Editing Romance languages (section)

== History ==
Between 350 BC and 150 AD, [[campaign history of the Roman military|the expansion of the Roman Empire]], together with its administrative and educational policies, made Latin the dominant native language in continental Western Europe. Latin also exerted a strong influence in [[Roman Britain|southeastern Britain]], [[Africa (Roman province)|the Roman province of Africa]], [[Moselle Romance|western Germany]], [[Pannonian Romance|Pannonia]] and the whole [[Balkans]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Adamik |first=Béla |date=2021-01-01 |title=Romanization and Latinization of the Roman Empire in the light of data in the Computerized Historical Linguistic Database of Latin Inscriptions of the Imperial Age |url=https://www.academia.edu/50349827 |journal=Journal of Latin Linguistics 2021; 20 (1): 1–19}}</ref>

During the Empire's decline, and after its fragmentation and the collapse of its Western half in the fifth and sixth centuries, the spoken varieties of Latin became more isolated from each other, with the western dialects coming under heavy Germanic influence (the Goths and Franks in particular) and the eastern dialects coming under Slavic influence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Percy, Thomas |url=https://archive.org/details/reliquesancient20percgoog |title=Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, Etc |publisher=Abe Books |year=1887 |page=[https://archive.org/details/reliquesancient20percgoog/page/n291 289]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SNgOmSoaNbgC |title=The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature, and General Information |year=1957 |edition=11 |volume=28 |page=167 |access-date=2018-10-26 |archive-date=2023-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230918110012/https://books.google.com/books?id=SNgOmSoaNbgC |url-status=live }}</ref> The dialects diverged from Latin at an accelerated rate and eventually evolved into a continuum of recognizably different typologies. The colonial empires established by [[Portuguese Empire|Portugal]], [[Spanish Empire|Spain]], and [[French colonial empire|France]] from the fifteenth century onward spread their languages to the other continents to such an extent that about two-thirds of all Romance language speakers today live outside Europe.

Despite other influences (e.g. ''[[stratum (linguistics)#Substratum|substratum]]'' from pre-Roman languages, especially [[Continental Celtic languages]]; and ''[[stratum (linguistics)#Superstratum|superstratum]]'' from later [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] or [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] invasions), the [[phonology]], [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], and [[lexicon]] of all Romance languages consist mainly of evolved forms of Vulgar Latin. However, some notable differences exist between today's Romance languages and their Roman ancestor. With only one or two exceptions, Romance languages have lost the [[declension]] system of Latin and, as a result, have [[subject–verb–object|SVO]] sentence structure and make extensive use of [[prepositions]].{{sfn|Dragomirescu|Nicolae|2016|pp=911–914}}
By most measures, [[Sardinian language|Sardinian]] and Italian are the least divergent languages from Latin, while French has changed the most.<ref>«if the Romance languages are compared with Latin, it is seen that by most measures Sardinian and Italian are least differentiated and French most (though in vocabulary Romanian has changed most).» {{Harvp|Sala|Posner}}</ref> However, all Romance languages are closer to each other than to [[classical Latin]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kabatek |first1=Johannes |title=The Languages and Linguistics of Europe: A Comprehensive Guide |last2=Pusch |first2=Claus D. |language=en |chapter=The Romance languages |quote=If we look at the Romance languages from a morphological, syntactic or content-oriented synchronic perspective, there are several features common to all of them that justify the assumption of a more or less coherent Romance type different from Latin.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Metzeltin |first=Miguel |title=Las Lenguas románicas estándar: historia de su formación y de su uso |page=45 |language=es |chapter=Tipología convergente de las lenguas románicas |quote=Pese a la gran variación que ofrecen los idiomas románicos, su evolución y sus estructuras presentan tantos rasgos comunes que se puede hablar de un tipo lingüístico románico.}}</ref>

