Romance languages

Notes on the grammar and evolution of Latin, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.

The Romance languages evolved from Vulgar Latin (vulgus = common people), the common spoken language of the Roman empire. After the end of the empire, the local Latin dialects differentiated into separate languages. ‘Loqui romanice’ meant to speak in in the local dialect evolved from Latin. The modern sense of ‘romance’ in English comes from the same source – the love stories/popular tales of the day weren’t written in classical Latin but the local vernacular, Romanic/Romance.

Some Latin words that survive in all Romance languages:

	Latin	French	Spanish	Portug.	Italian
year	annus	an	año	ano	anno
water	aqua	eau	agua	água	acqua
son	filius	fils	hijo	filho	figlio
hand	manus	main	mano	mão	mano
night	nox	nuit	noche	noite	notte
wind	ventus	vent	viento	vento	vento
good	bonus	bon	bueno	bom	buono
well	bene	bien	bien	bem	bene
yesterday	heri	hier	ayer	(hiere)	ieri
to drink	bibere	boire	beber	beber	bere
to believe	credere	croire	creer	crer	credere
to be born	nasci	naître	nacer	nascer	nascere
to laugh	ridere	rire	reir	rir	ridere
to come	venire	venir	venir	vir	venire
to see	videre	voir	ver	ver	vedere

Particles

Prepositions

	Latin	French	Spanish	Portug.	Italian
to	ad	à	a	a	a(d)
around/about	circa		cerca	cerca
against	contra	contre	contra	contra	contro
with	cum $\to$ cu(n)	avec (apud+haec)	con	com	con
of	de	de	de	de	di
outside	foras/foris	fors/hors	fuera	fora	fuori
in	in	en	en	em	in
for	pro	pour	por	por
through, with, by, by means of	per	par			per
	per ad		para	para
after, behind	post $\to$ postea/positus	puis	pués	pois	poi
after, following, next to, according to	secundum	suivant	según	segundo	secondo
without	sine	sans	sin	sem	senza
over	supre/supra	sur	sobre	sobre	su
across	trans	tres	tras	trás	tra

Conjunctions

	Latin	French	Spanish	Portug.	Italian
and	et	et	y	e	e
but/however	per oc		pero		però
but	mais	mais	mas	mas	ma
if	si	si	si	se	se
or	aut	ou	o	ou	o

Verbs

The conjugation classes

Conjugation	Latin	French	Spanish	Portug.	Italian
I	-are	-er	-ar	-ar	-are
II	-ere	-oir	-er	-er	-ere
III	-ĕre	-re			-ĕre
IV	-ire	-ir	-ir	-ir	-ire

● ES and PT merged the awkward conjugation III into IV or II, depending on the verb and the language: vincĕre (to win) becomes vencer (II) and vencer (II), but dicĕre (to say) turns into decir (III)and dizer (II).

Endings of 1st conjugation verbs in the Present Indicative:

	Latin	French	Spanish	Portug.	Italian
I	-o	-e	-o	-o	-o
you	-as	-es	-as	-as	-i
he/she/it	-at	-e	-a	-a	-a
we	-amus	-ons	-amos	-amos	-iamo
you (plu.)	-atis	-ez	-áis	-ais	-ate
they	-ant	-ent	-an	-am	-ano

Conjugation of verbs from facere – to make/to do

LA fácere, past participle factus, perfect participle factum, gerund faciéndum

	French	Spanish	Portug.	Italian
infinitive	faire	hacer	fazer	fare
indicative present tense	je fais	(yo) hago	(eu) faço	(io) faccio
	tu fais	(tú) haces	(tu) fazes	(tu) fai
	il/ella fait	(él/ella/usted) hace	(ele/ela) faz	(lui, lei, Lei) fa
	nous faisons	(nosotros) hacemos	(nós) fazemos	(noi) facciamo
	vous faites	(vosotros) hacéis	(vós) fazeis	(voi) fate
	ils/elles font	(ellas/ellos/ustedes) hacen	(eles/elas) fazem	(loro, Loro) fanno
past infinitive	avoir fait			aver fatto
gerund (present)		haciendo	fazendo	facendo
gerund (past)				avendo fatto
present participle	faisant		faciente	facente
past participle	fait/ayant fait	hecho	feito	fatto

