Say it Anyway: Romance Languages

Many people consider French and Italian the languages of love. But did you know that these two languages are, in fact, “Romance languages?” It's not because they sound romantic. It's simply because they are part of the Indo-European language family that comprises all the languages that descend from the language of ancient Rome --- Latin.

Also called “Romanic languages” or “Neolatin languages,” the Romance languages have over 700 million native speakers mainly in Europe, Africa and the Americas. Some of these languages include French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, Catalan and many other subfamilies. All these have their roots in Vulgar Latin, a sociolect of Latin that was spoken by soldiers, settlers and merchants of the Roman Empire. It is distinguished from Classical Latin by the Roman intellectuals. From 200BC and 150 AD, during the expansion of the Empire, Latin became the dominant native language, covering a huge region from the Black Sea to the Iberian Peninsula, and from Great Britain to the Maghreb.

When the Roman Empire declined in the 5th century, the language evolved within each local area so fast that several dialects were eventually born. Aside from that, the empires established by France, Portugal and Spain from the 15th century onward, caused the spread of these languages to other continents. The influence was so massive that today, about 70 percent of all Romance speakers live outside Europe.

Albeit all the influences from pre-Roman languages, the morphology, syntax, lexicon and phonology of all Romance languages predominantly came from Vulgar Latin. Consequently, this family of languages share numerous linguistic features that make it different from other Indo-European branches.

You may be disappointed now after knowing that the connection between French or Italian to “romance” has nothing to do with romantic love but with the Roman Empire. The truth is, every language can be a language of love. It doesn't matter what language you say what you feel in. All your words need to sound romantic is sincerity.