=== Vulgar Latin ===
{{Main|Vulgar Latin}}
[[File:Map Length of Roman Rule Neo Latin Languages.jpg|thumb|upright=1.59|right|Duration of Roman rule and the spread of the Romance languages<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bereznay |first=András |title=Erdély történetének atlasza [Atlas of the History of Transylvania] |publisher=Méry Ratio |year=2011 |isbn=978-80-89286-45-4 |page=63}}</ref>]]
[[File:Latin Europe.png|thumb|upright=1.59|right|Romance languages in Europe]]
Documentary evidence about Vulgar Latin for the purposes of comprehensive research is limited, and the literature is often hard to interpret or generalize. Many of its speakers were soldiers, slaves, displaced peoples, and forced resettlers, and more likely to be natives of conquered lands than natives of Rome. In Western Europe, Latin gradually replaced [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] and other [[Italic languages]], which were related to it by a shared Indo-European origin. Commonalities in syntax and vocabulary facilitated the adoption of Latin.<ref>[[#Rochette|Rochette]], p. 550</ref><ref>Stefan Zimmer, "Indo-European," in ''Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia'' (ABC-Clio, 2006), p. 961</ref><ref name="curchin">{{Cite journal |last=Curchin |first=Leonard A. |year=1995 |title=Literacy in the Roman Provinces: Qualitative and Quantitative Data from Central Spain |journal=The American Journal of Philology |volume=116 |issue=3 |pages=461–476 (464) |doi=10.2307/295333 |jstor=295333}}</ref>

To some scholars, this suggests the form of Vulgar Latin that evolved into the Romance languages was around during the time of the [[Roman Empire]] (from the end of the first century BC), and was spoken alongside the written Classical Latin which was reserved for official and formal occasions. Other scholars argue that the distinctions are more rightly viewed as indicative of sociolinguistic and register differences normally found within any language. With the rise of the Roman Empire, spoken Latin spread first throughout Italy and then through [[Southern Europe|southern]], [[Western Europe|western]], [[Central Europe|central]], and [[southeastern Europe]], and [[North Africa|northern Africa]] along parts of [[West Asia|western Asia]].<ref name="HarrisVincent2001">{{Cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Martin |title=Romance Languages |last2=Vincent |first2=Nigel |publisher=Routledge |year=2001 |location=London}}</ref>{{rp|1}}

Latin reached a stage when innovations became generalised around the sixth and seventh centuries.<ref name= "Banniard">{{Cite book |last=Banniard |first=Martin |date=2013 |editor-last=Maiden |editor-first=Martin |editor2-last=Smith |editor2-first=John Charles |editor3-last=Ledgeway |editor3-first=Adam |title=The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages: Volume 2 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781139019996 |access-date=27 March 2024 |publisher=Cambridge University Press  |page=95 |doi=10.1017/CHO9781139019996 |isbn=978-1-139-01999-6 }}</ref> After that time and within two hundred years, it became a [[language death|dead language]] since "the Romanized people of Europe could no longer understand texts that were read aloud or recited to them."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Herman |first=Jozsef |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RJco4ioXigYC |title=Vulgar Latin |year=2010 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0-271-04177-3 |access-date=16 May 2016 |archive-date=18 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230918110013/https://books.google.com/books?id=RJco4ioXigYC |url-status=live }}, pp. 108–115</ref> By the eighth and ninth centuries Latin gave way to Romance.{{Sfn|Banniard|2013|p=95}}

=== Fall of the Western Roman Empire ===
During the political [[fall of the Western Roman Empire|decline of the Western Roman Empire]] in the fifth century, there were large-scale [[Migration Period|migrations]] into the empire, and the Latin-speaking world was fragmented into several independent states. Central Europe and the [[Balkans]] were occupied by Germanic and [[Slavs|Slavic]] tribes, as well as by [[Huns]].

