How did Romanization affect the languages of southwestern Europe?

The Romanization of southwestern Europe, which occurred primarily during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, fundamentally transformed the linguistic landscape of the region by spreading Latin across the Roman Empire. As Roman political and administrative power expanded, Latin became the dominant language, eventually evolving into the various Romance languages spoken today.21

This process largely displaced the indigenous languages that existed prior to Roman contact. The Basque language is the only surviving remnant of these pre-Roman tongues. Historically, Basque dialects were spoken more widely across the Pyrenees and into parts of modern-day Spain and France, but the administrative and cultural influence of Rome—and later the rise of successor languages like Navarrese Romance and Castilian Spanish—gradually restricted its range.13

While Romanization was profound, the stability of Latin in certain areas, such as southern Gaul, contributed to the conservative character of languages like Occitan and Catalan, which maintained closer ties to their Latin roots compared to other regional developments.4