages. In the Middle Ages, the languages of Iberia used this letter to denote the voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ], which is still the case in Modern Catalan. Iberian languages is a generic term for the languages currently or formerly spoken in the Iberian peninsula. The voiceless palato-alveolar fricative or domed postalveolar fricative ( IPA) is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages With the Renaissance the classical pronunciation [ks] — or similar consonant clusters, such as [ɡz], [ɡs], or [kθ] — were frequently reintroduced in latinisms and hellenisms. In Linguistics, a consonant cluster (or consonant blend) is a group of Consonants which have no intervening Vowel. A Latinism (also called Latinity) is an Idiom, structure or word derived from or suggestive of the Latin language In Venetian it represents [z], and in Ligurian the voiced postalveolar fricative [ʒ]. Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken by over two million people mostly in the Veneto region of Italy. Ligurian is also the name of an extinct language of Italy Ligurian is a Gallo-Romance language currently spoken in Liguria The voiced palato-alveolar fricative or domed postalveolar fricative is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol Italian does not use this letter in native words.

Y: This letter is not used in most languages, with the prominent exceptions of French and Spanish, where it represents [j] before vowels (or various similar fricatives such as the palatal fricative [ʝ], in Spanish), and the vowel or semivowel [i] elsewhere. The voiced palatal fricative is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet Semivowels — also known as glides or non-syllabic vowels —are Vowels that form Diphthongs with full syllabic vowels

Z: In most languages it represents the sound [z], but in Italian it denotes the affricates [ʣ] and [ʦ] (which, although not normally in contrast, are usually strictly assigned lexically in any single variety: Standard Italian gazza 'magpie' always with [ddz], mazza 'club, mace' only with [tts]), and in Galician and Spanish it denotes either the voiceless dental fricative [θ] or [s]. The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic

Otherwise, letters that are not combined as digraphs generally have the same sounds as in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), whose design was, in fact, greatly influenced by the Romance spelling systems. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic

Digraphs and trigraphs

Since most Romance languages have more sounds than can be accommodated in the Roman Latin alphabet they all resort to the use of digraphs and trigraphs — combinations of two or three letters with a single sound value. The concept (but not the actual combinations) derives from Classical Latin; which used, for example, TH, PH, and CH when transliterating the Greek letters "θ", "ϕ" (later "φ"), and "χ" (These were once aspirated sounds in Greek before changing to corresponding fricatives and the <H> represented what sounded to the Romans like an /ʰ/ following /t/, /p/, and /k/ respectively. Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed Some of the digraphs used in modern scripts are:

CI: used in Italian, Romance languages in Italy and Romanian to represent /ʧ/ before A, O, or U.

CH: used in Italian, Romance languages in Italy, Romanian, Romansh and Sardinian to represent /k/ before E or I; /ʧ/ in Occitan, Spanish and Galician; [c] in Romansh before A, O or U; and /ʃ/ in most other languages. Sardinian ( Sardu, Saldu) is after Italian the main language spoken in the island of Sardinia, Italy, remarkable for being the most conservative Occitan ( IPA BrE: /ˈɒksɪtn/ AmE: /ˈɑksəˌtɑn/ known also as Lenga d'òc or Langue d'oc (native name occitan

DD: used in Sicilian and Sardinian to represent the voiced retroflex plosive /ɖ/. Sicilian (scn '''''lu sicilianu''''' lingua siciliana, also known as Siculu or Calabro-Sicilian) is a Romance language. Sardinian ( Sardu, Saldu) is after Italian the main language spoken in the island of Sardinia, Italy, remarkable for being the most conservative The voiced retroflex plosive is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that In recent history more accurately transcribed as DDH.

DJ: used in Catalan and Walloon for /ʤ/.

GI: used in Italian, Romance languages in Italy and Romanian to represent /ʤ/ before A, O, or U.

GH: used in Italian, Romance languages in Italy, Romanian, Romansh and Sardinian to represent /ɡ/ before E or I, and in Galician for the voiceless pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ (not standard sound). Sardinian ( Sardu, Saldu) is after Italian the main language spoken in the island of Sardinia, Italy, remarkable for being the most conservative The voiceless pharyngeal fricative is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet

GL: used in Romansh before consonants and at the end of words for /ʎ/.