[[British Latin|British]] and [[African Romance]]—the forms of Vulgar Latin used in [[Roman Britain|Britain]] and [[Africa (Roman province)|the Roman province of Africa]], where it had been spoken by much of the urban population—disappeared in the Middle Ages (as did [[Moselle Romance]] in Germany). But the Germanic tribes that had penetrated [[Roman Italy]], [[Gaul]], and [[Hispania]] eventually adopted Latin/Romance and the remnants of the [[culture of ancient Rome]] alongside existing inhabitants of those regions, and so Latin remained the dominant language there. In part due to regional dialects of the Latin language and local environments, several languages evolved from it.<ref name="HarrisVincent2001" />{{rp|4}}

=== Fall of the Eastern Roman Empire ===
Meanwhile, large-scale [[Migration Period|migrations]] into the Eastern [[Roman Empire]] started with the [[Goths]] and continued with [[Huns]], [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]], [[Bulgars]], [[Slavs]], [[Pechenegs]], [[Hungarians]] and [[Cumans]]. The invasions of [[Slavs]] were the most thoroughgoing, and they partially reduced the Romanic element in the [[Balkans]].<ref>Vlad Georgescu, The Romanians: A History, Ohio State University Press, Columbus, p. 12</ref> The invasion of the [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]] and conquest of [[Constantinople]] in 1453 marked the end of the empire.

The surviving local Romance languages were [[Dalmatian language|Dalmatian]] and [[Common Romanian]].

=== Early Romance ===
{{See also|Lexical changes from Classical Latin to Proto-Romance}}

