Click on one of the links below to learn about one of the Romance Languages presented in this site (these are not links to translations of this page):

LATIN: the father of the Romance Languages

Galician, a minority language of Northwestern Spain

Vulgar Latin and the roots of the Romance Languages

Comparisons among the Romance Languages

---

Links
Orbis Latinus - a wonderful site about the Romance Languages

Portuguese Online - Portuguese language lessons from the same author

From the author
A Note on the Site...

The intention of this site is to provide a dynamic and useful introduction to the Romance languages. These are a number of closely-related languages that form a branch of the Indo-European family whose most recent common ancestor is Latin. Other branches of this family include Celtic (Breton, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh), Germanic (Danish, Dutch, English, German, Norwegian, Swedish, etc.), Hellenic (Ancient and Modern Greek), Indic (Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit, Sinhalese, Urdu, etc.) and Slavic (Bulgarian, Czek, Polish, Russian, etc.). Romance is sometimes considered the modern subset of the Italic, or Latinic, branch.

The story of these languages is a fascinating one, in no small part due to the endless abundance of documentation throughout the entire history of the Italic branch, unparalleled in any other branch of any language family on earth. Without question, they span the globe, but many of their treasures still hide in the multiplicity of dialects, remarkably inventive urban slang and proudly conservative rural languages.

The five major contemporary languages of this branch are French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish. Among other notable languages and dialects are Catalan (català), Occitan (occitan), Rhaeto-Romance (romontsch), Sardinian (sardu), Corsican (corsu), Galician (galego), Aruminian, Asturian, Auvernhat (Occitan), Campidanese (Sardinian), Extremadurian (Spanish), Friulan (Rhaeto-Romance), Gascon (Occitan), Gallurese (Italian), Ladin (Rhaeto-Romance), Lemosin (Occitan), Logudorese (Sardinian), Macedo-Romanian (Romanian), Nuorese (Sardinian), Provençal (Occitan), Sassari (Italian), Sicilian (Italian), Surselvan (Rhaeto-Romance), Valencian (Catalan), Vallader (Rhaeto-Romance), though I am positive that I have neglected more than a few.

I must offer an apology to those who have mailed me with questions and comments about Romance creoles. In neglecting to mention them, I have only told half of an even more remarkable story. In Africa, Asia, and even numerous regions of North and South America, the historical complexity of Romance development follows an entirely different path (more on this in future updates).

In hopes that you enjoy reading this page as much as I have creating it...

Joshua Rudder
talktume@hotmail.com

The material in this site has not been taken from any source unless such is clearly and blatantly stated. This site is intended for learning and research purposes only, and the misuse in any possible way of this site or the files therein will not be accounted for by the author or anyone else in connection with this site. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send them to: Joshua Rudder, talktume@hotmail.com.