GLI: used in Italian and Romansh for /ʎ/.

GN: used in French, Italian, Romance languages in Italy and Romansh for /ɲ/, as in champignon or gnocchi.

GU: used before E or I to represent /ɡ/ or /ɣ/ in all Romance languages except Italian, Romance languages in Italy and Romanian.

IG: used at the end of word in Catalan for /ʧ/, as in maig, safareig or enmig.

IX: used between vowels or at the end of word in Catalan for /ʃ/, as in caixa or calaix.

LH: used in Portuguese and Occitan /ʎ/.

LL: used in Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Norman and Dgèrnésiais, originally for /ʎ/ which has merged in some cases with /j/. Represents /l/ in French unless it follows I (i) when it represents /j/ (or /ʎ/ in some dialects). It's used in Occitan for a long /ll/

L·L: used in Catalan for a geminate consonant /ll/. In Phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken Consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short Consonant.

NH: used in Portuguese and Occitan for /ɲ/, used in official Galician for /ŋ/ .

N-: used in Piedmontese and Ligurian for /ŋ/ between two vowels.

NY: used in Catalan for /ɲ/.

QU: represents [kw] in Italian and Romance languages in Italy; [k] in French and Spanish; [k] (before e or i) or [kw] (normally before a or o) in Occitan, Catalan and Portuguese.

RR: used between vowels in several languages (Occitan, Catalan, Spanish. . . ) to denote a trilled /r/ or a guttural R, instead of the flap /ɾ/. In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation. In Linguistics, guttural R ( throaty R or French R) refers to pronunciation of a Rhotic consonant as a Guttural consonant In Phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of Consonantal sound which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the

SC: used before E or I in Italian and Romance languages in Italy for /ʃ/, and in French and Spanish as /s/ in words of certain etymology.

SCH: used in Romansh for [ʃ] or [ʒ].

SCI: used in Italian and Romance languages in Italy to represent /ʃ/ before A, O, or U.

SH: used in Aranese Occitan for /ʃ/.

SS: used in French, Portuguese, Piedmontese, Occitan and Catalan for /s/ between vowels.

TG: used in Romansh for [c]. In Catalan is used for /ʤ/ between vowels, as in metge or fetge.

TH: used in Jèrriais for /θ/ (as in English "thick"); used in Aranese for either /t/ or /ʧ/.

TJ: used between vowels and before A, O or U, in Catalan for /ʤ/, as in sotjar or mitjó.

TSCH: used in Romansh for [ʧ].

TX: used at the beginnig or at the end of word or between vowels in Catalan for /ʧ/, as in txec, esquitx or atxa.

While the digraphs CH, PH, RH and TH were at one time used in many words of Greek origin, most languages have now replaced them with C/QU, F, R and T. Only French has kept these etymological spellings, which now represent /k/ or /ʃ/, /f/, /ʀ/ and /t/, respectively. Etymology is the study of the History of Words &mdash when they entered a language from what source and how their form and meaning have changed over time

Double consonants

Gemination, in the languages where it occurs, is usually indicated by doubling the consonant, except when it does not contrast phonemically with the corresponding short consonant, in which case gemination is not indicated. In Phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken Consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short Consonant. In Jèrriais, long consonants are marked with an apostrophe: S'S is a long /zz/, SS'S is a long /ss/, and T'T is a long /tt/. Jèrriais is the form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, off the coast of France. The double consonants in French orthography, however, are merely etymological.

Diacritics and special characters

Romance languages use various diacritics, especially on vowels, to mark special pronunciations, or to distinguish between homophones. A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning The following are the most common.