Over the course of the fourth to eighth centuries, local changes in phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon accumulated to the point that the speech of any locale was noticeably different from that of another. In principle, differences between any two [[Variety (linguistics)|lects]] increased the more they were separated geographically, reducing easy mutual intelligibility between speakers of distant communities.<ref name="price">{{Cite book |last=Price |first=Glanville |title=The French language: past and present |publisher=Grant and Cutler Ltd |year=1984 |location=London}}</ref> Clear evidence of some levels of change is found in the ''[[Reichenau Glosses]]'', an eighth-century compilation of about 1,200 words from the fourth-century [[Vulgate]] of [[Jerome]] that had changed in phonological form or were no longer normally used, along with their eighth-century equivalents in proto-[[Franco-Provençal language|Franco-Provençal]].<ref>{{Citation |title=Introduction |date=2010 |work=Romance Languages: A Historical Introduction |pages=1–4 |editor-last=Rosen |editor-first=Carol |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/romance-languages/introduction/C369AC07A0CCC0DDBF0ECE7769950C47 |access-date=2024-03-28 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511845192.001 |isbn=978-0-521-88915-5 |editor2-last=Alkire |editor2-first=Ti}}</ref> The following are some examples with reflexes in several modern Romance languages for comparison:{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}
{{Clear}}
{|class="wikitable"
! English !! Classical / 4th cent. <br />(''Vulgate'') !! 8th cent. <br />(''Reichenau'') !! Franco-Provençal !! French !! [[Romansh language|Romansh]] !! Italian !! Spanish !! Portuguese !! Romanian !! Catalan !! Sardinian !! Occitan !! [[Ladin language|Ladin]] !! Neapolitan
|-
| once || ''semel'' || ''una vice'' || ''una vês'' / ''una fês'' || ''une fois'' || {{nowrap|(ina giada)}} || (una volta) || ''una vez'' || ''uma vez'' || (o dată) || {{nowrap|''una vegada''}}<br />{{nowrap|(un cop, <br />una volta)}} || (una borta) || {{nowrap|''una fes''}}<br />{{nowrap|(un còp)}}|| ''n iede'' || ''na vota''
|-
|children/infants || ''liberi / infantes'' || ''infantes'' || ''enfants'' || ''enfants'' || ''unfants'' || {{nowrap|(bambini) /}}<br />''infanti''|| (niños) /<br />''infantes'' || infantes (crianças) || (copii) / ''infanți'' || {{nowrap|(nens, etc.) /}}<br /> ''infants'' || (pipius) / (pitzinnos) || {{nowrap|(mainatge, dròlles) /}}''enfants'' || ''mutons'' || ''criature''
|-
| to blow || ''flare / sofflare'' || ''suflare'' || ''sofllar'' || ''souffler'' || ''suflar'' || ''soffiare'' || ''soplar'' || ''soprar'' || (a) sufla || (bufar) || ''sulai'' / ''sulare'' || ''bufar'' || ''suflé'' || ''sciuscià''
|-
| to sing || ''canere'' || ''cantare'' || ''chantar'' || ''chanter'' || ''chantar'' || ''cantare'' || ''cantar'' || ''cantar'' || (a) cânta || ''cantar'' || ''cantai'' / ''cantare'' || ''cantar'' || ''cianté'' || ''cantà''
|-
| the best (plur.) || ''optimi / meliores'' || ''meliores'' || los ''mèlyors'' || les ''meilleurs'' || {{nowrap|ils ''megliers''}} || i ''migliori'' || {{nowrap|los ''mejores''}} || {{nowrap|os ''melhores''}} || (optimi, <br />{{nowrap|cei mai buni)}} || els ''millors'' || ''is mellus'' / ''sos menzus'' || ''Los/lei melhors'' || ''i miëures'' || ''<nowiki/>'e meglie''
|-
| beautiful || ''pulchra / bella'' || ''bella'' || ''bèla'' || ''belle'' || ''bella'' || ''bella'' || {{nowrap|(hermosa, bonita, linda) /}}<br />''bella'' || ''bela'' /<br /> (formosa, bonita, linda) || frumoasă || (bonica, polida) /<br />''bella'' || ''bella'' || {{nowrap|(polida) /}}''bèla'' || ''bela'' || ''bella''
|-
| in the mouth || in ''ore'' || in ''bucca'' || {{nowrap|en la ''boche''}} || {{nowrap|dans la ''bouche''}} || {{nowrap|in la ''bucca''}} || {{nowrap|nella ''bocca''}} || en la ''boca'' || na ''boca<ref>"Na" is a [[contraction (grammar)|contraction]] of "em" (in) + "a" (the), the form "em a" is never used, it is always replaced by "na". The same happens with other prepositions: "de" (of) + o/a/os/as (singular and plural forms for "the" in masculine and feminine) = do, da, dos, das; etc.</ref>'' || (în gură) / în ''bucă''<ref>A more accurate translation for "in the mouth" would be "în gura / în buca", while "în gură / în bucă" would be "in mouth", it depends on the context / formulation. The word "bucă" is somewhat archaic, considered slightly vulgar, mostly used as a slang version of the word "mouth". The term "kitchen" translates as "bucătărie".</ref> (a îmbuca)<ref>Verb; literally means "to put in mouth"</ref> || a la ''boca'' || ''in sa buca'' || ''dins la boca'' || ''te la bocia'' || ''<nowiki/>'n bocca'' (/ˈmmokkə/)
|-
| winter || ''hiems'' || ''hibernus'' || ''hivèrn'' || ''hiver'' || ''inviern'' || ''inverno'' || ''invierno'' || ''inverno'' || ''iarnă'' || ''hivern'' || ''ierru'' / ''iberru'' || ''ivèrn'' || ''inviern'' || ''vierno''
|}

In all of the above examples, the words appearing in the fourth century Vulgate are the same words as would have been used in [[Classical Latin]] of c. 50 BC. It is likely that some of these words had already disappeared from casual speech by the time of the ''Glosses''; but if so, they may well have been still widely understood, as there is no recorded evidence that the common people of the time had difficulty understanding the language. By the 8th century, the situation was very different. During the late 8th century, [[Charlemagne]], holding that "Latin of his age was by classical standards intolerably corrupt",<ref name="price" />{{rp|6}} successfully imposed [[Classical Latin]] as an artificial written vernacular for [[Western Europe]]. Unfortunately, this meant that parishioners could no longer understand the sermons of their priests, forcing the [[Council of Tours 813|Council of Tours in 813]] to issue an edict that priests needed to translate their speeches into the {{lang|la|rustica romana lingua}}, an explicit acknowledgement of the reality of the Romance languages as separate languages from Latin.<ref name="price" />{{rp|6}}

