The Romance group belongs to the family. Formation of Romance languages

- (from lat. romanus Roman). Languages ​​derived from Latin, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese. predominantly the ancient French language, which was spoken in the south of Europe. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Romance languages- ROMAN LANGUAGES. By this term is meant a group of languages ​​of a more or less homogeneous system, which developed from colloquial Latin. (see, so-called Vulgar Latin) in those areas of the Roman Empire where he was in circulation. Latin V… … Literary Encyclopedia

ROMAN LANGUAGES- (from Latin romanus Roman) a group of related languages ​​of the Indo-European family that developed from the Latin language: Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician; French, Occitan; Italian, Sardinian; Romansh; Romanian, ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Romance languages- Romance languages ​​are a group of languages ​​​​of the Indo-European family (see Indo-European languages), related by a common origin from the Latin language, common patterns of development and significant elements of structural commonality. The term "Romance" goes back to ... ... Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary

Romance languages- (from Latin romanus Roman) a group of related languages ​​belonging to the Indo-European family (see Indo-European languages) and derived from the Latin language. The total number of speakers of R. i. over 400 million people; official languages... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Romance languages- (from Latin romanus Roman), a group of related languages ​​​​of the Indo-European family that developed from the Latin language: Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician; French, Occitan; Italian, Sardinian; Romansh; Romanian, ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Romance languages- languages ​​​​that arose from the common vernacular Latin language (lingua latina rustica) in Italy and various provinces conquered by the Romans: Gaul, Spain, parts of Rhaetia and Dacia. Lingua latina rustica (country Latin) first arose in ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

Romance languages- Languages ​​included in the Indo-European family and forming a branch in it. Romance languages ​​include French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Moldavian, Provençal, Sardinian, Catalan, Reto Romance, Macedonian Romanian… … Dictionary of linguistic terms

Romance languages- (Latin romanus Roman) A group of Indo-European languages ​​that developed on the basis of the colloquial form of the Latin language (the so-called folk, vulgar, Latin, which, in connection with the Roman conquests, spread in Europe from the Iberian Peninsula to ... ... Handbook of etymology and historical lexicology

Romance languages- (Romance languages), child languages. Latin, which is spoken approx. 500 million people in Europe, Sev. and Yuzh. America, Australia, and also in some countries on other continents. There are different opinions about the number of these languages, since the question of ... ... Peoples and cultures

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All are descended from Vulgar Latin- a language that was an ancient Italic language belonging to Indo-European family languages. At the end of the 20th century, more than 800 million people spoke Romance languages ​​in 50 countries around the world. The main Romance languages ​​are Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian. Spanish and French have the status of official languages ​​of the United Nations.

Although the origin and development of the Romance languages ​​appears to be quite clear, the classification of the Romance languages ​​is still a difficult task, since they are interconnected by various and gradually unfolding features. The classification used in this article, which does not at all pretend to be the only correct one, divides the Romance languages ​​into five subgroups:

1. Ibero-Roman
2. Gallo-Roman
3. Italian Romance
4. Romansh
5. Balkan-Roman
The mutual similarity of the Romance languages ​​is mainly determined by their common origin from Vulgar Latin and manifests itself in a variety of vocables and forms, being influenced by recognizable phonetic laws. Moreover, throughout their history they have been under the constant influence of written Latin. In the Middle Ages it was widely believed that all were only a corrupted form of Latin. Since then, the use of words, morphological elements and syntactic patterns borrowed from written Latin has been considered prestigious in ordinary speech. Being used everywhere, these Latinisms have undergone profound changes in terms of pronunciation as well as vocabulary, thus creating a second level of similarities between the Romance languages. As a result, two lexical layers were created:

The first layer consists of words inherited from Vulgar Latin, which in different places have been transformed in accordance with phonetic laws, and for this reason often differ in sound, cf. Spanish hecho[εt∫o] port. faito[‘faitu], fr. fait, rum. fapt, all descended from Vulg. Latin * factu from Classical Latin factum;

The second level includes later borrowings from written Latin, which are very similar in pronunciation, cf. Spanish factor, Port. factor, F. facteur, Rum. factor[‘fact?r], all derived from Classical Latin factor.

Over time certain pairs of words have emerged that are often used with different meanings, cf. fr. reason reason and ratio diet, both words are derived from Classical Latin ratio, — onis.

