Editing Languages of Europe (section)

=== Romance ===
{{Further|Romance languages|Italic languages}}{{See also|Latins}}[[File:Romance 20c en.png|thumb|300px|Distribution of the Romance languages, 20th century]]

Roughly 215 million Europeans (primarily in [[Southern Europe|Southern]] and [[Western Europe|Western]] Europe) are native speakers of [[Romance languages]], the largest groups including:{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

[[French language|French]] ({{circa}} 72 million),
[[Italian language|Italian]] ({{circa}} 65 million),
[[Spanish language|Spanish]] ({{circa}} 40 million), 
[[Romanian language|Romanian]] ({{circa}} 24 million),
[[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] ({{circa}} 10 million),
[[Catalan language|Catalan]] ({{circa}} 7 million),
[[Neapolitan language|Neapolitan]] ({{circa}} 6 million), 
[[Sicilian language|Sicilian]] ({{circa}} 5 million), 
[[Venetian language|Venetian]] ({{circa}} 4 million),
[[Galician language|Galician]] ({{circa}} 2 million),
[[Sardinian language|Sardinian]] ({{circa}} 1 million),<ref>{{cite book |author=Ti Alkire |title=Romance languages: a Historical Introduction |author2=Carol Rosen |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |location=New York |page=3}}</ref><ref name="Lubello">{{cite book |author=Sergio Lubello |title=Manuale Di Linguistica Italiana, Manuals of Romance linguistics |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2016 |page=499}}</ref><ref>This includes all of the varieties of Sardinian, written with any [[orthography]] (the [[Limba Sarda Comuna|LSC]], used for all of Sardinian, or the [[Logudorese Sardinian|Logudorese]], Nugorese and [[Campidanese Sardinian|Campidanese]] orthographies, only used for some dialects of it) but does not include [[Gallurese]] and [[Sassarese language|Sassarese]], that even though they have sometimes been included in a supposed Sardinian "macro-language" are actually considered by all Sardinian linguists two different transitional languages between Sardinian and [[Corsican language|Corsican]] (or, in the case of Gallurese, are sometimes classified as a variant of Corsican). For Gallurese: [http://maxia-mail.doomby.com/medias/files/atti-def-2015.compressed.pdf ATTI DEL II CONVEGNO INTERNAZIONALE DI STUDI Ciurrata di la Linga Gadduresa, 2014], for Sassarese: {{cite book |last=Maxia |first=Mauro |title=Studi sardo-corsi. Dialettologia e storia della lingua tra le due isole |year=2010 |location=Sassari |publisher=Taphros |page=58 |language=it |quote=La tesi che individua nel sassarese una base essenzialmente toscana deve essere riesaminata alla luce delle cospicue migrazioni corse che fin dall'età giudicale interessarono soprattutto il nord della Sardegna. In effetti, che il settentrione della Sardegna, almeno dalla metà del Quattrocento, fosse interessato da un forte presenza corsa si può desumere da diversi punti di osservazione. Una delle prove più evidenti è costituita dall'espressa citazione che di questo fenomeno fa il cap. 42 del secondo libro degli Statuti del comune di Sassari, il quale fu aggiunto nel 1435 o subito dopo. Se si tiene conto di questa massiccia presenza corsa e del fatto che la presenza pisana nel regno di Logudoro cessò definitivamente entro il Duecento, l'origine del fondo toscano non andrà attribuita a un influsso diretto del pisano antico ma del corso che rappresenta, esso stesso, una conseguenza dell'antica toscanizzazione della Corsica}}). They are legally considered two different languages by the Sardinian Regional Government too ({{cite web |author=Autonomous Region of Sardinia |date=1997-10-15 |title=Legge Regionale 15 ottobre 1997, n. 26 |url=http://www.regione.sardegna.it/j/v/86?v=9&c=72&s=1&file=1997026 |access-date=2008-06-16 |pages=Art. 2, paragraph 4 |language=it |archive-date=1 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301195804/http://www.regione.sardegna.it/j/v/86?v=9&c=72&s=1&file=1997026 |url-status=dead }}).</ref>
[[Occitan language|Occitan]] ({{circa}} 500,000), besides numerous smaller communities.

The Romance languages evolved from varieties of [[Vulgar Latin]] spoken in the various parts of the [[Roman Empire]] in [[Late Antiquity]]. [[Latin]] was itself part of the (otherwise extinct) [[Italic languages|Italic]] branch of Indo-European.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-02-06 |title=Romance languages {{!}} Definition, Origin, Characteristics, Classification, Map, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romance-languages |access-date=2025-02-27 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> Romance languages are divided phylogenetically into ''[[Italo-Western]]'', ''[[Eastern Romance]]'' (including [[Romanian language|Romanian]]) and ''[[Sardinian language|Sardinian]]''. The Romance-speaking area of Europe is occasionally referred to as ''[[Latins#Latin peoples and regions|Latin Europe]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Friedman |first1=Lawrence |last2=Perez-Perdomo |first2=Rogelio |date=2003 |title=Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wEMUKyPTE9AC&q=%22latin+europe%22 |publisher=Stanford University Press |page=1 |isbn=0-8047-6695-9 |author-link1=Lawrence M. Friedman }}</ref>

Italo-Western can be further broken down into the ''[[Italo-Dalmatian languages]]'' (sometimes grouped with Eastern Romance), including the Tuscan-derived [[Italian language|Italian]] and numerous [[Languages of Italy|local Romance languages in Italy]] as well as [[Dalmatian language|Dalmatian]], and the ''[[Western Romance languages]]''. The Western Romance languages in turn separate into the [[Gallo-Romance languages]], including [[Langues d'oïl]] such as [[French language|French]], the Francoprovencalic languages [[Franco-Provençal|Arpitan]] and [[Faetar language|Faetar]], the [[Rhaeto-Romance languages]], and the [[Gallo-Italic languages]]; the [[Occitano-Romance languages]], grouped with either Gallo-Romance or East Iberian, including Occitanic languages such as [[Occitan language|Occitan]] and [[Vivaro-Alpine dialect|Gardiol]], and [[Catalan language|Catalan]]; [[Aragonese language|Aragonese]], grouped in with either Occitano-Romance or West Iberian, and finally the [[West Iberian languages]], including the [[Astur-Leonese languages]], the [[Galician-Portuguese|Galician-Portuguese languages]], and the [[Castilian languages]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}