Romance languages: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	Romanic languages

Photos and Videos

Thematic map of Europe showing the distribution of Romance languages, with different colors representing areas where Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, French, Occitan, Provencal, Franco-Provencal, Italian, Sardinian, Romanian, and Rhaetian are spoken. Striped areas indicate regions where bilingualism is common. The map highlights the primary Romance language regions in southwestern, southern, and eastern Europe, including the Iberian Peninsula, France, Italy, Switzerland, Romania, and parts of the B

World map highlighting countries where French is an official language in dark pink, including France, much of central and western Africa, parts of Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Madagascar, and several island territories. Lighter pink indicates regions where French is widely spoken but not official, such as parts of North Africa and Southeast Asia.

Spanish language

Italic languages

Thematic map of Eurasia showing the approximate geographic distribution of Indo-European language families, each represented by a different color. Areas include Celtic in western Europe, Germanic in northern and central Europe, Romance in southwestern Europe, Slavic in eastern Europe and Russia, and Indo-Iranian languages in South Asia. Non-Indo-European language regions and areas of common bilingualism are also indicated.

The letters A, B, and C appear in white lettering on a green chalkboard background superimposed with a world map.

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Topics

Istriot language Proto-Romance French language Spanish language Romanian language Rhaetian dialects Sardinian language Catalan language Portuguese language Occitan language Greek language Slavic languages Celtic languages Baltic languages Germanic languages Indo-Iranian languages Armenian language Albanian language Tocharian languages Indo-Hittite languages

Key People

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Erich Auerbach

American scholar

François-Juste-Marie Raynouard, detail of an engraving.

François-Juste-Marie Raynouard

French dramatist

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Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke

Swiss-German linguist

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Friedrich Christian Diez

German scholar

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Jakob Jud

Swiss linguist

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Charles Hall Grandgent

American linguist

Buddhist engravings on wall in Thailand. Hands on wall. Hompepage blog 2009, history and society, science and technology, geography and travel, explore discovery

Languages & Alphabets