Table of lexical similarities between modern Romance languages ​​(in %)

Among the features inherent modern Romance languages, we can distinguish the use of two genders (male and female) by nouns and adjectives, the absence of cases, the prepositive article, the formation of compound tenses using the past participle, etc. The languages ​​of the Balkan region have retained the neuter category, but only for inanimate objects (Romanian), cases (Romanian has nominative-accusative and genitive-dative cases). Postpositive articles are also developed in these languages.

There are several separate stages in the development of Romance languages:
1. 3rd century BC - 5th century AD — Romanization, that is, the replacement of the languages ​​\u200b\u200bof the territories conquered by the Romans with colloquial Latin (Vulgar Latin or otherwise the Romance language). The division of future Romance dialects was predetermined, in view of the time of the conquest of territories [Italy - in the middle of the 3rd century BC, Spain - at the end of the 3rd century BC, Gaul - (modern France) in the 1st V. BC, Rezia (approximately corresponds to the territory of modern Switzerland) in the 1st century. AD, Dacia (modern Transylvania in Romania) in the 2nd century. AD], in view of the sociolinguistic features of spoken Latin itself, in view of the intensity of contacts with Rome, and also in view of the influence of substratum languages, i.e. languages ​​of the local population - Iberians, Celts, Rhaetians, Daco-Thracians, etc.

2. 5th - 9th century: Formation of individual Romance languages during the political collapse of the Roman Empire and the creation of barbarian kingdoms. The Romance language was influenced by the languages ​​of the barbarians (the so-called superstratum languages): the Visigoths in Spain, the Suebi in Galicia and Portugal, the Franks and Burgundians in Gaul, the Lombards in Italy, the Arabs in southern Spain and the Slavs in the Balkans. By the 10th c. borders were formed romania, that is, territories in Europe where the main languages ​​were Romance. At the same time, linguistic unity was broken, and locals began to be considered separate languages.

3. 10 - 16 centuries. There is a development of literature in the oral Romance languages ​​and a further strengthening of their social functions. The first texts in French appeared in the ninth century, in Italian, Spanish, Sardinian and Provençal in the 10th century, in Romansh, Catalan and Portuguese in the 12th century, in Romanian in the 16th century. At the same time, supra-dialect standards began to appear that allowed the use of a single language on a national scale. The structure of some languages, such as French, has undergone significant changes.

4. 16th - 19th centuries The emergence of national languages. During this period, standard language norms for national use were created, and the enrichment of the vocabulary of languages ​​​​occurred at the expense of the same classical Latin. Standard French and Spanish achieved national status in the 16th and 17th centuries. and began to be used by that time as international languages, and the Italian and Romanian languages ​​accepted the standard of national languages ​​only in the 19th century. At the same time, the popularity of Provençal and, to some extent, Galician declined, to be replaced by French and Spanish, respectively. In the 20th century literature continued to develop in all Romance languages, and in some of them additional measures were developed to strengthen the language. For example, French in Canada, Provençal in France, and Catalan and Galician in Spain have come under scrutiny.

From the 16th century, Spain, Portugal and France began to pursue an active colonial policy in relation to overseas territories, which contributed to spread of Romance languages far outside of Europe. So-called New Romania began to include Central and South America, Canada, some parts of Africa, etc. In these territories, local varieties of Romance languages ​​such as Canadian French, Latin American Portuguese, and Spanish emerged. Even Creole languages ​​based on French, Portuguese and Spanish have emerged.

The largest unit of classification of peoples (ethnic groups) on the basis of their linguistic kinship of the common origin of their languages ​​from the alleged base language. Language families are divided into language groups. The largest in number is ... ... Financial vocabulary

The largest unit of classification of peoples on the basis of linguistic proximity. The Biggest Me" p. Indo-European, the languages ​​of this family are used by 2.5 billion people. It includes Romance, Germanic, Slavic and other language groups. In the second on ... ... Geographic Encyclopedia

Language systematics is an auxiliary discipline that helps to organize the objects studied by linguistics - languages, dialects and groups of languages. The result of this ordering is also called the taxonomy of languages. At the heart of taxonomy ... ... Wikipedia

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The Ibero Romance language subgroup is one of the subgroups identified within the group of Romance languages. Includes the following languages: Occitan languages ​​Auvergne language (ox. (auvernhat) Gascon language (ox. gascon) Aranese language (ox. aranés) Limousin ... ... Wikipedia

