Romance languages
| Romance | |
|---|---|
| Neo-Latin, Latinic | |
| Geographic distribution | Originated in Old Latium on the Italian Peninsula Spoken in Latin Europe (parts of Eastern, Southern, and Western Europe), much of the Americas, parts of Africa, and small parts of Asia and Oceania |
Native speakers | c. 900 million |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
Early forms | |
| Proto-language | Proto-Romance |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 / 5 | roa |
| Glottolog | roma1334 |
| Linguasphere | (phylozone) 51- (phylozone) |
 Romance languages in Europe | |
 Romance languages globally
Majority native language
Co-official and majority native language
Official but minority native language
Cultural or secondary language | |
| Part of a series on |
| Indo-European topics |
|---|
 |
 Category |
The Romance languages, also known as the Latin languages, are the languages that directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family. The most prominent Romance languages include Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian and Catalan.
The Romance languages spread throughout the world owing to the period of European colonialism beginning in the 15th century. There are more than 900 million native speakers of Romance languages found worldwide, mainly in the Americas, Europe, and parts of Africa. French, Spanish, and Portuguese also have many non-native speakers; they are widely used as lingua francas. There are also numerous regional Romance languages and dialects. All five of the most widely spoken Romance languages are also official languages of the European Union.