• Palatalization: some historical palatalizations are indicated with the cedilla (ç) in French, Catalan, and Portuguese. Palatalization or palatalisation (ˌpælətəlɨˈzeɪʃən generally refers to two phenomena As a process or the result of a process Romanian uses a diacritical comma with the same purpose (ș, ț). A comma ( ,   is a Punctuation mark It has the same shape as an Apostrophe or single closing Quotation mark in many typefaces but it differs In Spanish and several other world languages influenced by it, the grapheme ñ represents a palatal nasal consonant. Ñ (lower case ñ) is a letter of the modern Roman alphabet formed by an N with a diacritical Tilde. The palatal nasal is a type of Consonant, used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this

• Diaeresis: when a vowel and another letter that would normally be combined into a digraph with a single sound are exceptionally pronounced apart, this is often indicated with a diaeresis mark on the vowel. A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond Diaeresis or trema See also Diaeresis History Historically the diaeresis mark or trema is far older than the umlaut mark In the Spanish word pingüino (penguin), the letter u is pronounced, although normally it is silent in the digraph gu when this is followed by an e or an i. In an alphabetic writing system, a silent letter is a letter that in a particular word does not correspond to any sound in the word's Pronunciation. Other Romance languages that use the diaeresis in this fashion are French, Catalan, and (Brazilian) Portuguese.

• Homophones: words that are pronounced exactly or nearly the same way, but have different meanings, can be differentiated with an acute (as in Spanish, where si means "if" while sí means "yes", "himself", "herself", "itself", or "themselves") or with a grave accent (French, in which ou means "or" and où means "where", as well as Italian and Catalan). The circumflex can also have this function in French, sometimes. Often, such words are monosyllables, the accented one being phonetically stressed, while the unaccented one is a clitic; examples are the Spanish clitics de, se, and te (a preposition and two personal pronouns), versus the stressed words dé, sé, and té (two verbs and a noun). A syllable ( Greek:) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds In Linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain Syllables in a word In Linguistics, a clitic is a grammatically independent and phonologically dependent Word.

• Stress: the stressed vowel in a polysyllabic word may be indicated with the acute, é (in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan), or the grave accent, è (Italian, Catalan). History An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels. Pitch The grave accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, where it occurred only on the last syllable of a word in cases where the The orthographies of French and Romanian do not mark stress. In Italian orthography, indicating stress with a diacritic is only required when it falls on the last syllable of a word.

• Vowel quality: the system of marking close-mid vowels with an acute, é, and open-mid vowels with a grave accent, è, is widely used (in Catalan, French, Italian, etc. A close-mid vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds The open-mid vowels make a class of Vowel sounds used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned ) Portuguese, however, uses the circumflex (ê) for the former, and the acute (é), for the latter. Pitch The circumflex accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, where it occurred (subject to certain rules on the accented syllable

• Nasality: Portuguese marks nasal vowels with a tilde (ã) when they occur before other vowels. A nasal vowel is a Vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through Nose as well as the Mouth. The tilde (~ (/ˈtɪldə/ is a Grapheme with several uses The name of the character comes from Spanish, from the Latin titulus While not frequent among the other Romance languages, this orthographic convention has been adopted by several indigenous languages of the Americas, for instance the Guarani. Indigenous languages of the Americas (or Amerindian Languages are spoken by indigenous peoples from the southern tip of South America to Alaska and Guaraní /gwaraˈni/ (local name avañe'ẽ) is an indigenous language of South America that belongs to the Tupí-Guaraní subfamily of the

Less widespread diacritics in the Romance languages are the breve (in Romanian, ă) and the ring (in Wallon and the Bolognese dialect of Emiliano-Romagnolo, å). Length The breve sign indicates a short vowel as opposed to the Macron  ¯ which indicates long vowels in academic transcription A ring Diacritic may appear above or below letters It may be combined with some letters of the extended Latin alphabets in various contexts Emiliano-Romagnolo (also known as Emilian-Romagnolo) is a Romance language mostly spoken in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The French orthography includes the etymological ligatures œ and (more rarely) æ. The circumflex frequently has an etymological value in this language, as well; see Use of the circumflex in French, for further information. The Circumflex (^ is one of the five Diacritics used in the French language.

