Romance languages are those descended from Latin.
France
Iberia (Spain & Italy)
Switzerland & Italy
Balkans
About Romance
Although some Romance languages like Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese are national languages and spoken around the world, others are languages (or "dialects") spoken in different European countries which are related to the national languages, but with distinct grammars and cultural identities. These include Catalan and Galician from Spain, Occitan and Provençal from France, Walloon from Belgium, Rhaeto-Romance from Switzerland and Sardinian from Italy. See the complete Romance Language list below for moe details.
Fortunately, many of these languages share a common pool of accented vowels and special characters, so this page will list all the possible accented vowels and letters found in these languages (with the exception of Romanian and its near sisters).
Romance Family Links
- Orbis Latinus
- SMO European Minority Languages Links
- Romance Languages Bibliography (University of Cambridge)
- Wikipedia Romance Language
History of Latin/Italic
Classification of Romance Languages
The division of Romance languages into different branches is not always clear and some branches cross national boundaries. This is one model representing major languages and their language codes.
Note though that depending on geography, a language may show influences from different neighboring languages making it more difficult to classify.
Sardinian Branch vs. Continental
The languages of Sardinia are considered to be a unique offshoot of Proto-Romance. The other languages are Continental Romance.
Sardinian (sc)
sro(Campidanese Sardinian)-
sdn(Gallurese Sardinian) -
src(Logudorese Sardinian) -
sdc(Sassarese Sardinian)
Continental: Eastern Romance
Depending on the classification, Eastern Romance may include just the Balkan Romance languages like Romanian or Romanian and Italo-Dalmation languages which include Standard Italian. Here I will assume that Eastern Romance is just the Balkan Romance languages.
Eastern Romance
ro(Romanian)mo(Moldovan) – code now deprecateddlm(Dalmatian) – extinct (extinct)
Note: Sometimes Dalmation is grouped with Italian, but it does share features with Romanian.
Continental: Western Romance + Italian
The rest of the Romance family includes the languages related to Standard Italian and Western Romance Languages (Gallo-Iberian languages).
The Iberian Romance languages include Spanish and Portuguese, but the Gallo Romance languages can be found in France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain. Gallo languages include Standard French, Catalan, Occitan and others.
Italian
This branch shares features with Eastern Romance as well as other Western Romance languages. Although most languages in this family are spoken in Italy, not all Romance languages in Italy are in this branch. Conversely, not all "Italian" languages are spoken in Italy – some may be spoken in Balkan countries such as Croatia.
Standard Italian is based on the Tuscan (Florence) form of Italian. However, other regional forms related to Tuscan Italian are still wildely spoken in Italy. Depending on the region, a form may or may not be mutually intelligible with standard Italian.
I. Dalmatian (Croatia)
dlm(Dalmatian, Croatia, extinct)ist(Istriot, Slovenia/Croatia/Italy)
II. Venetian
vec(Venetian/Veneto)
III. Gallo-Italian (N. Italy)
eml(Emiliano)rgn(Romagnol)lij(Ligurian)lmo(Lombard)pms(Piedmontese)
IV. Tuscan
co(Corsican, France)it(Standard Italian)
III. South Central
nap(Neapolitan)scn(Sicilian/Calabrian)
Ibero-Romance
Most Romance languages from Spain and Portugal are classified as Ibero-Romance. The exception is Catalan which shares features with Occitan (southern France).
- Spain
es(Spanish)an(Aragaonese)au(Asturian/Leon)ly(Ladino/Judeo-Spanish)
- Galician-Portuguese
pt(Portuguese)ga(Galician)
- Catalan (a Langue D’oc Language)
ca(Catalan)
Gallo-Romance
The Gallo-Romance branch includes languages of France, northern Spain, Switzerland and Italy. Because the languages are in close proximity to each other, divisions between the different branches are not always distinct.
I. Rhaeto-Romance
The Rhaeto-Romance languages are spoken in Switzerland and northeaster Italy. The Romansh language of Switzerland is recognized as a national language.
rm(Rhaeto-Romance)fur(Friullian, Italy)lld(Ladin, Italy)roh(Romansh, Switzerland)
II. Franco-Provencal
fp(Franco-Provencal)
III. Langue D’Oc (Occitan)
IV. Langue D’Oïl (Old French descendants)
fr(Standard French)wa(Walloon)nrf(Norman French or Jersey/Guernsey/Picard)