Language systematics is an auxiliary discipline that helps to organize the objects studied by linguistics - languages, dialects and groups of languages. The result of this ordering is also called the taxonomy of languages. The taxonomy of languages ​​is based on ... ... Wikipedia

Indo-European taxon: family Ancestral home: Indo-European ranges of Kentum (blue) and Satem (red). The estimated original area of ​​satemization is shown in bright red. Range: the whole world ... Wikipedia

Venetian language Self-name: Vèneto Countries: Italy; Croatia, Slovenia, Brazil, Mexico Regions: Veneto Total number of speakers: 2,180,387 (2000) ... Wikipedia

According to statistics, the inhabitants of the Earth speak 2.5 thousand languages. This includes both practically international and little-known. Many are dialects of more common languages, although it is always difficult to confirm or refute this theory. Some languages ​​are considered dead, although certain types are still used today. The most striking example confirming this is Latin.

Ancestor of modern languages

The first language that arose on our planet is called by historians the pre-world language. It is the hypothetical ancestor of all the languages ​​spoken by the modern population and of several language groups considered dead today.

Modern scientists are sure that the ancient language was used by ancient people and existed for more than one century. But there are other hypotheses as well. It is possible that different kinds of languages ​​arose independently of each other, in different groups of people. Alas, modern methods of linguistic research do not allow us to confirm or refute any of these hypotheses.

Indo-European language group

Several large language groups gradually formed from the pre-world language, which became the ancestors of modern ones. One of them belongs to the Indo-European language, from which the Germanic and Romance languages ​​\u200b\u200bare descended. Indo-European belongs to the most common group, which is spoken by most of the world's population - about 2.5 billion people. It is believed that the people who owned it lived in Eastern Europe or Western Asia. However, their existence, apart from language, is not supported by any fact.

One of the largest subgroups of Indo-European is the Romano-Germanic group of languages. It is about her that we will talk today.

The history of the appearance of the Germanic language group

The ancestor of the Germanic, as scientists suggest, is the Proto-Germanic. The inscriptions on it, alas, have not been found by archaeologists, but its presence is confirmed by various dialects reflected in ancient texts. Thanks to the comparison of these memos, scientists put forward the hypothesis that there is a Germanic language that laid the foundation for the entire language group. This theory has taken root in the scientific world.

The first inscriptions in Old Germanic were made in the 2nd century BC on tablets. These are very short runic texts, consisting of several words. The first long texts discovered by archaeologists date back to the 6th century BC. e. and written in Gothic. Later, historians discovered fragments of a translation of the Bible into Germanic, in particular Gothic.

Based on the above facts, we can conclude that Germanic writing has existed for more than 2,000 years.

Groups of Germanic languages

The Germanic group of languages ​​is divided into 3 subgroups:

• western;
• northern (or Scandinavian);
• eastern.

Eastern includes languages ​​that became extinct in the first millennium. This is Burgundy, Vandal, Gothic. The latter is called classical, since it is the basis for the study of historical German studies. It was spoken by the tribes living on the territory of today's Germany.

The rest of the Germanic languages ​​(German is the first and most native of them) are modern. Let's consider each of them in more detail.

West Germanic language group

This branch includes the following languages:

• English (originally Old English), which is official in 54 countries;
• German;
• Dutch;
• Flemish (is a dialect of the Dutch language);
• Frisian (common in the Netherlands and northwest Germany);
• Yiddish (language of German Jews);
• Afrikaans (South Africa).

Northern group of Germanic languages

This branch of Indo-European is also called Scandinavian. It includes:

• Swedish;
• Danish;
• Norwegian;
• Icelandic;
• Faroese (common in the Faroe Islands and Denmark).

Germanic language group today

Now that we know the history of the Germanic languages, let's talk about modernity. Over time, changing more and more (probably due to the peculiarities of the pronunciation of Germanic words by different people), the language was enriched, its branches grew more and more.

Today, most people who use Germanic languages ​​speak English. It is estimated that more than 3.1 billion of the world's population uses it. English is spoken not only in the UK and the USA, but also in some Asian and African countries. In India, it became widespread during the time of British colonization and since then has been the official language of this state along with Hindi.