Upper and lower case

Most languages are written with a mixture of two distinct but phonetically identical variants or "cases" of the alphabet: majuscule ("uppercase" or "capital letters"), derived from Roman stone-carved letter shapes, and minuscule ("lowercase"), derived from Carolingian writing and Medieval quill pen handwriting which were later adapted by printers in the 15th and 16th centuries. In Orthography and Typography, letter case (or just case) is the distinction between Majuscule ( capital or upper-case Capital letters or majuscules pronunciation /məˈdʒʌskyuls ˈmædʒəˌskyuls/ in the Roman alphabet A, B, C, D, Carolingian or Caroline minuscule is a script developed as a writing standard in Europe so that the Roman alphabet could be easily recognized Quill is a high level object oriented Programming language created by the Dutch software company Quintiq.

In particular, all Romance languages presently capitalize (use uppercase for the first letter of) the following words: the first word of each complete sentence, most words in names of people, places, and organizations, and most words in titles of books. In Linguistics, a sentence is a grammatical unit of one or more words bearing minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it often preceded and followed The Romance languages do not follow the German practice of capitalizing all nouns including common ones. Unlike English, the names of months (except in European Portuguese), days of the weeks, and derivatives of proper nouns are usually not capitalized: thus, in Italian one capitalizes Francia ("France") and Francesco ("Francis"), but not francese ("French") or francescano ("Franciscan"). However, each language has some exceptions to this general rule.

Vocabulary comparison

The table below provides a vocabulary comparison that illustrates a number of examples of sound shifts that have occurred between Latin and the main Romance languages, along with a selection of minority languages.

