Questions tagged [romance-languages]
Branch of the Indo-European language family including all languages descended from Latin, such as French, Spanish and Italian.
136 questions
5
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Which Romance Language retains the most words from Celtic?
It is known that they were once the same language, Proto Italo-Celtic, however with the descendants of Latin and the remaining Celtic languages, which Romance Language retains the most influence from ...
- 189
0
votes
1
answer
546
views
Stark differences in French and German
Both the German and French languages, along with English, evolved from the same roots. This is reflected in some of their words and grammatical structures. So then why are the pronunciations of both ...
- 103
4
votes
1
answer
658
views
Portuguese: Inconsistencies in use of second person pronouns and conjugation
I observed that both colloquial Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese show some inconsistencies in the way they use the second person pronoun (or its conjugation) and would like to know if my ...
- 41
9
votes
2
answers
529
views
What linguistic impact, if any, has the the Roman three name naming system left on modern Romance and European languages?
The ancient Romans had a three name system (tria nomina): praenomen, the birth/given name; the nomen, like a family name but marking the person as belonging to a specific gens; and the cognomen, of ...
- 626
17
votes
5
answers
4k
views
In romance languages, are there examples of male names that derive from female names?
In french, there are many female given names that are derived from male given names. Those names are often obtained by adding "ine", "ette", "e" or "a" at the end of the male name. Examples include
...
- 361
2
votes
3
answers
413
views
Gold in French, light in Hebrew
I am fascinated by questions of linguistic relation between Hebrew and the Romance Languages, but I feel here I may have stumbled on a false connection and would like to be properly put in my place.
...
3
votes
2
answers
717
views
Absence of vowel combination /ou/ in Spanish
Spanish has many words containing the diphthongs /au/, /eu/ and /iu/, but the only instances of words containing /ou/ (as a diphthong or in hiatus) are a very small set of foreign loanwords:
bou, ...
- 3,132
8
votes
2
answers
246
views
Catalan assimilation of 's' /s/ → [ʃ] after palatal consonants 'ny' /ɲ/ and 'll' /ʎ/
Question
I've noticed a phenomenon in (Central) Catalan speech that I had seen no mention of when studying the language. In words with a final -nys or -lls, the s is assimilated and becomes palatal [ʃ]...
- 3,132
4
votes
3
answers
944
views
As French is a so-called Roman language, where are the cases? [duplicate]
French language is known to be a Roman language, just like Spanish, Italian, Swiss Roman…
Those Roman languages are told to be originating from Latin language.
When I learnt Latin, one of the first (...
- 157
11
votes
3
answers
870
views
Where did the use of the two auxiliaries in the Romance languages come from?
Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French all have a (compound) perfect tense, which I find curious, given that Latin did not. (You can alternatively perhaps say that it is either united with the ...
- 496
17
votes
2
answers
6k
views
When and where did the guttural 'r' originate?
I have often wondered why French is (almost) unique in the Romance languages in using the guttural 'r' – in particular, the uvular fricative. Apart from Piedmontese / Piedmontese Italian (and even ...
- 496
12
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Can the "dialect continuum" phenomenon be recognized from Rome to Lisbon?
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a spread of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighbouring varieties differ only slightly, but the differences accumulate over ...
- 223
4
votes
1
answer
225
views
Romance-like pronominal verbs elsewhere
Romance languages are known to have lots of so-called pronominal verbs, which are always conjugated with a reflexive pronoun even though the action is not actually reflexive: for example, Spanish irse,...
- 1,245
5
votes
2
answers
193
views
Is there a name for the tense some Romance languages used to use for stories?
I've seen it before, but I don't know what it would be called. I know that some of the Romance languages used to have a specific tense used only for stories (at least, fictional ones). They're no ...
user19661
19
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Did Romance languages evolve in North Africa?
So, I know that the dialects of Vulgar Latin evolved into the Romance languages in the Western Roman Empire, but I've always wondered why they only formed in Europe instead of in North Africa. Does ...
2
votes
2
answers
430
views
Common language root for dom, domain
Earlier today I was wondering about the similarity of domain (eng), domaine (fr) and the words for home or house dom (rus), dům (cz) makes me think they have some common root, is that true? If so, ...
- 155
6
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Why does Italian use definite articles before possessive adjectives, except when these are followed by a singular family noun?
In Italian possessive adjectives are preceded by a definite article: “il mio amico” (the my friend), “la nostra casa”, “i tuoi libri”. The article however is always dropped with singular nouns ...
