From French to Italian: A Guide to the Romance Languages

Created: Jun 12, 2025Last updated: Jun 18, 2025

What are Romance Languages

The Romance Languages are spoken in some of the most romantic cities worldwide, but the term "Romance Language" is not actually referencing love. Instead, Romance (with a big R) refers to a family of languages rooted in Roman times. This large group of lively and diverse languages includes French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian, among others.

Spoken by more than one billion speakers across the globe, the Romance Languages are linked by a shared history, structure, and vocabulary — but each has evolved its own personality.

So, which languages are considered to be Romance Languages? And from which language did the Romance Languages evolve? Read on to discover everything you need to know about this fascinating group of languages.

From Latin Origins to the Romance Languages

The Romance Languages can all trace their roots back to Roman times and Vulgar Latin. Vulgar Latin was the everyday language spoken by the regular people of the Roman Empire. It was a simpler variant that adapted well, unlike other forms of Latin, like Classical Latin, which was used by scholars and poets.

As the Roman Empire spread across Europe, the soldiers, traders, and settlers brought Vulgar Latin with them. Over time, this spoken Latin mixed with the dialects of the people already living there and evolved into the distinct languages that we now call the Romance Languages.

Other influences would come along, for example, the Arabic presence in parts of Spain and Frankish rule in parts of France, to further shape their vocabularies and phonology. However, the Romance Languages retained a strong Latin foundation.

So, while the Romance Languages might sound different now, they all started from the same linguistic DNA. That’s why you’ll spot similarities like:

Latin mater, meaning mother: Spanish madre, Italian madre, French mère.
Latin amor, meaning love: French amour, Spanish amar, Italian amore, Portuguese amor.

The Romance Languages are like a family reunion — you all have the same ancestry but varyingly different personalities.

The Romance Language Tree

The Romance Languages are a subgroup of the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family tree. The Indo-European language family is a wide group of languages predominantly found across Southern Asia, Central Asia, and Europe.

The Romance languages are among the easiest to trace historically. Though they’ve grown into distinct languages, they still share a surprising amount of vocabulary, grammar, and structure, thanks to their shared origin: Vulgar Latin. In practice, this shared foundation often makes it easier for someone who speaks one Romance Language to pick up another, especially when compared to learning a language from a completely different family.

The Romance Languages can be classified using a family tree. Imagine a large Oak tree. The trunk of the tree represents the original language they all sprang from, Vulgar Latin. Spreading out from the trunk are the branches of the Romance Language family. The major branches include Italo-Romance, Ibero-Romance, Gallo-Romance, Eastern-Romance, and Southern-Romance.

From each branch sprout leaves, representing the individual languages we know today. The Italo-Romance branch includes Italian, often seen as the closest to Latin in vocabulary and grammar. The Ibero-Romance branch gives us Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician, while French grows from the Gallo-Romance branch and is considered the furthest from Latin, shaped heavily by Germanic influence.

To many listeners, the Romance Languages sound musical, and dare we say, "romantic." That’s likely due to the relatively greater stress placed on vowels than consonants, at least compared with the Germanic Languages (English, German, Dutch).

Top 5 Romance Languages

While there are many Romance Languages spoken across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, five stand out for their global reach and cultural influence. Here’s a guide to the top 5 Romance Languages — Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian — where they’re spoken, and their key features.

Language	Speakers (approx.)	Main regions	Writing system	Key features
Spanish	500 million	Spain, South and Central America, U.S.A	Latin alphabet	Clear, phonetic spelling, and consistent pronunciation. Often the first Romance Language people learn.
Portuguese	260 million	Brazil, Portugal, and parts of Africa	Latin alphabet	Distinct nasal vowels, more flexible word order, and a more complex vowel system than Spanish. Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese differ in pronunciation.
French	300 million	France, Canada, parts of Africa, the Caribbean	Latin alphabet	Pronunciation differs widely from spelling, gendered nouns, and many silent letters. Considered the Romance Language that evolved the furthest from its Latin due to Germanic influence.
Italian	66 million	Italy, parts of Switzerland	Latin alphabet	Regular spelling and pronunciation. Strong emphasis on vowel endings, gendered bounds and articles. The closest Romance Language to its Latin origins and called a “central language”. Considered the easiest to learn by other Romance Language speakers.
Romanian	25 million	Romania, Moldova	Latin alphabet (with unique diacritics)	Considered a fringe Romance Language due to the heavy Slavic influence on its vocabulary. However, it has preserved much of its Latin grammar and pronunciation.