● PT also has a personal infinitive that inflects according to its subject.
● je fais = hago = faccio = I make/do / I’m making/doing.
● Talking about weather: Il fait froi – hace frio – It’s cold (literally, ‘it makes cold’)

First person singular forms:

	Latin	French	Spanish	Italian
prs.ind.	facio	fais	hago	faccio
prs.sbjv.	faciam	fasse	haga	faccia
ipf.ind.	faciebam	faisais	hacía	facevo
pfv.ind	feci	fis	hice	feci
plpf.ind	feceram		hiciera	(fecera)
plpf.sbjv	fecissem	fisse	hiciese	facessi

Past participles

	Latin		French	Spanish	Portug.	Italian
infinitive		past participle
to write	scrībere	scriptus	écrit	escrito	escrito	scritto
to break	rumpere	ruptus		roto	roto	rotto
to say	dicere	dictus	dit	dicho	dito	detto
to see	videre	visus		visto	visto	visto

Pronouns

Subject pronouns

	Latin	French	Spanish	Portug.	Italian
I	égo $\to$ eo	je	yo	eu	io
you	tu	tu	tú/vos	tu	tu
you (polite)		vous	usted	você	Lei
you (polite plural)			ustedes		Loro
he	ille	il	él	ele	lui
she	illa	elle	ella	ela	lei
it	illud	il	ello, lo	o
we	nos	nous	nosotros	nós	noi
you (plural)	vos	vous	vosotros	vós	voi
they	illos	ils	ellos	eles	loro
they (fem.)	illas	elles	ellas	eles	loro

● Subject pronouns are optional in most Romance languages, except FR, where they are always included.
● FR uses second-person plural forms (vous etc) to address a single person politely, while ES, PT and IT use third-person verb forms i.e. tu haces but usted hace .
● PT also has the very formal second person o senhor (to a male), a senhora (to a female), os senhores (to men), as senhoras (to women).

Sources of pronouns etc

	Latin	French	Spanish	Portug.	Italian
me	me/mihi	me, moi	me, (a) mí	(a) mim	mi
you (obj)	tibi	te, toi	te, (a) tí	(a) ti	ti
with me	mecum		conmigo	comigo	meco
with you	tecum		contigo	contigo	teco
with him/her	secum		consigo	consigo	seco
my	meum	mon, ma, mien, -nne	mío, -a, mi	meu, minha	mio, -a
your	tuum	ton, ta, tien, -nne	tu, tuyo, -a	teu, tua	tuo, -a
his/hers/its	suus, sua	son, sa, sien, -nne	su, suyo, -a	seu, suya	suo, -a
our	nostrum	notre, nôtre	nuestro, -a	nosso, -a	nostro, -a
their	vestrum/vostrum	votre, vôtre	vuestro, -a	vosso, -a	vostro, -a
you (polite)	VL vostra merced		vuestra merced $\to$ usted	vossa mercê $\to$ você
this	iste, -a		este, -a
this	istud $\to$ isto		esto	isto
	illi $\to$ illei				lei
	illi $\to$ illui	lui	le	lhe	lui
	illum, illam	le, la	lo, le, la	lo, la
	illorum	leur, -s
they, them	illis	eux	les	lhes
	illos	ils, eux	ellos, los	os, los
	illas	elles	ellas, las	as, las
	VL ecce-illui	celui
that (far away)	VL ecce-illa	celle	aquella	aquela
that (far away)	VL ecce-ille		aquel	aquele
	VL ecce-illa	celle
that	ipse, -a $\to$ isse, -a		ese, -a
that	ipsum $\to$ isso		eso	isso
self, same	egomet ipse $\to$ metipse $\to$ metipsimus	meïsme $\to$ mesme $\to$ même	mismo	mesmo	medessimo
	quis, qui	qui
what?, that, who?	quid, quod, quem	quei $\to$ quoi, que	¿qué? que ¿quien?	que, quem
some	aliquis unus $\to$ aliquunus	alcun $\to$ aucun	alguno	algum	alcuno
something	aliquod		algo	algo
someone	aliquem		alguien	alguém
	quisque unus $\to$ casquunus	chascun $\to$ chacun			ciascuno
other	alter, -a, -um	altre $\to$ autre	otro, -a	outro, -a
only, lone	solus, -a, -um	seul, seule	solo, -a	só
all	totus, -a, -um	tout, toute	todo, -a	todo, -a, tudo	tutto, -a
one	unus, -a, -um	un, une	uno, -a	um, uma
which	qualis	quel, quelle	cual ¿cuál?	qual
how much	quantus	quant	¿cuánto? cuanto	quanto
when	quando	quand	¿cuándo? cuando	quando
such	talis	tel, telle	tal	tal
so	tantus	tant	tan, tanto	tão, tanto
every	VL cata unum		cada	cada	catuno
true, certain	certanus	certan $\to$ certain, -e	cierto	certo
nothing	VL non res nata (no thing born) $\to$ nata		nada	nada
nobody	VL non homines nati (no people born) $\to$ nati		nadie
none	VL nec unu		ninguno	nenhum