We teach literary English. But its dialects are presented in huge numbers, each of which is inherent in a particular region. One of the most popular representatives of this dialect is the London cockney - a type of vernacular.

But the German language - in fact, the most classic representative of the "modern Germanic languages" branch, which linguists call the second native language in the world - is undeservedly underestimated today. This is due to the fact that English is considered easier to learn and therefore more common. To date, experts believe that German is in danger of becoming a dialect of English, which is associated with the thoughtless linguistic behavior of politicians. Today, almost every medium-educated German knows English and easily switches to it. In addition, German is increasingly interspersed with English.

The Germanic language group is also used in Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, AJR, New Zealand. The total number of speakers reaches 0.5 million people.

Romance languages

The Romance languages ​​are genetically descended from the dead Latin. The term romans is translated as "Roman", because it was in ancient Rome that Latin was used. In the early Middle Ages, this term denoted a simple folk speech, which differed significantly from both literary Latin and other dialects.

With the spread of the power of Rome, this language was transferred to subordinate cities, as the Romans forced the locals to speak Latin. It soon spread throughout the Roman Empire. However, at the same time, Ancient Rome spoke classical Latin, while the simple speech of the villagers was considered vulgar.

Today, the Romance group is used by about 60 countries, although there is still no consensus on the number of Romance languages.

Groups of Romance languages

Among the groups of modern Romance languages, the following are distinguished.

1. Ibero-Romance:

• Spanish;
• Portuguese;
• Catalan (it is spoken by about 11 million people in Spain, France, Italy);
• Galician (Galicia is an autonomous Spanish community).

2. Gallo-Romance group:

• French;
• Provencal (popular in the southeast of France).

Gauls are tribes of Celts who inhabited France, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland in the 5th century. For a long time they fought with the Roman Empire. There is a hypothesis that part of the modern population of France is the descendants of the Gauls.

3. Italo-Romance:

• Italian;
• Sardinian (Sardinia island).

In addition, the Romance group includes Romansh, which is a group of archaic Romance languages ​​and includes several names, as well as Romanian and Moldavian languages.

Creole, which was formed in America, Asia and Africa, is based on Romanesque. To date, the Romance language branch has more than a dozen languages, many of which are not used at all in modern speech. Others have become dialects of a number of languages, among which Italian prevails.

Romance language group in the modern world

Today the Romance language plays the role of one of the most important in the world language system. It is spoken by about 700 million people. The extremely popular English also borrowed many words from Latin, although it belongs to the "Germanic languages" branch. This is due to the fact that in the 17th and 18th centuries, Latin was considered the perfect language, which was persistently mixed with traditional English in literature. Today, many English words are Latin, which makes it possible to attribute English to the Romano-Germanic group.

The most common Romance is Spanish. It is used by more than 380 million people. And thanks to the similarity of the Romance languages, they are easy to learn. If you know one language from this group, it will not be difficult to learn others.

Latin and Romano-Germanic languages

According to you, Latin also belongs to the Indo-European branch. Presumably, it originated in the west of the Apennine Peninsula, in a tribe of Latins. Later, the center of this region became Rome, whose inhabitants began to be called Romans.

Today, Latin is the only Italian language still in active use. The rest are dead. Latin is the official language of the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Churches.

The Romano-Germanic group of languages ​​has its own history. Despite the fact that in fact such a classification does not exist, and it occurs only as the names of faculties in institutes, there is a close relationship between these two groups. Starting from the 1st century BC. e. The Romans repeatedly tried to subjugate the Germanic tribes, but their persistent attempts were unsuccessful. But the Romans and Germans cooperated for a long time. Their economic ties can be traced even in the names of cities that have a Latin basis, including those located on the banks of the Danube and Rhine rivers. The conquest of Britain by the Germans in the 5th century caused many Latin words to migrate to the Germanic languages.

In Russian, Latin inclusions can also be traced, mostly through Greek. Especially in Old Russian. For example, the Russian suffix -ary was taken from Latin. It denotes a person performing some kind of permanent task. For example: gate-ary, myt-ary.

There is also a hypothesis that the Germanic languages ​​are a mixture of Turkic and Slavic. This hypothesis, if we consider it in more detail, really has a right to exist. Thanks to a careful analysis of Russian and German words, a parallel between them is easily traced.

