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Information about Ibero Romance Languages

This article is about a subdivision of the Romance language family. For the broader group of languages spoken in the Iberian Peninsula, see Iberian languages.

The formation of Iberian Romance languages followed more or less this process:
  • A common Romance language with dialectal differences was spoken throughout the ancient Roman Empire. During this stage, we can speak of the Romance language, although it was probably somewhat different from one region to another. It can still be called Popular or Vulgar Latin.
  • From this point on, the Romance languages on the Iberian Peninsula followed a distinct path:
* Separation of East Iberian (Catalan) on one side of the peninsula from West Iberian Romance on the other. Catalan is sometimes regarded as a transition language between Iberian Romance and Gallo-Romance languages. Indeed, the ascription of Catalan to the Ibero-Romance languages is not shared by all linguists, since others prefer to group it with the closely related Occitan language in the Occitano-Romance branch of Gallo-Romance.
* West Iberian Romance split into Castilian (Spanish) and Astur-Leonese in central Iberia, and Galician-Portuguese in western Iberia.


During this stage a group of Romance dialects collectively known as Mozarabic were spoken in Moorish Iberia. With the Christian Reconquest of the peninsula, they were replaced with the Iberian Romance languages of the north, becoming extinct. Another language close to Mozarabic, Aragonese, still has some speakers today. Mozarabic and Aragonese are classified by linguists as Pyrenean-Mozarabic, a separate group from Iberian Romance and Gallo-Romance.

History and official status

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Languages of the Iberian peninsula (simplified)


It is important to note that power structures enormously influenced the formation of the Iberian languages. If kingdoms and states had formed in a different fashion, there could now be a single Galician-Portuguese language, or a multiplicity of languages. This political aspect was important in the development of every language.
  • Spanish/Castilian: The Crown of Castile pushed for Castilian to be considered the Spanish language, which it is today. However, it did not abolish other languages within Spain.
  • Portuguese and Galician: Because Portugal became independent in the 12th century while Galicia remained subject to the Kingdom of Leon, political and sociolinguistic factors have made them be considered separate languages.
  • Catalan: The political structure and strength of the Crown of Aragon made Catalan a language of culture, science, and literature. Its importance diminished for some centuries, but the desire for more autonomy for Catalonia has given it renewed importance (it never ceased to be the language of a majority of the Catalan population up to the 20th century). It is now the official language of three of the four main regions of the former possessions of the Crown of Aragon, as well as of the independent state of Andorra. It is also still spoken in other enclaves.
  • The fact that Galicia and Catalonia are a part of Spain makes their languages prone to Castilian influences, especially in large urban centers such as Barcelona in Catalonia and Coruña in Galicia.
  • Minoritary languages like Asturian, Leonese, and Aragonese came to be regarded as mere dialects of Spanish by most people, although they are Romance variants with enough distinct features to be ranked as separate languages.
  • On the other hand, some authors have argued that minor subvarieties of Catalan, Galician and Astur-Leonese such as Valencian, Eonavian, and Mirandese, should be classified as separate languages.
Thus, there are four major officially recognized Romance languages in Iberia today:
  • Catalan-Valencian-Balearic, originated from East Iberian Romance, which separated from West Iberian at an early stage in the development of the Iberian Romance languages. Closely related to Occitan, it has many dialects and is spoken by about 7 million people, mostly in five variants: Central Catalan, Northern Catalan, Valencian and Balearic.
  • Galician, originated from the medieval Galician-Portuguese language. It has had a strong influence from Castilian.
  • Portuguese, originated from a common Galician-Portuguese language. It is currently the sixth most widely spoken language in the world, with more than 200 million speakers.
  • Spanish (also called Castilian) originated from the common West Iberian Romance along with Galician-Portuguese, with some influence from Mozarabic and Basque. It is now spoken by an estimated 392 million people throughout the world.
Additionally, there are three main groups of minor Romance languages, Astur-Leonese, Aragonese, and Occitan (in its Aranese dialect).

Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan and Occitan have the status of international languages, being officially spoken in more than one state:
  • Catalan: Andorra and Spain (it is also spoken by about 100,000 people in France and members of the older generations of one town in Sardinia, Alghero);
  • Occitan: official in small regions of Spain (under the name of Aranese) and Italy;
  • Portuguese: official in eight independent countries and Macau (China) (see Geographic distribution of Portuguese);
  • Spanish: many countries throughout the world.

See also

External links

Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family that comprisies all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire.
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The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe, and includes modern day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar. It is the western and southernmost of the three southern European peninsulas (the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas).
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Iberian languages is a generic term for the languages currently or formerly spoken in the Iberian peninsula.