Evolution of Latin into Romance languages

Consonant changes

Latin..became:		French	Spanish	Portug.	Italian
++cl- fl- pl-		=	ll-	ch- (sh sound)	chi- (k sound) fi- pi-
	flammam	flamme	llama	chama	fiamma	flame
	pluviam	pluie	lluvia	chuva	pioggia	rain
	clamare (to shout)	clamer (to cry out)	llamar	chamar	chiamare	to call
++-ct-		it	ch	it	tt
	nocte	nuit	noche	noite	notte	night
++-li-			j	lh	gli
	filius/filia	fils/fille	hijo/hija	filho/filha	figlio/figlia	son/daughter
	consilium	conseil	consejo	conselho	consiglio	advice (counsel)
++-p-		v	b	b	=
	leporum	lièvre	liebre	lebre	lepre	hare
	ripam	rive	riba		ripa	bank, shore
	sapere	savoir	saber	saber	sapere	to have a (certain) taste, to be intelligent

● more consonant changes in IT: florem $\to$ fiore flower, ecclesiam $\to$ clesiam $\to$ chesia church, planum $\to$ piano, plateam (street) $\to$ place plaza praça piazza (open square in a city)

Vowel changes

Latin..became:		French	Spanish	Portug.	Italian
au		o/au	o		o
	causa (cause, case)	chose	cosa	coisa	cosa	thing
	pauper	pauvre	pobre	pobre	povero	poor
	aurum	or	oro		oro	gold
e (accented) $\to$ ie
	pédem	pied	pie		piede	foot
	pétram	pierre	piedra		pietra	rock
	mél	miel	miel		miele	honey
	ténet	tient	tiene		tiene	he/she holds
	décem	dieis $\to$ dix	diez		dieci	ten
	célum	ciel	cielo		cielo	sky
o (accented)		eu/oeu	ue		uo
	nóvam	nuef $\to$ neuf	nuevo		nuovo	new
	VL mórit	meurt	muere		muore	he/she dies
	bóvem	boeuf	buey		bue	ox
	óvum	oeuf	huevo		uovo	egg

“How did this curious change, called “spontaneous diphthongization,” come about? The accented vowel, because it was accented, was lengthened first: pédem (foot) /pe-de/ came to be pronounced /pe-e-de/. Then, by dissimilation, the first of the two sounds changed, resulting in /piede/. By a parallel process, accented o /o/ came to be pronounced /o-o/ and then /uo/.
~~+++~~Upon still closer study, a further refinement appears, a distinction between Spanish, on the one hand, and both French and Italian, on the other. The latter languages do not diphthongize accented e or o if the vowel is followed by a consonant within the same syllable (such a vowel is called “checked”; the opposite is a “free” vowel).” [S211]

Latin..became:		French	Spanish	Italian
e (checked)			ie
	térram	terre	tierra	terra	earth
	mérdam	merde	mierda	merda	shit
	céntum	cent	ciento	cento	hundred
o (checked)			ue
	córpus	corps	cuerpo	corpo	body
	mórdit	mord	muerde	morde	he/she bites
	pórtum	port	puerto	porto	harbour

Doublets

~~+++++~~Latin has bequeathed to its Romance offspring two separate word stocks, which might be termed “popular” and “learned.” One consists of the words inherited directly from Latin, continuously present in the language, passed on without interruption from one generation of speakers to the next; the other, of words introduced at some later time and adopted from written Latin (and Greek).

