The Romance language group is a group of related languages, originating from Latin and forming a subgroup of the Italian branch of the Indo-European language family. The main languages of the family are French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Moldavian, Romanian and others.
Romance group of the Indo-European language family
Such close similarity of each of the Romance languages with Latin, as is currently known from rich literature and continuous religious and scientific traditions, does not raise doubts about their relationship. For the layman, the evidence of history is even more convincing than the linguistic evidence: the Roman occupation of Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul and the Balkans explains the “Roman” nature of the main Romance languages. Later, there were European colonial and commercial contacts with parts of North and South America, Africa and Asia, who readily explain French, Spanish and Portuguese in these regions.
Of all the so-called families of languages, the Romance group is perhaps the simplest in definition and which is most easily explained historically. Not only do Romance languages have a significant share of the basic vocabulary, which are still recognizable in the same way, despite some phonological changes, and a number of similar grammatical forms, they can be traced back with a small break in continuity to the language of the Roman Empire.
The spread of Romance languages in Europe
The name "Romance" really indicates the ultimate connection of these languages with Rome: the English word comes from the French form of the Latin language Romanicus, used in the Middle Ages to denote the language of Latin speech, as well as literature written in the folk language. The fact that the languages belonging to the Romance language group have common features not found in modern Latin textbooks, however, suggests that the version of the Latin language does not coincide with the version of classical Latin, known from literature.
It is obvious that it is the Latin language, possibly in a popular form, that is the forerunner of Romance languages. By the beginning of the XXI century, about 920 million people recognize the languages of the Romance language group as their native language, and 300 million people consider it the second language. An insignificant number of Creole dialects can be added to this number. This is a simplified form of language that has become native to many language communities scattered throughout the world.
Due to the vast territories dominated by Spanish and Portuguese, these languages will continue to be of paramount importance. Despite the fact that geographically it has a relatively small distribution, the Italian language, associated with the great cultural heritage of Italy, is still popular among students.
Peoples of the Romance language group
The official language of Switzerland is Romansh. Provencal or Occitan is the language of the indigenous population of Occitania, which is located in the south of France, as well as in some nearby areas of Spain and Italy, as well as in parts of Monaco. Sardinian is spoken by people from the island of Sardinia (Italy). In addition to European Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Romania, the countries of the Romance language group represent a rather impressive list.
The Galician language is native to the indigenous population of the historical region of Galicia, which is located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Catalan or Valencia are spoken by about 11 million people in Spain, France, Catalonia, Andorra and Italy. French Creole is spoken by millions of people in western India, North America and the islands of the Indian Ocean (for example, Mauritius, Reunion, Rodriguez Island, Seychelles).
Portuguese Creoles are found in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe, in India (especially the state of Goa and the union territory of Daman and Diu) and Malaysia. Spanish Creoles - in eastern India and the Philippines. Many speakers use the Creole dialect for informal purposes and the standard language for official occasions. Portuguese is the official language of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe.
French
Romance language group: which languages belong here? French is still widely used today as a second language in many parts of the world. The richness of the French literary tradition, its clearly formulated grammar, bequeathed to the grammars of the 17-18th centuries, and the pride of the French for their language can ensure its long-term significance among the languages of the world. Romance languages are also formally used in some countries where most speakers use them for everyday purposes.
For example, French is used along with Arabic in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. It is the official language of 18 countries - Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Madagascar and several other islands off the coast of Africa.
Classification methods and tasks
Although it is quite clear which languages can be classified as Romance, based on the predominantly lexical and morphological (structural) similarities, some subgroups of languages in the family cannot be called completely similar. Based on several heterogeneous phonetic features, one theory claims that the division into dialects began early, from the eastern dialect (including central and southern Italy), developing popular traits and western speech areas, maintaining more literary standards.
In addition, the indigenous languages and dialects, later imposed on Latin by the conquerors, apparently caused further divisions. Inside such a scheme, problems remain. Are dialect groups separated? Although the dialects found in Italy are closer to Italian, and the Swiss ones are closer to the French. The Sardinian dialect is usually regarded as linguistically separate, its isolation from the rest of the Roman Empire by the inclusion of vandals in the middle of the fifth century, provides historical support for the thesis. The exact position in any classification is open to debate.
