Language - Italian/Spanish
 

I have been wondering how Italian and Spanish languages are similar while France is located in the middle of the two countries. In other words, French language seems to be different from these two similar languages. I don’t know much about languages, but I think all three languages trace their origin to Latin. I can see Spanish and Portuguese language being close because they are next to each other. How did this happen? Are there any language historians/anthropologist who can explain this? <BR>Tom <BR>

Hi Tom, yes, Italian, Spanish and Portugues all come from Latin, they are heavily related to it, and their evolution during the centuries has been quite similar. The reason why French language seems to be different is because French has become the official language only a couple of centuries ago, and the language that was spoken in the entire south of France (that unfortunatly almost disappeared today) is called Occitan and is very similar to both Spanish and Italian. The Ligurian dialect (Italian riviera), Occitan and Catalan (the language spoken in the north west of Spain) are almost the same language. During the french Revolution, the republicans decided to impose to the entire nation the French language and to forbid all the others in order to promote a same and strong patriotic feeling towards all the citizens of the new republic. French language is an evolution of Latin strongly influenced by the Franks, a tribe of Barbarian germans who settled mainly in the north of what used to be called Gaule, during the collapse of the roman Empire.

I love your reply. May I add something? <BR><BR>One difference :Spanish is strongly influenced by 700 years of Arab domination. <BR> Although , I am guessing now, some arab words like algebra, were first incorporated to latin and then used in Spanish as well as Italian and French. I am right?

First Jerome:<BR>Thank you very much for the information. It is very interesting and happy to learn this. <BR>I think you meant to say "a tribe of Bavarian", not "Barbarian" although I think some people intentionally 'misspell' the word. <BR>Tom

Tom,<BR>German "Barbarians" is correct; the invaders were German Goths, not Bavarians.<BR><BR>To muddy up the waters, there are three other major countries in Europe with languages with a Latin origin, Belgium's Wallonia region, Switzerland's area where Romansch is spoken and Romania.

There happens to be a very interesting discussion of this very issue ont the AboutCom Italian Language forum.

I'm not sure whether this link will work for you, but here it is:<BR>http://forums.about.com/ab-italian/messages?msg=983.1