English	Latin	Catalan	French	Galician	Italian	Norman Jèrriais	Venetian	Lombard (literary Milanese)	Piedmontese (West-Piedmont)
Apple	[Mattiana] Mala; Pomum (fruit)	Poma	Pomme	Mazá	Mela	Poumme	Pomo	Pomm	Pom
Arm	Bracchium	Braç	Bras	Brazo	Braccio	Bras	Braso	Brasc	Brass
Arrow	Sagitta; Frankish Fleuka	Fletxa / Sageta	Flèche	Frecha / Seta	Freccia / Saetta	Èrchelle	Frecia	Frecia	Flecia
Bed	Lectus	Llit	Lit	Leito / Cama	Letto	Liet	Leto / Branda	Lett	Let
Black	Niger	Negre	Noir	Negro	Nero	Nièr	Nero	Negher	Nèir
Book	Liber	Llibre	Livre / Bouquin	Libro	Libro	Livre	Libro	Liber	Lìber
Breast	Pectus	Pit	Poitrine	Peito	Petto	Estonma	Peto	Stòmi	Stòmi
Cat	Feles; V. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. The northern Norman can be classified in the septentrional Oil languages with Picard and Jèrriais is the form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, off the coast of France. Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken by over two million people mostly in the Veneto region of Italy. Lombard is a language spoken mainly in Northern Italy (most of Lombardy and some areas of neighbouring regions notably the eastern side of Piedmont Milanese ( milanes, milanées, meneghin, meneghìn) is the central variety of Western Lombard language spoken in the Piedmont ( Piemonte; Piedmontese and Occitan: Piemont; French: Piémont) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. Old Frankish was the language of the Franks and it is classified as a West Germanic language. L. Cattus[6]	Gat	Chat (kat, khat, cat)	Gato	Gatto	Cat	Gato	Gatt	Gat
Chair	Sella; Greek Kathedra	Cadira	Chaise	Cadeira	Sedia	Tchaîse	Carega	Cadrega	Cadrega / Carea
Cold (adj. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly )	Frigidus	Fred	Froid	Frío	Freddo	Fraid	Fredo	Frecc	Frèid
Cow	Vacca	Vaca	Vache	Vaca	Vacca / Mucca[7]	Vaque	Vaca	Vaca	Vaca
Day	Dies (adj. Diurnus)	Dia / Jorn	Jour	Día	Giorno / Dì	Jour	Di	Dì	Di
Dead	Mortuus	Mort	Mort	Morto	Morto	Mort	Morto	Mort	Mòrt
Die	Mori	Morir	Mourir	Morrer	Morire	Mouothi	Morir	Morì	Meuire/Murì
Family	Familia	Família	Famille	Familia	Famiglia	Famil'ye	Faméia	Familia	Famija
Finger	Digitus	Dit	Doigt	Dedo	Dito	Dé	Déo / Dièl	Did	Dil
Flower	Flos	Flor	Fleur	Flor	Fiore	Flieur	Fior	Fiôr	Fior
Give	Dare / Donare[8]	Donar	Donner	Dar	Dare	Donner / Bailli	Dar	Dà	Dé
Go	Ire; Ambulare (to walk); V. L. Ambitare	Anar	Aller	Ir	Andare	Aller	Andar / Ndar	Andà	Andé
Gold	Aurum	Or	Or	Ouro	Oro	Or	Oro	Or	Òr
Hand	Manus	Mà	Main	Man	Mano	Main	Man	Man	Man
High	Altus	Alt	Haut	Alto	Alto	Haut	Alto	Alt	Àut
House	Domus; Casa (hut)	Casa	Maison[9]	Casa	Casa	Maîson[9]	Caxa / Cà	Cà	Ca
I	Ego	Jo	Je	Eu	Io		Mi	Mi	Mi / I
Ink	Atramentum; Tincta (dye)	Tinta	Encre	Tinta	Inchiostro	Encre	Inchiostro	Inciòster	Anciòst
January	Januarius	Gener	Janvier	Xaneiro	Gennaio	Janvyi	Genàr	Genar	Gené
Juice	Sucus	Suc	Jus	Zume	Succo	Jus	Suco	Sugh	Gius / Bagna
Key	Clavis	Clau	Clé	Chave	Chiave	Clié	Ciave	Ciav	Ciav
Language	Lingua	Llengua	Langue	Lingua	Lingua	Langue	Lengua	Lengua	Lenga