Conclusion

Today, researchers continue to study and interpret ancient languages. Most likely, all our languages ​​\u200b\u200bcame from the same ancestor, and then began to change due to differences in geographical location and cultural characteristics. This is explained by the fact that in almost all modern languages, even at first glance they are completely different, one can find the similarity of words and signs. But over the question of whether Neanderthals spoke, scientists are still pondering. If they were capable of such a degree of communication, most likely their language was different from those that arose later.

The status of certain languages ​​and dialects was discussed: Galician (a dialect of Portuguese or a separate language), Catalan and Occitan (two different or variants of the same language), Gascon (a separate language or a dialect of Provençal), Franco-Provençal (a separate language or a dialect of Occitan or French), Romansh (one language or a group of languages), Aromanian (or Aromunian), Meglenite (or Megleno-Romanian), Istro-Romanian - individual languages ​​or dialects of the Romanian language, Moldovan (a separate language or a variant of Romanian). Difficulties of differentiation of R. I. exacerbated by uneven development. Thus, the Provencal language, which had a rich literature in the Middle Ages, lost its significance, from the 13th century. the scope of its use as a means of public (not domestic) communication has narrowed, in connection with which some scientists considered the Provençal dialects to be dialects of the French language. The development of writing in some dialects outside the main zone of a given language (in Walloon - a dialect of French, Corsican - a dialect of Italian, etc.) contributes to their isolation into separate literary languages. Some literary R. I. have options: Romansh; French - in Belgium, Switzerland, Canada; Spanish - in Latin America; Portuguese - in Brazil. Based on R. I. (French, Portuguese, Spanish) more than 10 creole languages ​​originated.

Distinguish 3 zones of distribution of R. I. 1) "Old Romania": the territory of Europe, which was part of the Roman Empire and retained Romance speech - the core of the formation of R. Ya. These include: Italy, Portugal, almost all of Spain and France, southern Belgium, western and southern Switzerland, the main territory of Romania, the Moldavian SSR, separate inclusions in northern Greece, south and northwest Yugoslavia. 2) In the 16-18 centuries. in connection with colonial expansion, compact groups of the Romance-speaking population are formed outside Europe - "New Romania": part of North America (for example, Quebec in Canada, Mexico), almost all of Central America, South America, most of the Antilles. 3) Countries in which, as a result of the colonial expansion of R. I. became official languages, but did not supplant local languages ​​- a significant part of Africa (French, Spanish, Portuguese), small territories in South Asia and Oceania.

The Romance languages ​​are a continuation and development of vernacular Latin in the territories that became part of the Roman Empire, and they were exposed to two opposite trends - differentiation and integration. In the development of R. I. there are several stages.

3 in. BC e. - 5 in. n. e. - the period of romanization - the replacement of local languages ​​with vernacular Latin. Discrepancies of future R. I. were predetermined already in this period by factors of an internal and external linguistic nature. The former include: a) the dialectal nature of vernacular Latin, which, despite the unifying effect of written Latin, had a specific appearance in each province; b) chronological differences, since by the time of the conquest of any province, Latin itself was already different (Italy was conquered by the 3rd century BC, Spain - in the 3rd-2nd centuries BC, Gaul - in 1st century BC, Rezia - in the 1st century, Dacia - in the 2nd century); c) the pace and social conditions of romanization (the ratio of the number of rural and urban residents, the penetration of colloquial oral or literary written speech), for example, the preservation of the morpheme -s pl. hours in western Romania (French, Spanish, Portuguese), explained by the influence of literary speech; d) the influence of the substrate - the language of the local population, who learned Latin (Iberians in Spain, Celts in Gaul, northern Italy, Portugal, Rets in Rezia, Dacians in the Balkans, Osco-Umbrian tribes in Italy). Some scientists seek to identify a deep substratum of a Proto-Indo-European or non-Indo-European character under the substrate (Ligurian in northern Italy and southern France, Etruscan in Italy and Rezia, etc.). The substrate explains a number of specific phenomena in the Romance languages, for example, the Iberian substrate - the transition f > h in Spanish, the Celtic - the transition u > ü in French, the Oscan-Umbrian - the transition nd > nn, mb > mm in Italian dialects. External linguistic factors include the weakening of ties between provinces.