Historic languages

Pre-Roman languages

The following languages were spoken in the Iberian peninsula before the Roman occupation.
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Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family that comprisies all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire.
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The Roman Empire is the name given to both the imperial domain developed by the city-state of Rome and also the corresponding phase of that civilization, characterized by an autocratic form of government. This article however is about the latter.
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Vulgar Latin (in Latin, sermo vulgaris, "common speech") is a blanket term covering the vernacular dialects and sociolects of the Latin language until those dialects, diverging still further, evolved into the early Romance languages — a distinction usually made
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The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe, and includes modern day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar. It is the western and southernmost of the three southern European peninsulas (the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas).
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In Spain: Catalonia, Valencian Community, Balearic Islands, Aragon (in La Franja), Murcia (in El Carxe). In France: Northern Catalonia. In Italy: The city of L'Alguer. In Andorra.
Total speakers: 9.
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Iberian Romance languages followed more or less this process:
  • A common Romance language with dialectal differences was spoken throughout the ancient Roman Empire. During this stage, we can speak of the

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Gallo-Romance branch of Romance languages includes French, Catalan, and several other languages spoken in modern France and northern Italy and Spain. The Gallo-Romance languages, along with the Ibero-Romance and Rhaeto-Romance groups, form Western Romance.
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Occitan}}} 
Official status
Official language of: Officially recognised in Catalonia, Spain, as Occitan.
Regulated by: Conselh de la Lenga Occitana
Language codes
ISO 639-1: oc
ISO 639-2: oci
ISO 639-3: oci

Occitan
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Occitano-Romance branch of Romance languages encompasses the dialects pertaining to the Occitan and the Catalan languages situated in France (Occitania, Northern Catalonia), Spain (Catalonia, Valencian Community, Balearic Islands, La Franja, Carxe), Andorra, Monaco, parts of Italy
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West Iberian is a branch of the Romance languages which includes Spanish, Ladino, the Astur-Leonese group (Asturian, Leonese, Extremaduran and Mirandese), and the modern descendants of Galician-Portuguese (Galician, Portuguese, and the Fala language).
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 Spanish, Castilian}}} 
Writing system: Latin (Spanish variant)
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: —
ISO 639-3: —

Spanish (
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Astur-Leonese is a Romance language group of the West Iberian group, spoken in the Spanish provinces of Asturias (Asturian Language, asturianu, or Bable), León, Zamora and Salamanca (Leonese language, Llïonés).
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Galician-Portuguese (also known as galego-português or galaico-português in Portuguese and as galego-portugués or galaico-portugués in Galician) was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian
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Mozarabic was a continuum of closely related Romance dialects spoken in Muslim dominated areas of the Iberian Peninsula during the early stages of the Romance languages' development in Iberia.
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Al-Andalus (Arabic: الأندلس al-andalus) was the Arabic name given to those parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Muslims, or Moors, at various times in the period between 711 and 1492.
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Reconquista (English: Reconquest) was the seven-and-a-half century long process by which Christians conquered the Iberian peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain) from the Muslim and Moorish states of Al-Ándalus (Arabic الأندلس —
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Aragonese}}} 
Official status
Official language of: none
Regulated by: Academia de l'Aragonés
Language codes
ISO 639-1: an
ISO 639-2: arg
ISO 639-3: arg  

Aragonese
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Italo-Western is the largest sub-group of Romance languages. It comprises 38 languages in 2 subsets: Italo-Dalmatian, and Western.
  • Italo-Dalmatian includes Italian, Neapolitan and the extinct Dalmatian.

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The Crown of Castile, as a historic entity, is usually considered to have begun with the final and definitive union of the two kingdoms of León and Castile in 1230, or in fact with the union of their parliament a few decades later.
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Motto
"Plus Ultra"   (Latin)
"Further Beyond"
Anthem
"Marcha Real" 1
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Anthem
"A Portuguesa"


Capital
(and largest city) Lisbon5

Official languages Portuguese1
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Comunidad Autónoma de Galicia / Comunidade Autónoma de Galicia

Flag Coat of arms

Capital Santiago de Compostela
Official language(s) Galician and Spanish
Area
 – Total
 – % of Spain Ranked 7th
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The Kingdom of León (Reinu de Llión in the Leonese Language) was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of Iberia. Founded 913 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their main seat from Oviedo
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Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context on the way language is used. Sociolinguistics overlaps to a considerable degree with pragmatics.
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Crown of Aragon is a term used to refer to the permanent union of multiple titles and states in the hands of the King of Aragon. The component realms of the Crown were never united politically except at the level of the king.
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Catalunya
Cataluña
Catalonha
Catalonia

Flag Coat of arms

Anthem:
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Motto
"Virtus Unita Fortior"   (Latin)
"Strength United is Stronger"
Anthem
El Gran Carlemany, Mon Pare
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