- 390
5
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Why did English "man" and Latin "homo" take both the senses "gender-neutral human" and "male adult"?
Why did English "man" and Latin "homo" take both the sense "gender-neutral human" and "male adult"?
According to etymonline.com, English "man", and incidentally Latin "homo" (which originally meant "...
- 359
-1
votes
1
answer
370
views
Origin & explanation of sabado & sobota being similar in latin and slavic languages?
The word for Saturday in many languages both Romance (Italian, Spanish etc.) and Slavic (Russian, Polish, for example) is Sabado / Sobota - very similar words!
My personal amateur guess is that it ...
- 155
2
votes
0
answers
285
views
Was Latin A Nasalized Language?
Thinking about it, most of the Romance languages I have heard nasalize vowels quite frequently and it seems consistent: that has me wondering, is there any evidence to show that Latin was a heavily-...
- 1,003
1
vote
1
answer
579
views
Etymology of Romance words for Marriage [closed]
There are a few different Romance etyma with the meaning 'marriage'. Some are derived from Latin casa 'house', some from mater 'mother', and some from mas/maris 'man':
L casa [+ -mentum] > CA ...
6
votes
1
answer
213
views
How did ìritu evolve from digitus?
The Latin word for "finger" is digitus. In Italian, I assume the "gi" was lost, perhaps via some lenition of the "g" to *dijitus and then j was lost, giving *dītus, or perhaps accusative *dītum, ...
- 507
2
votes
1
answer
714
views
Is Occitan a single language or have its different dialects become separate languages?
The Wikipedia page for the language mentions a 'controversy' about whether it is a language, macrolanguage or language family.
Is there an official status for the language and what are the ...
5
votes
1
answer
714
views
Is /ɡ/ Germanic and /dʒ/ French in English ge-/gi- words?
I've recently noticed that in English words starting with "ge-" or "gi-", when the "g" is pronounced /ɡ/, they tend to be etymologically Germanic, while the words where the "g" is pronounced /dʒ/ tend ...
- 1,242
9
votes
4
answers
554
views
Any other example of "socially stigmatized phoneme" like the "th" sound in some Venetian dialect?
Older people living in some rural areas north of Venice use the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ for many words, like cena "supper" which is pronounced θena, exactly like in Spanish cena (Castilian, not ...
- 390
1
vote
1
answer
405
views
How did the Latin past participle suffix -atus develop into modern French -é?
How did the Latin past participle suffix -atus develop into modern French -é?
Considering the two following examples: modern French état ("state; status") and été ("been"). Both derives ultimately ...
- 359
6
votes
1
answer
807
views
Derivatives of Latin *mulier* in French
It is well known that the derivatives of Latin mulier and fēmina competed in Romance languages as the main word for `woman'. For instance, the former remained as Spanish mujer and Portuguese mulher (...
- 558
12
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Earliest recognition that Germanic and Romance languages are related
A recent question here, Earliest recognition that Romance languages are related asks for when in history it was first noted that individual Romance languages were recognized as ... similar/related/...
- 4,495
7
votes
1
answer
574
views
Earliest recognition that Romance languages are related
I don't know if this is a question for this Stack Exchange or for the History Stack Exchange, but I would like to know when people first understood that the Romance languages were related. I have ...
- 238
2
votes
3
answers
313
views
Spanish Stem Change
I'm looking at a set of data right and I'm a bit confused on how to tackle this. The data is showing a stem alternation of some verbs with [e] and [o] and no change in others. I know this is due to ...
- 264
8
votes
2
answers
682
views
Why does French "cheveu(x)" have "eu" and not "eau"?
Many French words have lost etymological /l/. I have read that this occured due to a process of l-vocalization around the 10th-12th centuries which turned pre-consonantal l to u after any vowel aside ...
- 18.7k
4
votes
1
answer
303
views
What is the reason for some languages have non-linear word order for numbers?
Is there a scientific/historic explanation for the reversed word order for numbers in some languages?
For example, while we have for 32:
in English: thirty two (tens units), Hebrew: shloshim ...
- 353
0
votes
1
answer
451
views
Have Latin and Romance languages evolved from vowel to consonant variety?
Seeing information on Latin, there are many diphtongs, and less consonants, or at least less letters for them.
Nowadays among Romance languages, only Portuguese has a bit complex vowel system (like ...