5-9 centuries - the period of the formation of Romance languages ​​in the conditions of the collapse of the Roman Empire and the formation of barbarian states, which contributed to the isolation of dialects. Romance speech was influenced by superstrata - the language of the conquerors (Visigoths and other Germanic tribes in Spain, Franks in northern Gaul, Burgundians in southeastern Gaul, Lombards in northern Italy, Ostrogoths in Italy, Slavs in Dacia), dissolved in it. The Romance language was most strongly influenced by the superstratum in northern Gaul (French is the most “Germanized” of R. Ya.), Rezia, and Dacia. The German superstratum left significant traces in the vocabulary of the Western Romance languages. In French, its influence is explained by the development of labialized sounds ö and ü, inversion when asked, the indefinite pronoun on< homme (ср. нем. man < Mann ) и др. Воздействие славянского суперстрата на формирование балкано-романских языков проявилось в области фонетики , морфологии , лексики, синтаксиса . Некоторое влияние на Р. я. оказал и адстрат - язык соседних народностей (греческий в южной Италии и Сицилии, арабский в Испании, немецкий в зоне ретороманского языка и др.). В 8 в. Р. я. осознаются отличными как от латыни, так и от других (напри­мер, германских) языков. В 813 Турский собор рекомендует священникам произ­но­сить проповеди не на латыни, но in rusticam romanam linguam («на деревенском романском языке»). В эту же эпоху появляются письменные свидетельства Р. я.: Рейхенауские и Кассельские глоссы , Веронская загадка. Первый связный текст на Р. я. - Страсбургские клятвы (842), сохранив­ший­ся в записи около 1000.

9-16 centuries - the development of writing in the Romance languages ​​and the expansion of their social functions. The first texts in French date back to the 9th century, in Italian, Spanish - to the 10th century, in Provencal, Catalan, Sardinian - to the 11th century, in Portuguese and Galician - to the 12th century, in Dalmatian - to the 13th century ., in Romansh - by the 14th century, in Romanian - by the 16th century. There are supra-dialect literary languages.

16-19 centuries - formation of national languages, their normalization, further enrichment. There is an uneven development of the Romance languages. Some languages ​​develop into national ones quite early (French, Spanish in the 16th-17th centuries), subsequently acquiring even the functions of international languages, others (Provencal, Galician, Catalan), which played a large role in the Middle Ages, partially lose their social functions and are reborn as literary languages ​​in the 19th-20th centuries. The modern period is characterized by a great diversity in the position of the Romance languages ​​in different countries; there is a movement for the approval and expansion of the social functions of a number of languages ​​(Catalan, Occitan, French in Canada, etc.).

In the course of development, Romance languages ​​are influenced by the Latin language, borrowing words, word-formation models, and syntactic constructions from it. Under the influence of the Latin language, some phonetic trends are eliminated, especially in the field of sound compatibility. A secondary community of Romance languages ​​is being created. As a result of borrowings from Latin in R. i. 2 layers of vocabulary are formed - the words of the “folk fund”, dating back to folk Latin and differing significantly phonetically in languages ​​(cf. French fait, Spanish hecho, Italian fatto, Portuguese feito, Rum fapt from Latin factum - “made ”) and borrowings from the literary Latin language, which have undergone less means, phonetic. changes and preserving similarities (French facteur, Spanish, Portuguese, Rumanian factor, Italian fattore from lat. factor - ‘factor’). The secondary commonality of the Romance languages ​​is facilitated by borrowings from one Russian language. to others, for example, from Old Provencal and French to other R. I. - in the Middle Ages, from Italian - in the 16th century, from Spanish - in the 16th-17th centuries, and especially from French - starting from the 17th century, as well as the widespread use of international Latin-Greek terminology.

