Editing Romance languages (section)

=== 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}}