Man	Homo	Home	Homme	Home	Uomo	Houmme	Omo	Omm	Òmo / Òm
Moon	Luna	Lluna	Lune	Lúa	Luna	Leune	Luna	Luna	Lun-a
English	Latin	Catalan	French	Galician	Italian	Norman Jèrriais	Venetian	Lombard (literary Milanese)	Piedmontese (West-Piedmont)
Night	Nox	Nit	Nuit	Noite	Notte	Niet	Note	Nott	Neuit
Old	Vetus	Vell	Vieux[10]	Vello[11]	Vecchio	Vyi	Vécio	Vècc	Vej
One	Unus	Un	Un	Un	Uno	Ieune	Uno	Vun	Un
Pear	Pirum	Pera	Poire	Pera	Pera	Paithe	Péra	Per	Pruss
Play	Ludere; Jocare (to joke)	Jugar	Jouer	Xogar	Giocare	Jouer	Xugàr	Giogà	Gieughe/Giughé
Ring	Anellus	Anell	Anneau	Anel	Anello	Anné / Bague	Anel / Aneło	Anèll	Anel
River	Flumen; Rivus (small river)	Riu	Rivière / Fleuve	Río[12]	Fiume	Riviéthe	Fiume / Rio	Fiumm	Fium / Ri
Sew	Consuere	Cosir	Coudre	Coser	Cucire	Couôtre	Cuxir	Cusì	Cuse / Cusì
Snow	Nix	Neu	Neige	Neve	Neve	Né	Néve	Nev (verb:Fiocà)	Fiòca
Take	Capio; Prehendere (to seize)	Agafar / Prendre	Prendre	Prender[13]	Prendere	Prendre	Tor / Ciapàr	Ciapà / Toeu	Pijé
That	Ille; V. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. The northern Norman can be classified in the septentrional Oil languages with Picard and Jèrriais is the form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, off the coast of France. Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken by over two million people mostly in the Veneto region of Italy. Lombard is a language spoken mainly in Northern Italy (most of Lombardy and some areas of neighbouring regions notably the eastern side of Piedmont Milanese ( milanes, milanées, meneghin, meneghìn) is the central variety of Western Lombard language spoken in the Piedmont ( Piemonte; Piedmontese and Occitan: Piemont; French: Piémont) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. L. Eccu + Ille	Aquell	Quel	Aquel	Quello	Chu	Quel	Quèll	Col
The	Ille	el/la/lo els/les/los Balearic: es/sa/so ets/ses/sos[14]	le/la les	o/a os/as	il/lo/la i/gli/le	lé/la	el/la i	el/la i	ël/la ij/le
Throw	Jacere; V. Balearic is the name given collectively to the group of Catalan variants spoken in the Balearic Islands, Spain. L. Lanceare (to throw a weapon); Adtirare	Llençar / Tirar	Lancer / Tirer	Lanzar / Guindar	Lanciare	Pitchi	Tiràr	Tirà/Trà[15]	Tiré/Campé
Thursday	dies Jovis	Dijous	Jeudi	Xoves	Giovedì	Jeudi	Giòvedi	Gioedì	Giòbia
Tree	Arbor	Arbre	Arbre	Árbore	Albero	Bouais	Àlbaro	Pianta[16]/Alber	Pianta / Erbo
Two	Duo	Dos / Dues	Deux	Dous / Dúas	Due	Deux	Du / Dó	Duu	Doi / Doe
Urn	Urna	Urna	Urne	Urna	Urna	Vas	Urna	Urna
Voice	Vox	Veu	Voix	Voz	Voce	Vouaix	Voce	Vôs	Vos
Where	Ubi; Unde (where from)	On	Où	Onde / U	Dove	Ioù / Où'est	Ndó / Ndóe	Indoa	Andoa / Anté
White	Albus; Frankish Blank	Blanc	Blanc	Branco	Bianco	Blianc	Bianco	Bianch	Bianch
Who	Quis	Qui	Qui	Quen	Chi	Tchi	Chi / Ci	Chi	Chi
World	Mundus	Món	Monde	Mundo	Mondo	Monde	Mondo	Mond	Mond
Yellow	Flavus; Galbinus; Amarus (bitter)	Groc [17]	Jaune	Amarelo	Giallo	Jaune	Gialo	Giald	Giàun
English	Latin	Catalan	French	Galician	Italian	Norman Jèrriais	Venetian	Lombard (literary Milanese)	Piedmontese (West-Piedmont)