Other Romance Languages

While Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, and Romanian get the most attention, the Romance Language family is much bigger than just these five. According to Ethnologue, there are 44 Romance Languages, many of which are still spoken today.

Here is a comprehensive list of the Romance languages according to ethnologue:

Aromanian, Romanian, Istro Romanian, Megleno Romanian, Corsican, Campidanese Sardinian, Gallurese Sardinian, Logudorese Sardinian, Sassarese Sardinian, Dalmatian, Istriot, Italian, Judeo-Italian, Napoletano, Sicilian, Pyrenean, Emilian, Ligurian, Lombard, Piedmontese, Romanol, Venetian, Friulian, Ladin, Romansh, French, Cajun French, Guernesiais, Picard, Walloon, Arpitan, Catalan, Occitan, Shuadit, Asturian, Mirandese, Extremaduran, Ladino, Spanish, Charapa Spanish, Fala, Galician, Minderico, and Portuguese.

How to Learn Romance Languages with Promova

Now that you know all about the history of the Romance Languages, you might be feeling inspired to learn one. But with five major options, where do you start?

Before deciding between Italian vs. Spanish, or French vs. Portuguese, ask yourself these three important questions:

Where do I see myself using this language? Are you planning to travel, or live abroad, or could it help your career or business relations? Spanish and Portuguese are widely spoken across Latin America, while French opens doors in Europe, Africa, and Canada.
Am I looking for the easiest one to learn? While there is no hard and fast rule, Spanish is often considered one of the most beginner-friendly languages to learn thanks to its consistent pronunciation and grammar.
How do I learn best? If you’re looking to learn a new language, then consider using a language-learning platform like Promova to kick-start your learning. This one-stop solution for all of your language learning needs can help you gain fluency in any language with its unique bite-sized lessons, interactive online courses, and supportive environment.

Key Takeaways

The Romance Languages are a large family of languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin.
Vulgar Latin, the language of everyday Romans, spread across Europe as the Roman Empire expanded its territory.
Vulgar Latin mixed with the local dialects of the people they conquered and over time developed into the Romance Languages.
The five major Romance Languages are Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian.
Colonization led to these languages spreading far beyond the borders of Europe. For example, the majority of Spanish speakers are found in South and Central America.

FAQ

What are the Romance languages?

The Romance Languages are a family of languages that can trace their origins back to the time of the Romans and Latin. As the Roman Empire spread across Europe, soldiers, settlers, and traders brought Vulgar Latin with them. The language of the Romans mixed with the dialects of the local people they had conquered. Over centuries, they developed into the languages we recognize today.

What are the five Romance languages?

Although there are over 40 recognized Romance Languages, five stand out for their global reach and the large number of people who speak them: Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian.

Is Spanish a romance language?

When talking about the Romance languages, Italian springs to mind for most people. But, it’s Spanish, with over 500 million speakers, that is the most widely spoken of the Romance languages. Originating from Spain in Europe, it evolved after the Romans conquered the Iberian Peninsula and Vulgar Latin merged and adapted to the local dialects. Due to Spanish colonization from the 15th to 19th century, Spanish spread across the Americas, parts of Africa, and the Philippines. It’s now the official language of 21 countries.

Is Latin a dead language?

You may have heard of Latin being referred to as a “dead language”, but what exactly does that mean? According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a dead language is a language that is no longer spoken by anyone as their main language. But, does that make Latin a dead language? Well, it’s not a simple yes or no. While it could be argued that Classical Latin is “dead” (although many will argue it lives on), Vulgar Latin spread across Europe, evolved, and gradually became the Romance Languages we know today.