Romance languages (also referred to as Romanic languages, Latin languages, Neolatin languages or Neo-Latin languages), are a branch of the Indo-European language family that originally descended from Vulgar Latin. In a nutshell, Vulgar Latin refers to the unwritten forms of Latin that were primarily spoken by the mostly uneducated and illiterate populations that were governed by the Roman republic and Roman empire (the educated elite mostly spoke and wrote classical Latin).

Vulgar Latin initially spread during the Roman occupation of Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul and the Balkans, and began to develop into separate and distinct languages between the 5th-9th centuries. Between the 10th-16th centuries, spoken Romance languages began to develop into literature throughout Europe, and the first texts began to appear, which gradually led to dialectical standards for grammar usage. The creation of national languages and the overseas colonial expansion of Spain, Portugal and France into the ‘New World’ during the 16th and 19th centuries, successfully solidified and expanded Romance languages outside of Europe.

There are many distinguishing features of most Romance languages, including: the usage of gendered nouns and adjectives; the lack of cases; the prepositive article and the formation of compound tenses with the help of the past participle. The five major Romance languages which are spoken today include Spanish (around 400 million speakers), followed by Portuguese (over 200 million), French (close to 100 million and more than 200 million including second language speakers), Italian (around 75 million) and Romanian (around 25 million).

Moreover, there are some 600 native speakers of Romance languages worldwide, primarily located in the Americas, Europe and Africa. Amazingly, it is widely believed that there are approximately 25 distinct Romance languages that are used today.

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