The 7 main Romance languages ​​of the world

Romance languages ​​are a set of languages ​​that form a linguistic family. This is so because they come from a common ancestor language, which is none other than Latin (or the language of the Romans, hence its name).

Some of the most widely spoken languages ​​in the world are part of this linguistic family, with Spanish being one of the most prominent. Other of the most popular are French, Portuguese or Italian, but in this article we will see that there are quite a few more Romance languages ​​in the world.

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Classification of Romance languages ​​and their greatest exponents

There are three Romance languages ​​that are very international. We refer to French, Spanish and Portuguese, languages ​​spoken today by millions of people around the world. The discovery of America and the colonization were historical moments, also in linguistic terms.

Anyway, in the old continent different Romance languages ​​still survive today, not so well known worldwide. Next we are going to see the best known Romance languages ​​according to their classification.

Iberian Romance languages

These languages ​​are the ones that originated in the Iberian Peninsula from Latin. Germanic peoples such as the Visigoths and the Arabs had a great influence on the evolution of regional speakers from Latin.

Spanish and Portuguese are by far the most international languages, but there are others such as Asturleonés, Mirandés or Aragonese.

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1. Spanish

Originating in the small County of Castilla, it became the most widely spoken language in the Iberian Peninsula when the different Christian kingdoms expelled the Arabs from the peninsula (722-1492 AD).

The colonization of the New World allowed Spanish to be the most widely spoken Romance language in the world today.. It has about 435 million native speakers distributed mainly in Latin America and Spain.

2. Portuguese

Portuguese has its origin in the area of ​​Galicia (Spain) and the north of Portugal. The Christian people of this area repopulated the western fringe of the Iberian Peninsula once the Arabs were expelled in the Middle Ages, taking their language with them.

This evolved and they formed their own kingdom, which undertook the conquest and colonization of other parts of the world. Today Portuguese is a language spoken by some 240 million people, 200 of whom are in Brazil.

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Occitan Romance languages

This linguistic group is made up of only two languages: Catalan and Occitan. They represent a linguistic continuum as regards the evolution of Latin through the territory that connects the east of the Iberian Peninsula with the south of France.

3. Catalan

Despite being Catalan a practically unknown language internationally, it had a similar past to that of Portuguese or Spanish. Catalan speakers conquered the entire eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, so dialects of the same language are still spoken in these regions today.

Catalan is a Romance language spoken by about 10 million people. It is an official language in Andorra, co-official in some areas of Spain and in the city of Alghero (Italy), and a regional language of Northern Catalonia (France).

Gallo-Romance languages

This linguistic subgroup is made up of French, a linguistic continuum related to French called languages ​​of oil, and by Franco-Provençal.

4. French

French is a language spoken by some 75 million native people. Its influence as a colonial language is colossal, being spoken as a second language by inhabitants of different countries on 5 continents.

It was the most politically powerful language in the world when used as an international language for centuries, but even so its influence has clearly lost weight in favor of English.

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Retro-Romance languages

It is a group of Romance languages ​​spoken in the area of ​​the Alps and in eastern Italy. It is believed that in the past it comprised large territories now belonging to Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Slovenia.

Today we have three representatives of the retro-Romance languages: Ladin, Friulian, and Romansh. All three together do not reach a million speakers.

Gallo-Italian languages

This group of languages ​​contains different speakers belonging to regions of southeastern France and northwestern Italy. None have much presence outside their confines and not much influence within them, although in the past it was different. They are Piedmontese, Lombard, Ligurian and Emiliano-Romañol.

Italian Romance languages

They are languages ​​belonging to southern Italy, Veneto and the island of Corsica. In this group, Italian stands out, also finding Tuscan, Sassari, Corsican, Neapolitan, Venetian and Sicilian.

Do not forget that all Italian regional speakers that do not represent the Italian language are known as "dialetti" (dialects). However, they are languages ​​because they evolved in parallel with Italian from Latin.

5. Italian

Italian is a language spoken by about 65 million people. The vast majority of its speakers are in Italy, but it is also officially spoken in countries such as Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, Croatia or Slovenia.

It has its origins in Tuscan, a regional language that was used for centuries as the vehicular language of the Italian peninsula. Dante Alighieri's Florentine speaking was gradually acquiring literary prestige, which served as the basis for today's Italian.

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6. Sardinian

Sardinian is the only representative of a linguistic entity of its own. Its isolation for centuries led to an evolution quite parallel to that of the rest of the Romance languages. Anyway, the fact that Sardinia has been conquered by Catalans, Spaniards, Piedmontese, etc. it has made that there are certain influences.

There are a million and a half speakers of Sardinian, and it is considered to be the Romance language that preserves the most traits of Latin. It is spoken throughout the island of Sardinia except in the north, where Sassari, Gallure and Catalan are spoken, and on smaller islands, where Ligurian is spoken. Italian is also spoken throughout the island.

Balcor-Romance languages

Balcor-Romance languages ​​have their origin in the Latin of the Eastern Roman Empire. Of all these languages ​​there is only one that is in good health, which is Romanian. Other Balco-Romanian languages ​​are Istro-Romanian, Macedor-Romanian, and Meglen-Romanian.

7. Romanian

Romanian is officially spoken in Romania and Moldova. It is spoken by approximately 24 million people in these countries, and it is estimated that more than 4 million Romanians live in other countries such as Germany, France, the United States, Spain or Italy.

The Romanian has survived for centuries in one area, the Balkan Peninsula, which has received many different human groups. Tatars, Huns, Goths, Ottomans, Hungarians, Italians or Roma Gypsies are just some of the groups that have settled in this area of ​​Europe.

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Bibliographic references

• Alkire, T. and Rosen, C. (2010). Romance Languages: A Historical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Harris, M. and Vincent, N. (1988). The Romance Languages. London: Routledge.

• Posner, R. (1996). The Romance Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.