What is a Romance language?

When you think of the word romance, what comes to mind? A bouquet of roses? A candle-lit dinner? Valentine's Day? Most likely, you think about something that describes an amorous relationship between two people. And most likely, you do NOT think about languages.

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​What is a Romance language?

While romance with a lowercase r refers to matters of the heart, the word Romance with an uppercase R refers to something that is of the Roman style. Therefore, a Romance language comes from the language of the Romans, which is Latin.

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​What is a Romance language?

​How did Latin become the Romance languages?

At the height of its power, the Roman Empire occupied all the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

As the Empire spread, local populations in most areas adopted Latin. Latin speakers in various parts of the Empire were pretty isolated from each other, which meant that Latin evolved differently depending on location. Eventually these evolved forms became too different from their language of origin to be called Latin and were recognized as new and distinct languages.

The overwhelming majority of those speakers, roughly 90%, speak one of five Romance languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, or Romanian.

Although it's difficult to say, it is estimated that about 42-48 Romance languages are spoken today.

How many Romance languages are there?

Since they all come from the same parent language, similarities among the languages do exist, even though they are all distinct languages.

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​You can compare words in each language below on this chart:

​Is English a Romance language?

​No. English is classified as a Germanic language.

Although the grammar and word order used in English is similar to that of other Germanic languages, the majority of English vocabulary, roughly 60%, comes from Romance languages.

Approximately 30% of English words have Latin roots. These are mainly expressions that entered the English language during the Renaissance. This was a time when many English writers frequently created new words inspired by Latin and the Scientific Revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries, since new advances in science and technology led to the creation of new words to describe them, which often had Latin roots.​

Another 30% of English words come from French. This is because English speakers incorporated many French words into their language during the years that French was the official language of England (1066-1362).

Many English words that come from French are cognates, which are words that are similar in spelling and meaning in two or more languages. Due to similarities among all Romance languages, many of the English words that have French cognates often have similar cognates in Spanish and many other Romance languages.

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What do modern Romance languages all have in common?

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How did Latin spread throughout Europe?

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What are the five most widely-spoken Romance languages today?

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To which language family does English belong?

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What is a cognate?

Fill in the Blanks

Write the English equivalent for each Spanish cognate.

ambulancia

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Write the English equivalent for each Spanish cognate.

arte

banco

comunicación

fruta

inteligente

literatura

posible

teléfono

violento/a/e