The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages) are all the related languages derived from Vulgar Latin and forming a subgroup of the Italic languages within the Indo-European language family. The Romance languages include Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, Catalan, Occitan, and many others.
The Romance languages developed from Latin in the 6th to 9th centuries CE. Today, there are more than 800 million native speakers worldwide, mainly in Europe and the Americas and many smaller regions scattered throughout the world, as well as large numbers of non-native speakers, and widespread use as lingua franca. Because of the extreme difficulty and varying methodology of distinguishing among language, variety, and dialect, it is impossible to count the number of Romance languages now in existence, but the standard count places the number of living Romance languages at almost 25. In fact, the number may be slightly larger, and many more existed previously (SIL Ethnologue lists 47 Romance languages).
Today the six most widely spoken standardized Romance languages are Spanish (c. 330 million native), Portuguese (c. 205 million native, another 45 million or so second-language speakers, mainly in lusophone Africa), French (c. 70 million native speakers, another 70 million or so second-language speakers, mostly in francophone Africa), Italian (c. 62 million native), Romanian (c. 24 million native), and Catalan (c. 12 million native). Many of these languages have large numbers of non-native speakers; this is especially the case for French, in widespread use throughout West Africa as a lingua franca.
The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages) are all the related languages derived from Vulgar Latin and forming a subgroup of the Italic languages within the Indo-European language family. The Romance languages include Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, Catalan, Occitan, and many others.
The Romance languages developed from Latin in the 6th to 9th centuries CE. Today, there are more than 800 million native speakers worldwide, mainly in Europe and the Americas and many smaller regions scattered throughout the world, as well as large numbers of non-native speakers, and widespread use as lingua franca. Because of the extreme difficulty and varying methodology of distinguishing among language, variety, and dialect, it is impossible to count the number of Romance languages now in existence, but the standard count places the number of living Romance languages at almost 25. In fact, the number may be slightly larger, and many more existed previously (SIL Ethnologue lists 47 Romance languages).
Today the six most widely spoken standardized Romance languages are Spanish (c. 330 million native), Portuguese (c. 205 million native, another 45 million or so second-language speakers, mainly in lusophone Africa), French (c. 70 million native speakers, another 70 million or so second-language speakers, mostly in francophone Africa), Italian (c. 62 million native), Romanian (c. 24 million native), and Catalan (c. 12 million native). Many of these languages have large numbers of non-native speakers; this is especially the case for French, in widespread use throughout West Africa as a lingua franca.