The Romance languages ​​are linked by varied and gradual transitions, making it difficult to classify them. According to some signs (for example, the fate of the final -o), northern R. i. (French, Romanian) are contrasted with southern ones (Spanish, Italian), according to others (‑s as a plural morpheme) - Western R. i. (Spanish, French) are opposed to eastern (Italian, Romanian), according to the third (for example, a preposition with an animated direct object) - lateral (Spanish, Romanian) to central (French, Italian). Attempts to "measure" the degree of closeness between R. I. on the basis of a complex of linguistic features (J. Mulyachich, J. Pellegrini) did not give convincing results. Usually R. I. are classified according to the political-geographical principle, since state associations played a big role in the formation and convergence of R. Ya. There are 5 subgroups of R. Ya.: Ibero-Romance (Portuguese, Galician, Spanish, Catalan), Gallo-Romance (French, Provencal languages), Italian-Romance (Italian, Sardinian), Romansh, Balkan-Romance (Romanian, Moldavian, Aromunian, Megleno-Romanian, Istro-Romanian). Some scholars attribute the Romansh subgroup to the Italo-Romance, the Catalan language to the Gallo-Romance (C. Tagliavini), or combine the Catalan and Provençal languages ​​into a separate subgroup (P. Beck). At the same time, “bridge languages” (intermediate between groups of languages) are distinguished, for example, the Dalmatian language occupies an intermediate position between the Italian-Romance and Balkan-Romance subgroups. W. von Wartburg, following A. Alonso, singles out "continuous Romania" (from Portuguese to Italian), which is opposed by "peripheral" languages ​​(French and Balkan-Romance). Developing this classification and proceeding from the main typological features of the Romance languages, it is possible to combine into one group the languages ​​of "continuous Romania" (Italian, Occitan, Catalan, Spanish, Galician, Portuguese), from which, on the one hand, the "internal" language differs - Sardinian, characterized by an abundance of archaic features, on the other hand, "external" languages ​​- French, Romansh, Balkan-Romance, which are characterized by significant innovations and which have been more influenced by foreign systemic languages. The languages ​​of "continuous Romany" reflect the general Romance language type to the greatest extent.

The Romance languages ​​are characterized by a number of general tendencies, which are realized to varying degrees in each of them; in many cases they are most fully implemented in French. In general, the Balkan-Romance languages ​​show the greatest originality. Features of the sound system: in the field of vocalism - a) quantitative differences of vowels, characteristic of the Latin language, gave way to qualitative ones, a common Romanic (except for Sardinia) system of 7 vowels (i, e, ε, a, ɔ, o, u) was formed, which has been preserved most of all in Italian. In Portuguese and especially in French, the open/closed distinction has been restructured and does not always correspond to etymology; in Spanish and Romanian, it has lost its phonological character. Some languages ​​have developed specific vowels: nasals in French and Portuguese, labialized ö, ü in French, Provençal, Romansh, midlingual î, ă in Balkan-Romance; b) diphthongs were formed as a result of diphthongization of vowels under stress and the loss of intervocalic consonants (numerous diphthongs of the Old French language underwent contraction); c) there was a reduction of unstressed vowels (including final ones) - to the greatest extent in French, to the least - in Italian; neutralization of e/ε and ɔ/o in an unstressed syllable in all languages. In the field of consonantism: a) simplification and transformation of consonant groups, for example, Latin in clavem "key" gave in French (clef), but in Italian and Romanian (chiave, cheie), [λ] in Spanish (llave), [ʃ] in Portuguese (chave). Groups (kt, ks, kw, gw, ns, st) and others were transformed in different ways, as well as palatalized consonants. Palatalized plosives,, and others were transformed into affricates, which later gave way to fricative consonants in some languages ​​(cf. lat. facies, nar.-lat. facja, ital. faccia, rom. fafa, isp. haz, french. face) ; b) weakening (voicing) or reduction of the intervocalic consonant, cf. lat., ital. vita ‘life’, Spanish vida, French vi; lat. luna ‘moon’, Portuguese. lua ; c) weakening and reduction of the consonant that closes the syllable. Romance languages ​​tend to be open syllables and limited consonant compatibility, as well as to phonetically link words in the speech stream (especially in French).