A family tree classification is commonly used for a Romance language group. If, however, the historical consideration of one phonetic feature is taken as a classification criterion for constructing a tree, the results are different. Classified according to the historical development of the stressed vowels, French will be grouped with North Italian and Dalmatian, and central Italian will be isolated. Classifications that are not based on family trees typically include ranking languages based on the degree of differentiation, rather than grouping.
Languages and dialects
What is a language, unlike a dialect? A lot depends on how many people speak it today. The political definition of a language accepted as a standard by a nation or people is the least ambiguous. According to this definition, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian are certainly languages. The Sicilian language differs from the northern and central Italian dialects, but in Italy all neighboring dialects are mutually understandable, and the differences become more noticeable with geographical distance.
Many dialects also fight for the status of “language” based on written traditions or the active promotion of their use in writing. Some linguists believe that creoles are often different from their metropolitan counterparts. Many Romance dialects literally or practically ceased to exist in the 20th century, for example, Dalmatian, noticeably different from other Romance languages.
Characteristic features of classical Latin
The Romance language group includes many languages in European countries. In the past, Latin was, in one form or another, the everyday language of most sections of society. However, the question of whether the Romance languages continue to be rude peasant dialects of Latin or use more cultural urban communities remains open.
There are those who claim that the Latin used in each area differentiated as soon as the local population adopted the language of the conqueror for any purpose. According to this belief, the dialects of the Latin language are the result of multidirectional development, either through innovation in limited areas, or through the geographically limited preservation of certain features.
Obviously, Latin usage should have varied widely, but the differences could have been merely phonetic and lexical variations. On the other hand, they could be deep enough to form the basis for further differentiation when administrative unity was lost. The last hypothesis assumes a long period of bilingualism (possibly up to 500 years), since language interference between languages in contact rarely experiences a bilingual stage.
Virtually nothing is known about the status of indigenous languages during the imperial period, and only vague modern references can be found on linguistic differences within the empire. It seems strange that not one of the many Latin grammar experts should have referred to well-known linguistic facts, but the lack of evidence does not justify the assertion that in the imperial era there was no real diversification.
Undoubtedly, even if the popular use in the Roman Empire showed great diversification, it was imposed by the standard written language, which retained a good degree of uniformity until the administrative collapse of the empire. Regarding the speakers, they apparently believed that they were using Latin, although they understood that their language was not quite what it should be. Classical Latin was a different language, not just a more polished, cultural version of their own.
Language, religion and culture
With the spread of Christianity, Latin penetrated new lands, and perhaps its pure cultivation in Ireland, from where it was exported to England, paved the way for the reform of the language of Charlemagne in the 8th century. Aware that current Latin usage did not meet classical Latin standards, Charlemagne invited Alquin of York, a scholar and grammar, to his courtyard in ex-La Chapelle (Aachen). There, Alquin remained from 782 to 796, inspiring and directing an intellectual rebirth.
Perhaps, as a result of the revival of the so-called purer Latin, folk texts began to appear. In 813, shortly before the death of Charlemagne, the Council of Tours decided that sermons should be delivered in rustic Roman language to make them understandable to parishioners. Latin remains the official language of the Roman Catholic Church. Only during the last half of the 20th century, church services began to be conducted in the national dialect. As the language of science, Latin dominated until the sixteenth century, when under the influence of the Reformation, the nascent nationalism and the invention of the printing press, modern languages began to replace it.
Latin borrowing
Nevertheless, in the West, along with knowledge of Greek, knowledge of Latin remained the mark of an educated person for centuries, although in the middle of the 20th century the teaching of classical languages in schools was significantly reduced. The prestige of Rome was such that Latin borrowings can be found in almost all European languages, as well as in the Berber languages of North Africa, which retain a number of words, mainly agricultural terms, lost in other places.
In Germanic languages, borrowed Latin words are mainly associated with trade and often reflect archaic forms. A very large number of Latin words in the Albanian language is part of the main vocabulary of the language and covers areas such as religion, although some of them may have later been borrowed from the Romanian language. In some cases, Latin words found in the Albanian language have not been preserved in any other part of the former Roman Empire. Greek and Slavic languages have relatively few Latin words, many of them administrative or commercial in nature.