English	Latin	Occitan	Portuguese	Romanian	Romansh	Sardinian	Sicilian	Spanish
Apple	[Mattiana] Mala; Pomum (fruit)	Poma	Maçã	Măr; Poamă (fruit)	Mail	Mela	Pumu	Manzana / Poma
Arm	Bracchium	Braç	Braço	Braț	Bratsch	Bratzu	Vrazzu	Brazo
Arrow	Sagitta; Frankish Fleuka	Sageta / Flècha	Seta / Flecha	Săgeată	Frizza	Fretza	Fileccia	Flecha / Saeta
Bed	Lectus	Lièch (lièit)	Cama / Leito	Pat[18]	Letg	Lettu	Lettu	Cama / Lecho
Black	Niger	Negre	Preto[19] / Negro	Negru	Nair	Nieddu / Nigru	Nìguru / Nìuru	Negro / Prieto
Book	Liber	Libre	Livro	Carte[20]	Cudesch	Libru / Lìburu	Libbru	Libro
Breast	Pectus	Pièch (pièit)	Peito	Piept	Pèz	Pettus	Pettu	Pecho
Cat	Feles; V. Old Frankish was the language of the Franks and it is classified as a West Germanic language. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. The northern Norman can be classified in the septentrional Oil languages with Picard and Jèrriais is the form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, off the coast of France. Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken by over two million people mostly in the Veneto region of Italy. Lombard is a language spoken mainly in Northern Italy (most of Lombardy and some areas of neighbouring regions notably the eastern side of Piedmont Milanese ( milanes, milanées, meneghin, meneghìn) is the central variety of Western Lombard language spoken in the Piedmont ( Piemonte; Piedmontese and Occitan: Piemont; French: Piémont) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Occitan ( IPA BrE: /ˈɒksɪtn/ AmE: /ˈɑksəˌtɑn/ known also as Lenga d'òc or Langue d'oc (native name occitan Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance Romansh or Romansch may refer to Romansh language Romansh people Sardinian ( Sardu, Saldu) is after Italian the main language spoken in the island of Sardinia, Italy, remarkable for being the most conservative Sicilian (scn '''''lu sicilianu''''' lingua siciliana, also known as Siculu or Calabro-Sicilian) is a Romance language. Old Frankish was the language of the Franks and it is classified as a West Germanic language. L. Cattus[21]	Cat (gat, chat (kat, khat, cat))	Gato	Pisică[22]	Giat	Gattu / Battu	Gattu / Jattu	Gato
Chair	Sella; Cathedra	Cadièra (chadiera, chadèira)	Cadeira[23]	Scaun[24]	Sutga	Cadira / Cadrea	Seggia	Silla
Cold (adj. )	Frigidus	Freg (freid, hred)	Frio	Frig	Fraid	Friu	Friddu	Frío
Cow	Vacca	Vaca (vacha)	Vaca	Vacă	Vatga	Bacca	Vacca	Vaca
Day	Dies (adj. Diurnus)	Jorn / Dia	Dia	Zi	Di	Die	Jornu	Día
Dead	Mortuus	Mòrt	Morto	Mort	Mort	Mortu / Mottu	Mortu	Muerto
Die	Mori	Morir	Morrer	(a) Muri	Murir	Morrer	Muriri / Mòriri	Morir
Family	Familia	Familha	Família	Familie[25]	Famiglia	Famìlia	Famigghia	Familia
Finger	Digitus	Det	Dedo	Deget	Det	Didu	Jìditu	Dedo
Flower	Flos	Flor	Flor	Floare	Flur	Frore	(S)Ciuri / Hjuri	Flor
Give	Dare / Donare[8]	Donar / Dar	Doar[8] / Dar	(a) Da	Dar	Dare	Dari / Dunari	Donar[8] / Dar
Go	Ire; Ambulare (to walk); V. L. Ambitare	Anar	Ir / Andar[26]	(a) Umbla / (a) Merge[27]	Ir	Andare	Jiri	Ir / Andar[26]
Gold	Aurum	Aur	Ouro, Oiro	Aur	Aur	Oru	Oru	Oro
Hand	Manus	Man	Mão	Mână	Maun	Manu	Manu	Mano
High	Altus	Aut / Naut	Alto[28]	Înalt	Aut	Artu / Attu	Àutu	Alto
House	Domus; Casa (hut)	Ostal (ostau) / Maison / Casa	Casa	Casă	Chasa	Domu	Casa	Casa
I	Ego	Ieu / Jo	Eu	Eu	Jau	Deu	Iu / Jo / Ju / Eu / Jia	Yo
Ink	Atramentum; Tincta (dye)	Tencha (tinta) / Encra	Tinta	Cerneală[29]	Tinta	Tinta	Inga[30]	Tinta
