Latin. Romanian language. Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; autonym: română, limba română [ˈlimba roˈmɑ̃nə] ( ) ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 million people as a native language, primarily in Romania and Moldova, and by another 4 million people as a second language.[3][4] It has official status in Romania, the Republic of Moldova, the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia, and in the autonomous Mount Athos in Greece. Romanian speakers are scattered across many other countries, notably Australia, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Bulgaria, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Israel, Russia, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
History[edit] Prehistory[edit] Map of the Balkans with regions inhabited by Romanians/Vlachs highlighted During the Middle Ages, Romanian became influenced by the Slavic languages[9] and to some degree by Greek. Early history[edit] Modern history[edit] Historical grammar[edit] Vlach language in Serbia. Vlach, Romanian,[1] or Timok Romanian (autoglossonym: limba română,[2] meaning "language of Romans", rumâneşte / rumâneşce, Romanian: Româna timoceană; Serbian: Влашки / Vlaški) are the terms used to designate the Romanian varieties[3][4][5] spoken by the Vlachs in eastern Serbia.[1] Status[edit] Serbian statistics list Vlach and Romanian languages separately depending of what people declared in census.
This however, does not mean that Serbian government have official position whether Vlach and Romanian are separate languages. ISO hadn't assigned it a separate language code in the ISO 639 standard. The Vlach language does not have any official status and it is not standardized,[6] thus some members of Vlach community ask for official usage of standard Romanian in the areas inhabited by Vlachs until the standardization of the Vlach language.[6] The "National Council of Vlachs in Serbia" listed Romanian in its statute as the language of the Vlach minority.[7] Features[edit] Name[edit] Ladin language. Ladin (Ladin: Ladin, Italian: Ladino, German: Ladinisch) is a language consisting of a group of dialects (which some consider part of a unitary Rhaeto-Romance language) mainly spoken in the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy in South Tyrol, the Trentino and the province of Belluno.
It is closely related to the Swiss Romansh and Friulian. The precise extension of the Ladin language area is the subject of scholarly debates. A more narrow perspective includes only the dialects of the valleys around the Sella group, wider definitions comprise the dialects of adjacent valleys in the Province of Belluno and even dialects spoken in the northwestern Trentino.[2][3] A standard written variety of Ladin (Ladin Dolomitan) has been developed by the Office for Ladin Language Planning as a common communication tool across the whole Ladin-speaking region,[4] but it is not popular among Ladin speakers. Geographic distribution[edit] South Tyrol[edit] Trentino[edit] Belluno[edit] History[edit] Status[edit] Provençal dialect. "Provençal" (with "Limousin") is also the customary name given to the older version of the langue d'oc used by the troubadours of medieval literature, while Old French or the langue d'oïl was limited to the northern areas of France.
In 2007, the ISO 639-3 code changed from prv to oci, as prv was merged into oci. Sub-dialects[edit] The main sub-dialects of Provençal are: Rodanenc (in French Rhodanien) around the lower Rhone river, Arles, Avignon, Nîmes. Gavòt (in French Gavot), spoken in the Western Occitan Alps, around Digne, Sisteron, Gap, Barcelonnette and the upper County of Nice, but also in a part of the Ardèche, is not exactly a subdialect of Provençal, but rather a closely related Occitan dialect, also known as Vivaro-Alpine. Grammar[edit] When they are written in the Mistralian norm ("normo mistralenco"), definite articles are lou in the masculine singular, la in the feminine singular and li in the masculine and feminine plural (lis before vowels). Literature[edit] See also[edit] French language. French (le français [lə fʁ̥ɒ̃sɛ] ( ) or la langue française [la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛz]) is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick (Acadia region) in Canada also in Haiti, the Acadiana region of the U.S. state of Louisiana, the northern parts of the U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont in the New England region, and by various communities elsewhere.
Other speakers of French, who often speak it as a second language,[3] are distributed throughout many parts of the world, the largest numbers of whom reside in Francophone Africa.[4] In Africa, French is most commonly spoken in Gabon (where 80% report fluency),[4] Mauritius (78%), Algeria (75%), Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire (70%). French is estimated as having 110 million[3] native speakers and 190 million more second language speakers.[5] Geographic distribution[edit] Europe[edit] Belgium[edit] Walloon language. Walloon (Walon in Walloon) is a Romance language that was spoken as a primary language in large portions (70%) of Wallonia in Belgium, in some villages of Northern France (near Givet) and in the northeast part of Wisconsin[2] until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language. The historical background of its formation was the territorial extension since 980 of the Principality of Liège to the south and west.
Despite its rich literature, beginning anonymously in the 16th century and with well-known authors since 1756 (see the paragraph Literature), the use of Walloon has decreased markedly since France's annexation of Wallonia in 1795. Numerous associations, especially theatre companies, are working to keep the language alive. On a government level, Walloon is officially recognized as a langue régionale endogène (regional indigenous language) (Décret Valmy Féaux, 14 of December 1990).
Walloon[edit] Spanish language. Spanish i/ˈspænɪʃ/ (español), also called Castilian[4] i/kæsˈtɪliən/ (castellano Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of common Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. It was first documented in central-northern Iberia in the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia.[7] Since the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania and the Philippines.[8] Spanish is the most widely understood language in the Western Hemisphere, being the official or national language of 19 countries in the Americas and totaling at least 418 million native speakers in the Hemisphere.
Names of the language[edit] Geographical distribution of the preferential use of the terms castellano (Castilian), in red, vs. español (Spanish), in blue. Portuguese language. Portuguese (português or, in full, língua portuguesa)[nb 1] is a Romance language and the sole official language of Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe.[4] It also has co-official language status in Macau (China), Equatorial Guinea and East Timor. As the result of expansion during colonial times, Portuguese speakers are also found in Goa, Daman and Diu in India;[5] in Batticaloa on the east coast of Sri Lanka, in the Indonesian island of Flores ; and in Malacca in Malaysia. Portuguese is a part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia. With approximately 215 to 220 million native speakers and 260 million total speakers, Portuguese is usually listed as the fifth most spoken language in the world, the third most spoken European language[6] and the major language of the Southern Hemisphere.
History[edit] Geographic distribution[edit] Official status[edit] Future[edit] Sardinian language. Since 1997, the languages of Sardinia have been protected by regional and national laws. Several written standards, including the Limba Sarda Comuna (Common Sardinian Language), have been created in an attempt to unify the two main variants of the language.
This standard is co-official with Italian where spoken on Sardinia.[3] History[edit] The history of the island of Sardinia, relatively isolated from the European continent up into modern times, led to the development of a distinct Romance language, which even now preserves traces of the indigenous pre-Roman language of the island. The language is of Latin origin like all Romance languages yet the following substratal influences are possible: Adstratal influences include: Origins[edit] Sassari's Republic medieval statutes written in the Sardinian language (13th–14th centuries) Many studies have attempted to discover the origin of some obscure roots that today could legitimately be defined as indigenous, pre-Romance roots.