Romance language

The romance languages are all languages originally spoken in regions that were once part of ancient Rome, that derived from the Latin language, which was the language of ancient Rome.

When the Western Roman empire collapsed, in the fourth century, the former Roman provinces were ruled by the chieftains of warlike Germanic tribes. In regions like Britain and The Netherlands those tribes imposed their Germanic languages on the locals. But in the former Roman provinces that are now France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Romania, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily the invading Germanic tribes adopted dialects of Latin.

For hundreds of years after the collapse of the Roman empire records continued to be kept in Latin, even as the vulgar Latin of every day speech underwent considerable evolution. Around the eighth century documents began to be written in the language of every day speech, and the precursors of modern languages, like the the French language, the Spanish language, the Portugese language, the Italian language, the Romanian language, the Sicilian language, the Sardinian language, and the Corsican languages. In addition to the remaining languages, dozen or hundreds of lost romance languages, like Dalmation, Provencal were spoken. Some regional romance languages, like Catalan remain robust.