The Romance Languages: Spanish, Portuguese and Italian- Their stories of common origin

I have always been very fascinated with the Spanish language, and this further sparked my interest for other Latin derived languages as well. In this blog, I plan to describe in detail three very similar languages - Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. How did Latin come into being? How did Latin give rise to different languages? What are some structural similarities between latin derived languages? Do they have socio-political influence? These are some of the questions we shall look into further. 

An Introduction to Latin

Latin is a very classical language, it comes from the Italic branch of Indo-European languages. Latin was first spoken in Latium, which is near the lower region of Tibet, around Rome. This language travelled with conquestors, with the Roman Empire Latin became a dominant language in the Italian peninsula. 

Types of Latin

Due to the Roman Empire, different types of Latin came into being. There are six main categories - Vulgar Latin, Old Latin, Classical Latin, Late Latin, Medieval Latin, Renaissance and Neo-Latin. 

Early Latin

Old or Archaic or Early Latin refers to the oldest form of latin. This language was used around the 753 BC in Roman Kingdoms. It was continued till 75 BC, before Classical Latin came to its popularity. Inscriptions of different kinds and early Latin literary works were written in old latin. Some of these works include those of Terence and Plautus. 

Classical Latin

Classical Latin on the other hand, was used up to AD 200. The reason behind the word ‘Classical’ in its name is quite evident. Classical Latin led to creation of many orators, poets, historians and writers. It was a time when classical literature became increasingly popular, grammar was also a topic of focus in schools. 

Vulgar Latin

The term Vulgar Latin sounds quite interesting. Why was the word vulgar used? It comes from the word ‘vulgi’, which means speech of the masses’. In Archaic Latin works, fragments and phrases from everyday speech were used. Though it is now widely dismissed, it was considered as a separate language at that time. This term is still difficult to define. It generally means informal language used at any time within the history of Latin and it ultimately led to the formation of Romance Languages. 

Late Latin was used from the 3rd to 6th century. It has similar grammatical use to Classical Latin. There is a higher use of prepositions, and words that are closer to Romance Languages. Slowly, the common spoken latin became divergent from the mainstream and turned into a separate language altogether. 

Medieval Latin

Medieval Latin was used in the post classical period, it was used from 700 to 1500 AD. At that time, no informal type of Latin existed. Latin continued without its natural form due to the creation of Romance languages. It was very different from classical latin. 

Renaissance and Neo-Latin

Renaissance Latin was used from 1300 to 1500. Classical language that is used in the present is called New Latin or Neo-Latin. It has led to creation of science, european culture and beliefs ideas. Most of the written Latin work belongs to this period. It is less well known and understood today. 

The Romance Languages

Romance languages are languages that diverged directly from latin. The five most used Romance languages are - Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese, Italian and French. All these five languages have maintained their stability over time and have also had significant influence on the Church. These languages were mostly similar and not very distinct till the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711. By the early 9th century, Latin diverged in distinct languages and Romance writing started to appear. 

The History of Spanish

Spanish evolved from the vulgar latin. Vulgar Latin was brought by Romans during the Second Punic War to the iberian peninsula. The first hint of the development of the Spanish language came from the 9th century. Spanish borrows words from many languages - Arabic, Latin and Germanic Gothic Language. Written Spanish was developed in the 13th century, when the dialect was brought to Toledo from the city of Burgos. Spanish developed as a very different language from its cousin language called Leonese and had a heavy Basque influence. During the Reconquista, Spanish was heavily influenced by Arabic from El-Andalus and the Andalusi Romance. In fact, eight percent of the language is arabic. During the 15th and 16th century, Spanish changed in pronunciation. By the year 1492, the first grammar written for the modern European language came into picture. From the 16th to 20th century, the language travelled through explorers, conquestors, writers, historians and poets. It then became known all around the world as it is today. 

The History of Portuguese

Portuguese is a widely spoken. The language emerged due to the weakening of the Roman empire. It led to the formation of distinct Romance languages, this was during the 9th century. It also meant the beginning of the Old Portuguese era. The early stage of the language is often referred to as Galician Portuguese or Medieval Galician. During this stage, Vulgar Latin started developing local words and phrases. Galician Portuguese was also influenced by the Germanic languages. Just like Spanish, Portuguese is also deeply influenced by Arabic of the al-Andalus. Atleast 500 words of the language are from Arabic. This was due to conquest by the muslim empire and the travelling of Romance languages with Arabic. During the year 1143, Portugal became an independent country. The king declared Portuguese as a separate language. By 1296, Portuguese was widely recognised and used in diverse fields from poetry to law. Due to the political separation of Portugal, Galician-portuguese lost its unity and became a distinct language from the mainstream. Galician was influenced by castilian and Galician-portuguese of the south became the modern portuguese. 

The History of Italian

Italian is one of the least divergent languages from Latin. Italian originated from the fall of the Western Roman empire and the start of the middle ages. The language was not just born out of local dialects but also the sister languages of Italian. It was a vernacular dialect of Italy. The language was first properly used in Tuscany and by the 14th century, works of Dante Alighieri formalized it. The language at that time was called Florentine. It gained use through literature, and also had political and cultural use. Italian became a language under the italian states, during their unification. It slowly replaced Latin and even foreign rule. Each nation state at that time had its own dialect of italian. AFter unification, in today's time, they are seen as different forms of italian. For example, Roman Italian and Milanese Italian have differences. With the new printing press technology, and conquests the language and its use spread significantly.  

The Common Link

The common thread between all these three languages is their evolution from Vulgar Latin. They even share many similar words. Agua (water) is the same in spanish and portuguese, it turns to acqua in italian. Many cognates of the languages came together and created semantic differences. They are inflected languages and this makes it easier to learn all three of them. They have their own unique rules, but share similar grammatical orders and words. 

Mutual Intelligence

Mutual intelligence of these three languages is another interesting topic. Mutual intelligence would mean that a speaker of a different but related language is able to understand the language without prior knowledge. Generally, Portuguese speakers understand Spanish better than vice-versa. This is due to the written and spoken symmetry of the languages. Italian has the same case, Italian speakers understand Spanish better. These two pairs have asymmetrical intelligibility, meaning comprehension of the two languages are not equal on both ends. Problems in speaking these languages can arise due to their pronunciation and word difference. Written formats are easier to identify, I have seen this myself. 

Conclusion

As a student learning Spanish, I can understand a bit of Portuguese and italian. But, the words are very different and so is the pronunciation. All in all, from this blog we can understand just how beautifully similar these three languages are. It’s fascinating to understand how one language can create so many more. That’s the true beauty of language.