Editing Romance languages (section)

=== 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}}