The Romance languages ​​belong to inflectional languages ​​with a strong tendency towards analyticism (especially spoken French). Morphological expression is irregular (there are cases of unexpressed grammatical categories and morphological homonyms). The noun has the category of number, gender (masculine and feminine; the Latin middle was redistributed between them). The name does not have a category of case (it was preserved in the Old French and Old Provençal languages; only the Balkan-Romance languages ​​have a two-case system), object relations are expressed by prepositions. A feature of the Romance languages ​​is the variety of forms of the article: there are forms of the indefinite article plural (French des, Italian dei, Spanish unos, Rum. niște), partitive article in Italian and French (del, du), demonstrative and possessive articles in Balkan-Romance (rum. cel, al). Pronouns retain elements of the case system. A characteristic feature of Romance languages ​​is the presence of two rows of object pronouns: independent and official, verbal (for example, French me, à moi, Spanish me, a mi, Italian mi, a me - 'me'), French has verbal subject pronouns, in French and Italian - adverbial (en, ne). Object pronouns were more grammatized in Balkan-Romance and Spanish, where they duplicate the expressed object (Rom. îl văd pe profesorul nostru, lit. - ‘I see our teacher’). Adjectives agree with the noun in gender and number in all positions, but some do not change in gender (Spanish, Italian verde - ‘green’; especially numerous in oral French). Adverbs are usually formed from adjectives with the suffix -ment(e) (< лат. mens, ‑tis ; исп., итал., португ. lentamente , франц. lentement - ‘медленно’), кроме балкано-романских языков, где наречие сходно с немаркированной формой прилагательного (рум. rău - ‘плохой’ и ‘плохо’).

The Romance languages ​​are characterized by an extensive system of verb forms. The synthetic Latin forms of the passive and the pre-past and pre-future tenses have been lost (the latter survived in the Ibero-Romance languages). Analytical forms, consisting of an auxiliary verb and non-personal forms (participles, infinitives, gerunds), have received wide development. So, instead of the Latin future tense, a form was formed based on the periphrase "to have" (rum. "want", sardine. "should") plus the infinitive (Spanish cantará, rum. va cînta). The combination of the infinitive with the auxiliary verb of the past tense formed a form with a hypothetical meaning, which is qualified as a special future indicative or as a special mood (conditional). The typical scheme of a Roman verb contains 16 tense forms in 4 moods: 8 tenses in the indicative: present, simple perfect (little used in Sardinian), imperfect, future, compound perfect, prepast (absent in Romanian), pluperfect, prefuture (last 4 forms - analytical in most cases); 2 - in conditionalis (simple and complex; in Provencal - 4 tenses); 4 - in the conjunctiva (2 - in Romanian, but 6 - in Spanish and Portuguese); 2 - in the imperative (simple and infrequently complex). Aspective meanings are expressed by contrasting the imperfect / perfect, simple / complex forms, as well as verbal affixes and paraphrases. There are active and passive voices, as well as a pronominal form that expresses reflexive (and indirectly recurrent), mutual (and indirectly reciprocal), passive or indefinitely personal meanings. Non-finite forms of the verb (infinitive, gerund, participle II, in some languages ​​also participle I) are peculiar in the Romance languages. In a number of languages, the infinitive is easily subjected to syntactic substantiation. Non-finite forms are widely used to form periphrases with aspective, temporal, modal and pledge meanings (for example, “do” + infinitive expresses factive voice, French aller + infinitive - near future, Spanish estar + gerund - long action).

The order of words in some cases is fixed: in a complex verbal form, the auxiliary verb precedes the participle (infinitive), inversion is possible only in the Balkan-Romance languages. The adjective usually follows the noun (its preposition is marked), while the determiners precede the name (except in the Balkan-Romance languages), the possibility of inversion in S-V-O groups is limited (especially in French).

Word formation is characterized by the ease of converting adjectives into nouns, the commonality of many suffixes of nouns and adjectives, noun formations of verbs, diminutive word formation (except for French). The basis of the vocabulary of the Romance languages ​​is made up of words inherited from Latin, although their meaning often changed. There are a number of early borrowings from the Celtic languages, from Germanic and Ancient Greek (especially through Latin), in the Balkan-Romance - from Slavic. An important role in the development of the vocabulary of the Romance languages ​​was played by later borrowings from the Latin language and the creation of scientific terminology on the Latin-Greek basis. As a result, the word-formation nest often combines phonetically different bases, one of which is of folk origin, the other is bookish, borrowed from Latin, which weakens the motivation of word formation.

The Romance languages ​​use the Latin alphabet. In the Balkan-Romance languages, writing originated from the Cyrillic alphabet. After 1860, the Romanian language switched to the Latin alphabet, the Moldavian language retained its former script, in 1989 a decision was made to switch to the Latin alphabet. To represent sounds that are absent in the Latin language, letter combinations, diacritics, letter positions in a word are used. In Spanish, Portuguese, and especially in French, historical and etymological spellings occupy a large place. In Spanish, Portuguese, less regularly in Italian, unlike other Romance languages, word stress is noted.

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