Editing Latin (section)

=== Romance languages ===
{{Main|Romance languages}}
{{See also|Lexical changes from Classical Latin to Proto-Romance}}
While the written form of Latin was increasingly standardized into a fixed form, the spoken forms began to diverge more greatly. Currently, the five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]], and [[Romanian language|Romanian]]. Despite dialectal variation, which is found in any widespread language, the languages of Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy have retained a remarkable unity in phonological forms and developments, bolstered by the stabilising influence of their common [[Christians|Christian]] (Roman Catholic) culture.

It was not until the [[Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula]] in 711, cutting off communications between the major Romance regions, that the languages began to diverge seriously.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pei |first1=Mario |last2=Gaeng |first2=Paul A. |title=The story of Latin and the Romance languages |edition=1st |year=1976 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/storyoflatinroma0000peim/page/76 76–81] |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=978-0-06-013312-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/storyoflatinroma0000peim/page/76}}</ref> The spoken Latin that would later become Romanian diverged somewhat more from the other varieties, as it was largely separated from the unifying influences in the western part of the Empire.

Spoken Latin began to diverge into distinct languages by the 9th century at the latest, when the earliest extant Romance writings begin to appear. They were, throughout the period, confined to everyday speech, as Medieval Latin was used for writing.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=https://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words04/structure/latin.html |title=History of Latin |last=Pulju |first=Timothy |website=Rice University |access-date=3 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romance-languages/Latin-and-the-development-of-the-Romance-languages#ref74713 |title=Romance Languages |last1=Posner |first1=Rebecca |last2=Sala |first2=Marius |date=1 August 2019 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=3 December 2019}}</ref>

For many Italians using Latin, though, there was no complete separation between Italian and Latin, even into the beginning of the [[Renaissance]]. [[Petrarch]] for example saw Latin as a literary version of the spoken language.<ref>See Introduction, {{harvnb|Deneire|2014|pp=10–11}}</ref>