Your Guide to Romance Languages

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Learning Romance languages doesn’t mean you’re becoming more romantic, although it can certainly help. This group of languages includes some of the most widely spoken languages in the world, and if you know one, it’s easier to learn the rest. But what are the Romance languages, and how do you know if you’re hearing one?

What are Romance languages?

Romance languages come from a conversational form of Latin known as Vulgar Latin. Many people in the third century Roman Empire spoke Vulgar Latin before their dialects split into different Romance languages.

You can see the connection between Romance languages and the Roman Empire in their names, as “Romance” comes from the Latin Romanicus, meaning “Roman,” and the later term romanice, meaning “Roman language.”

Romance languages are in the Indo-European language family, just like many other languages with European origins. They have similar grammatical structures and vocabularies dating back to their Latin roots.

What are the main Romance languages?

Today, there are dozens of Romance languages spoken all over the world. But over one billion people speak one of the five main Romance languages, and you’re likely to hear them on every continent during your travels.

1. Spanish

If you’re planning a trip to Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, or Spain, you’re most likely to hear people speaking Spanish. Nearly 560 million people speak Spanish in 20 countries, making it the fourth most commonly spoken language in the world. Over 115 million Spanish speakers live in Mexico, with another 150 million speakers living in Colombia, Argentina, the United States, and Spain.

The Spanish language dates back to the 10th century when it began to diverge from the regional Latin dialect. It then traveled the globe with explorers from Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries. In areas of South America, Central America, and North America, the language became more common than indigenous Spanish dialects.

You’ll find several similarities between Spanish and its Vulgar Latin roots. In fact, much of Latin America speaks Spanish as their native language. That’s why it’s called “Latin” America!

2. French

It may not seem like Spanish and French are similar languages, but they are. French is another Romance language that spread throughout the world during the 16th and 17th centuries. French explorers settled in Africa, the Middle East, East Asia (specifically Vietnam and Cambodia), the Caribbean islands, and Canada. 

Today, over 311 million speak the language in 74 French-speaking countries, including France, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Canada. French dialects differ depending on their region. For example, Cajun French is a common French Creole dialect in the southern US, while Canadian French includes dialects like Québecois and Ontario French.

While French may not look exactly like Spanish, you can see their similar Latin roots in modern vocabulary words.

3. Portuguese

Both Spanish and Portuguese come from a similar geographical location, as Spain and Portugal are neighboring countries, and they share much of the same vocabulary. Spanish and Portuguese also share a history of exploration and colonization in the 15th and 16th centuries, sending both languages into countries all over the world.

Around 225 million of today’s 260 million Portuguese speakers live in Portugal, Brazil, and Angola, with the rest distributed in regions of Africa, Europe, and Asia.

If you know Spanish or a bit of Latin, Portuguese might not be difficult to learn. Take a look at modern Portuguese compared to its Latin ancestor. 

4. Italian

Around 66 million people speak Italian today. You’ll find pockets of Italian speakers in countries, including the United States, Argentina, and Australia, but most Italian speakers live in Italy. Neighboring European countries and states, including Switzerland and San Marino, use Italian as an official language.

Within Italy itself lie many different Italian dialects—and many additional Romance languages. People living in the Italian region of Sicily speak Sicilian, for example, which includes more Greek influences than Italian due to its location in the Mediterranean Sea.

Since Rome was the center of the Roman Empire, Italian is one of the closest languages to the original Latin. The Italian word for “see” (videre) is nearly identical to its Latin origins (vedere). 

5. Romanian

When you first hear Romanian, it may not sound exactly like its Romance language siblings. That’s because the Romanian language incorporates elements of neighboring Slavic languages, such as Ukrainian and Polish. Today, nearly 25 million people speak Romanian and its nearly identical cousin, Moldovan.

Depending on where you are in Europe, you may hear a different dialect of Romanian. The standard dialect, Dacoromanian, can be heard in Romania itself, while those living in Greece or Albania may speak the Aromanian dialect.

List of less common Romance languages

Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian are the most common Romance languages. But there are many more Romance languages spoken in the world, especially in the Mediterranean region in and around Italy. 

Additional Romance languages include:

• Asturian
• Catalan
• ​​Corsican
• Galician
• Istriot
• Judeo-Spanish
• Ladin
• Ladino
• Occitan
• Piedmontese
• Rhaetian
• Romansh
• Sardinian
• Sicilian
• Venetian

How are Romance languages similar?

Many words across Romance languages are similar, thanks to their Latin roots. Take a look at common words in the major five Romance languages to see how closely related they really are.

Other similarities in Romance languages

When you hear Romance languages spoken aloud, their similarities in vocabulary, sound systems, and sentence structure are obvious. Other traits they share include:

• Latin alphabet: Romance languages typically use the Latin alphabet with a few modifications to denote language-specific pronunciations.
• Latin vocabulary: Most of the words in each Romance language are derived directly from Latin.
• grammatical gender: Nouns and pronouns in Romance languages reflect masculine and feminine genders.
• similar intonation: Most Romance languages are pronounced with the same intonation patterns, making them sound almost musical when spoken.
• word order: Typically, sentences in Romance languages follow a subject-verb-object order, with adjectives and modifiers following nouns.

Why doesn’t French sound like other Romance languages?

Spanish and Portuguese sound similar when you hear them spoken, as do Italian and Romanian. But why do French accents and pronunciations sound different from their more Romantic counterparts?

The French language incorporates influences from nearby Germanic languages, primarily from Germanic Frankish invaders in the 5th century. The name “France” even comes from “Frank,” illustrating the effect of the Frankish domination in this region.

Is English a Romance language?

Although English can be quite romantic, it is not a Romance language. Like German, Dutch, and Swedish, English is a Germanic language, meaning it evolved from a Proto-Germanic ancestor language.

However, English does employ many cognates and loanwords from Romance languages, including:

• guitar (from the Spanish guitarra)
• piano (from the Italian piano)
• restaurant (from the French restaurant)
• pastrami (from the Romanian pastrami)

English also uses many words formed from Latin roots. For example, the Latin word verbatim is a common legal term meaning “exactly the same,” and vice versa means “reverse the positions” in English.

Romance vs. romance

When you hear the word “Romance,” you tend to think of Valentine’s Day and red roses. But that type of romance (spelled with a lowercase “r”) is different from Romance languages (spelled with an uppercase “R”).

The word “romance” shares a Latin origin with “Romance,” but that’s where their similarities end. The Latin term romanice scribere (“to write in a Romance language”) became the Old French romaunce, or “a story about a knight or hero” during the 14th century. Eventually, it became romance in modern French and English, while uppercase “Romance” still keeps the original definition of “Roman language.”

Key takeaways about Romance languages

The best part of learning a Romance language is when you’ve learned one, the next one is much easier to pick up. And Rosetta Stone’s Structured Immersion method leans into that by incorporating a more natural language-learning approach that doesn’t rely on rote memorization. 

• Romance languages are all derived from Vulgar Latin.
• The five main Romance languages are Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian. 
• English is not a Romance language. 
• Romance languages typically use the Latin alphabet, grammatical gender, and subject-verb-object sentence order.