Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects. There are about 439 languages and dialects, according to the 2009 Ethnologue estimate, about half (221) belonging to the Indo-Aryan subbranch.[2] It includes most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the Indian Subcontinent, and was also predominant in ancient Anatolia. With written attestations appearing since the Bronze Age in the form of the Anatolian languages and Mycenaean Greek, the Indo-European family is significant to the field of historical linguistics as possessing the second-longest recorded history, after the Afro-Asiatic family. Indo-European languages are spoken by almost 3 billion native speakers,[3] the largest number by far for any recognised language family. Etymology[edit] History of Indo-European linguistics[edit] Franz Bopp, pioneer in the field of comparative linguistic studies. Gaston Coeurdoux and others made observations of the same type.
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]
Greek language Greek (Modern Greek: ελληνικά [eliniˈka] "Greek" and ελληνική γλώσσα [eliniˈci ˈɣlosa] ( ) "Greek language") is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, western Asia Minor, Greece, and the Aegean Islands, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history; other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were previously used. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Coptic, and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds an important place in the histories of Europe, the more loosely defined Western world, and Christianity; the canon of ancient Greek literature includes works of monumental importance and influence for the future Western canon such as the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey. Idealized portrayal of Homer History[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. 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] For historical reasons connected with the multicultural region of Vojvodina, Romanian is listed as a separate language in latest Serbian census, the number of its speakers was 34,515, while 34,576 people declared themselves as ethnic Romanians. Features[edit] Name[edit] For example, the National Council representing Vlach minority is called:[12]
Lingua franca A lingua franca also called a bridge language, or vehicular language, is a language systematically (as opposed to occasionally, or casually) used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.[1] Lingua francas have arisen around the globe throughout human history, sometimes for commercial reasons (so-called "trade languages") but also for diplomatic and administrative convenience, and as a means of exchanging information between scientists and other scholars of different nationalities. The term originates with one such language, Mediterranean Lingua Franca. Characteristics[edit] "Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or structure of the language:[2] though pidgins and creoles often function as lingua francas, many such languages are neither pidgins nor creoles. Etymology[edit] Examples[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] Hall, R.A.
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 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. Ladin should not be confused with Ladino (also called Judeo-Spanish), which, while also Romance, is more closely tied to Spanish. Geographic distribution[edit] Ladin is recognized as a minority language in 54 Italian municipalities[5] belonging to the provinces of South Tyrol, Trentino and Belluno. South Tyrol[edit] Trentino[edit] Status[edit]
Romance languages The Romance languages—occasionally called the Latin languages or, less often, the Romanic or Neo-Latin languages—are a group of languages descended from Vulgar Latin. They form a branch of the Italic languages within the Indo-European language family. The five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish (386 million), Portuguese (216 million), French (75 million), Italian (60 million), and Romanian (25 million).[2] The largest have many non-native speakers; this is especially the case for French, which is in widespread use throughout Central and West Africa, Madagascar, and the Maghreb region. The Romance languages evolved from Latin from the sixth to the ninth centuries. Ibero-Romance: Portuguese, Galician, Asturian-Leonese, Spanish, Aragonese; Occitano-Romance: Catalan, Gascon, Occitan; Gallo-Romance: Langues d'oïl (including French), Franco-Provençal; Rhaeto-Romance: Romansh, Ladin, Friulian; Sardinian; Dalmatian (extinct); Origins Name Samples History
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]
Germanic languages This article is about a branch of languages. It is not to be confused with German language. The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of approximately 500 million people[nb 1] mainly in North America, Oceania, Western and Northern Europe. The West Germanic branch includes the two most widely spoken Germanic languages: English, with approximately 300–400 million native speakers,[3][nb 2] and German, with over 100 million native speakers.[4] Other major West Germanic languages are Dutch with 23 million speakers,[5] Low German with approximately 5 million in Germany[6] and 1.7 million in the Netherlands,[7] and Afrikaans, an offshoot of Dutch, with over 7.2 million.[8] The main North Germanic languages are Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Faroese, which have a combined total of about 20 million speakers.[9] The East Germanic branch included Gothic, Burgundian, and Vandalic, all of which are now extinct. History[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]
English language English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now a global lingua franca.[5][6] It is an official language of almost 60 sovereign states and the most commonly spoken language in sovereign states including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and a number of Caribbean nations. It is the third-most-common native language in the world, after Mandarin and Spanish.[7] It is widely learned as a second language and is an official language of the European Union and of the United Nations, as well as of many world organisations. English arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and what is now southeast Scotland. The Norman conquest of England in the 11th century gave rise to heavy borrowings from Norman French: thus a layer of elaborate vocabulary, particularly in the field of governance, and some Romance-language spelling conventions[17][18] were added to what had by then become Middle English. Etymology