By this time, and possibly as early as the 6th century according to Price (1984),<ref name="price" />{{rp|6}} the Romance [[variety (linguistics)|lects]] had split apart enough to be able to speak of separate [[Gallo-Romance languages|Gallo-Romance]], [[Iberian Romance languages|Ibero-Romance]], [[Italo-Dalmatian languages|Italo-Romance]] and [[Eastern Romance languages]]. Some researchers{{who|date=June 2017}} have postulated that the major divergences in the spoken dialects began or accelerated considerably in the 5th century, as the formerly widespread and efficient communication networks of the [[Western Roman Empire]] rapidly broke down, leading to the total disappearance of the Western Roman Empire by the end of the century. During the period between the 5th–10th centuries AD Romance vernaculars documentation is scarce as the normal writing language used was [[Medieval Latin]], with vernacular writing only beginning in earnest in the 11th or 12th century. The earliest such texts are the [[Indovinello veronese|Indovinello Veronese]] from the eight century and the [[Oaths of Strasbourg]] from the second half of the ninth century.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Frank-Job |first1=Barbara |last2=Selig |first2=Maria |date=2016 |editor-last=Ledgeway |editor-first=Adam |editor2-last=Maiden |editor2-first=Martin |title=The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677108.001.0001 |access-date=28 March 2024 |website=Oxford Academic |page=24|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677108.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-967710-8 }}</ref>

=== Recognition of the vernaculars ===
[[File:Germanic – Romance language border map (early Middle Ages – early twentieth century).svg|thumb|upright=1.59|right|Romance – Germanic language border:<ref>{{Cite book|last=van Durme|first=Luc|url=http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~rwillemy/229_LanguageContact2002.pdf|title=Language Contact at the Romance–Germanic Language Border|publisher=Multilingual Matters|year=2002|isbn=978-1-85359-627-8|editor-last=Treffers-Daller|editor-first=Jeanine|page=13|chapter=Genesis and Evolution of the Romance-Germanic Language Border in Europe|editor-last2=Willemyns|editor-first2=Roland|access-date=2020-09-15|archive-date=2020-09-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200916212242/http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~rwillemy/229_LanguageContact2002.pdf|url-status=dead }}</ref> <br /> • Early Middle Ages {{color box|Green}} <br /> • Early Twentieth Century {{color box|Red}}]]
From the 10th century onwards, some local [[vernacular]]s developed a written form and began to supplant Latin in many of its roles.<ref name= "Wright">{{Cite book |last=Wright |first=Roger |date=2013 |editor-last=Maiden |editor-first=Martin |editor2-last=Smith |editor2-first=John Charles |editor3-last=Ledgeway |editor3-first=Adam |title=The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages: Volume 2 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781139019996 |access-date=27 March 2024 |publisher=Cambridge University Press  |page=118 |doi=10.1017/CHO9781139019996 |isbn=978-1-139-01999-6 }}</ref> In some countries, such as [[Portugal]], this transition was expedited by force of law; whereas in others, such as [[Italy]], many prominent poets and writers used the vernacular of their own accord – some of the most famous in Italy being [[Giacomo da Lentini]] and [[Dante Alighieri]]. Well before that, the vernacular was also used for practical purposes, such as the testimonies in the [[Placiti Cassinesi]], written 960–963.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages {{!}} Historical linguistics |url=https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/european-language-and-linguistics/cambridge-history-romance-languages-volume-2,%20https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/historical-linguistics |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=Cambridge University Press |language=en}}</ref>

=== Uniformization and standardization ===
{{Unreferenced section|date=March 2022}}
The invention of the [[printing press]] brought a tendency towards greater uniformity of [[standard language]]s within political boundaries, at the expense of other Romance languages and [[dialect]]s less favored politically. In France, for instance, the dialect spoken in the region of Paris gradually spread to the entire country, and the [[Occitan language|Occitan]] of the south lost ground.