January	Januarius	Genièr (girvèir)	Janeiro	Ianuarie	Schaner	Ghennarzu / Bennarzu	Jinnaru	Enero
Juice	Sucus	Suc	Suco / Sumo	Suc	Suc	Sutzu	Sucu	Jugo / Zumo
Key	Clavis	Clau	Chave	Cheie	Clav	Crae	Chiavi / Ciavi	Llave / Clave
Language	Lingua	Lenga	Língua	Limbă	Lingua	Lingua	Lingua	Lengua
Man	Homo	Òme	Homem[31]	Bărbat / Om	Um	Homine	Omu / Òminu	Hombre
Moon	Luna	Luna (lua)	Lua	Lună	Glina	Luna	Luna	Luna
English	Latin	Occitan	Portuguese	Romanian	Romansh	Sardinian	Sicilian	Spanish
Night	Nox	Nuèch (nuèit)	Noite	Noapte	Notg	Notte	Notti	Noche
Old	Vetus	Vièlh	Velho[11]	Vechi[32] / Bătrân[33]	Vegl	Betzu / Sèneghe / Vedústus[34]	Vecchiu / Vecciu	Viejo
One	Unus	Un	Um	Unu	In	Unu	Unu	Un / Uno
Pear	Pirum	Pera	Pêra	Pară	Pair	Pira	Piru	Pera
Play	Ludere; Jocare (to joke)	Jogar (jugar, joar)	Jogar	(a se) Juca	Giugar	Zogare	Jucari	Jugar
Ring	Anellus	Anèl (anèth, anèu)	Anel	Inel	Anè	Aneddu	Aneddu	Anillo
River	Flumen; Rivus (small river)	Riu / Flume	Rio[12] / Flúvio	Fluviu; Râu[35]/ Rîu[36]	Flum	Riu / Frùmine	(S)Ciumi / Hjumi	Río
Sew	Consuere	Cóser	Coser	(a) Coase	Cuser	Cosire	Cùsiri	Coser
Snow	Nix	Nèu	Neve	Nea / Zăpadă[37]	Naiv	Nie	Nivi	Nieve
Take	Capio; Prehendere (to seize)	Prene / Pilhar[38]	Prender[13] / Pegar / Levar[39]/ Tomar	Prinde / Lua[39]	Prender	Pigare[40]	Pigghiari[38]	Tomar / Prender[13] / Llevar[39]
That	Ille; V. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Occitan ( IPA BrE: /ˈɒksɪtn/ AmE: /ˈɑksəˌtɑn/ known also as Lenga d'òc or Langue d'oc (native name occitan Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance Romansh or Romansch may refer to Romansh language Romansh people Sardinian ( Sardu, Saldu) is after Italian the main language spoken in the island of Sardinia, Italy, remarkable for being the most conservative Sicilian (scn '''''lu sicilianu''''' lingua siciliana, also known as Siculu or Calabro-Sicilian) is a Romance language. L. Eccu + Ille	Aquel (aqueth, aqueu)	Aquele	Acel/Acela	Quel	Kudhu / Kussu[41]	Chiddu / Chissu[41]	Aquel
The	Ille	lo/la los/las (lei[s], lu/li)	o/a os/as	-ul/-a -i/-le	il/la ils/las	su/sa sos/sas (is)[14]	lu ('u) / la ('a) li ('i)	el/la/lo los/las
Throw	Jacere; V. L. Lanceare (to throw a weapon); Adtirare	Lançar	Lançar / Atirar / Deitar	(a) Arunca[42]	Trair	Ghettare / Bettare	Lanzari / Jittari	Lanzar / Tirar / Echar
Thursday	dies Jovis	Dijòus (dijaus)	Quinta-feira[43]	Joi	Gievgia	Zobia	Jovi / Juvidìa	Jueves
Tree	Arbor	Arbre (aubre)	Árvore	Arbore / Pom[44]/ Copac[45]	Planta	Àrvore	Àrvuru	Árbol
Two	Duo	Dos / Doas (dus, duas)	Dois[46] / Duas	Doi	Dua	Duos, Duas	Dui	Dos
Urn	Urna	Urna	Urna	Urnă	Urna	Urna	Urna	Urna
Voice	Vox	Votz	Voz	Voce, Glas[47]	Vusch	Boghe	Vuci	Voz
Where	Ubi; Unde (where from)	Ont (dont)	Onde[48]	Unde	Nua	Ue/Aundi	Unni	Donde[49]
White	Albus (Frankish Blank)	Blanc	Branco[50]	Alb	Alv	Àbru	Biancu / Vrancu / Jancu	Blanco
Who	Quis	Qual (quau), Qui, Cu	Quem	Cine	Tgi	Kini/Ki/Chie	Cui (cu')	Quien
World	Mundus	Mond	Mundo	Lume[51]	Mund	Mundu	Munnu	Mundo
Yellow	Flavus; Galbinus; Amarus (bitter)	Jaune	Amarelo	Galben	Mellen	Grogu	Giarnu[52]	Amarillo
English	Latin	Occitan	Portuguese	Romanian	Romansh	Sardinian	Sicilian	Spanish

See also

• Interlingua
• Latin America
• Latin Europe
• Latin (demonym)
• Latin Union
• Romance copula
• Romance verbs
• Subjunctive
• Vulgar Latin

Footnotes

External links

• Orbis Latinus, site on Romance languages

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