- 153
1
vote
0
answers
150
views
Etymological development of forms of Spanish "seguir" from Latin "SEQVI" (*sequire)
I am seeking an explanation for the development of the forms of Spanish "seguir" from Latin "SEQVI" (Vulgar Latin: *sequire), especially the irregular forms.
Especially, why did the "e" become "i" in ...
- 661
4
votes
0
answers
476
views
Past participle agreement in French
Background (skip if you know French)
In French, to generate the past tense, you use the past participle of the verb, attaching in front a conjugated form of avoir or être. For example:
J'ai mangé. (I ...
- 661
4
votes
1
answer
472
views
Latin to French - evolution of certain forms of "FACERE > faire"
All forms of the Latin verb "FACERE" that went to French had a "c", but it has disappeared in all forms of the French verb "faire".
In FACIS > fais, the "c" completely disappeared.
In FACIUNT > font,...
- 661
7
votes
0
answers
181
views
Romance languages - "to mean" as "to want to say"
I have noticed this phenomenon in quite a few Romance languages, that the verb "to mean" can also be conveyed by the phrase "to want to say", regardless of the origin of the verb "to want".
For ...
- 661
7
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Why were words for the four cardinal directions in Romance languages borrowed from Old English?
Why were words for the four cardinal directions (east, west, north, south) in Romance languages borrowed from Old English? They could have used their own words derived from Latin because these words ...
- 359
6
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Why is the Romanian syntax for "Good night!" opposite to all the other Romance languages?
It's interesting to look at the phrase "Good night!" in the various languages of different language groups. The phrase is usually recognizable across related languages. (It's similar when looking at ...
- 898
4
votes
2
answers
819
views
History of "have", "avoir", "haben", etc. as auxiliary
In Geoff Pullum's recent post Being an Auxiliary on the Lingua Franca blog, he states that the sense of "have" as an auxiliary (forming the perfect tense) evolved from the possession sense, "but the ...
- 143
13
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Do the words "angst" and "anxiety" share a common root?
The English word angst, taken from German Angst, seems to ultimately originate from Proto-Germanic *angustiz. This word has descendants in many Germanic languages, including, but not limited to, ...
- 898
4
votes
3
answers
438
views
Do Germanic words have Romance qualities and vice-versa?
I know English was heavily influenced by French. But were there any other instances during which a Germanic language obtained Romance qualities or a Romance language with Germanic qualities?
- 49
8
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Is there something deeper behind the “verb classes swapping” of the subjunctive endings in Romance languages?
I first asked this question in https://spanish.stackexchange.com/q/15929/11155
However the Spanish community has not found any answer yet and the phenomenon is observable in many Romance languages. I ...
- 899
4
votes
0
answers
2k
views
Why is the French accent so different from other Romance accents? [closed]
In terms of pronounciation, the general French accent is very different from the Italian, Spanish or Romanian ones.
For example: many conventional sounds in Romance langauges (i.e. /r/ or /j/) are ...
- 41
7
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Why do many French and Spanish noun cognates have opposing grammatical gender?
While most French/Spanish noun cognates share the same gender (both descending from the same vulgar latin root), there are many exceptions having opposing genders (e.g. la couleur / el color; la ...
user5306
4
votes
3
answers
5k
views
Why do English, Italian, German, Spanish, French and Latin share a common alphabet and many words?
I wonder why English, Italian, German, Spanish, French and Latin share common alphabet and other words.
Also what is the relation among them.
- 159
2
votes
1
answer
604
views
Which Romance language has the simplest phonotactics?
I have decided to give my latest conlang romance vocabulary, but I want the phonotactics of this language to be as simple as possible and yet still be recognizably Romance. (I don't generally spend a ...
- 8,780
18
votes
3
answers
783
views
r in Romance names of London
Most Romance languages have an "r" in their renditions of the British capital's name: Londres, Londra etc.
Outside the Romance family, I only found it in Turkish Londra and Breton Londrez, but those ...
- 699
1
vote
0
answers
180
views
Why were prefixes repeated as postverbal prepositions?
French: s'abstenir de Spanish: abstenerse de English: abstain [from] (v.)
[<--]
late 14c., "to withhold oneself," from Old French abstenir (14c.), earlier astenir (13c.) "hold (...
user5306
3
votes
2
answers
265
views
Why does "date" in Portuguese became "data", while in Dutch "datum" is used?
I didn't study Latin, but I can recognize when a noun is singular or plural.
It's weird that date is used in the singular form data in Portuguese - a Neo-Latin language - while Dutch contains the ...
- 161