Latin		French	Spanish	Portug.	Italian	meaning
causam	1.	chose	cosa		cosa	thing
causam	2.	cause	causa		causa	cause
collocare (to set in place)	1.	coucher				to lay down
collocare (to set in place)	2.	colloquer				to set in place
spatulam (broad, flat piece)	1.	épaule (shoulder)	espalda (back)
spatulam (broad, flat piece)	2.	spatule	espátula	espátula	spatola	spatula
blasphemare (to blaspheme) $\to$ blastemare	1.	blâmer	lastimar (to injure)		biasimare	to blame
blasphemare (to blaspheme) $\to$ blastemare	2.	blasphémer	blasfemar	blasfemar	bestemmiare	to blaspheme
parabola (comparison)	1.	parole	palabra	palavra	parola	word
parabola (comparison)	2.	parabole	parábola	parábola	parabola	parable
navigare (to sail)	1.	nager				to swim
navigare (to sail)	2.	naviguer	navegar	navegar	navigare	to sail, navigate
papyrum (papyrus)	1.	papier	papel	papel		paper
papyrum (papyrus)	2.	papyrus	papiro	papiro	papiro	papyrus
bestia	1.		bicha			bug, small animal
bestia	2.		bestia			beast
capitalis	1.		caudal			wealth, fortune, prosperity
capitalis	2.		capital			capital
fabricare	1.		fraguar			to forge, make
fabricare	2.		fabricar			to manufacture
articulus	1.		artejo			joint
articulus	2.		artículo			article
rapidus	1.		raudo			swift, fast-flowing
rapidus	2.		rápido			swift(ly), quick(ly)

Spanish-Portuguese correspondences

PT lacks the h sound of ES, written j as in José; instead the h sound changes to a sh, zh or ly (written lh) sound.

Portuguese sound	Spanish	Portug.
sh	jefe (heh-fe)	chefe (sheh-fee)
	bajo (bah-ho)	baixo (buy-shoe)
zh	junio (hoon-yo)	junho (zhoon-yo)
lh	mujer (moo-hair)	mulher (mool-yeah)

Spanish .. becomes	in Portug.	e.g.		e.g.
ll	l/ch/lh	llorar	chorar (shoh-rah)
n	nh	dinero	dinheiro	vino	vinho
ñ	n	año	ano	pequeño	pequeno
h	f	hacer	fazer	hijo	filho
ch	t	luchar	lutar	mucho	muito
ct	t	doctor	doutor	acto	ato
ks sound	s sound	acción	açao	accidente	acidente
mn	n	alumno	aluno	columna	coluna
pl	pr	placer	prazer	plaza	praça
bl	br	blanco	branco	obligar	obrigar
-ano	-ão	mano	mão	verano	verão
-ana	-ã	manzana	maçã	hermana	irmã
-ble	-vel	horrible	horrivel	posible	possivel
-ito/ita	-inho/inha	casita	casinha
-cito/cita	-zinho/zinha	cafecito	cafezinho
-ero	-eiro
-ción	-ção
-aje	-agem

Nouns

Plurals
FR : add s. ES : add s or es.

it :~~++++~~		singular	plural	e.g.
	masculine	-o	-i	libro $\Rightarrow$ libri
	feminine	-a	-e	penna $\Rightarrow$ penne

● In ES and IT, most masculine nouns end in -o, most feminine nouns end in -a. It’s not easy to tell gender in FR.

(some) Grammatical tenses

English	Latin	French	Spanish	Portug.	Italian
present	present
preterite (simple) past	perfect imperfect	passé simple passé composé (compound past)	pretérito imperfect present perfect	pretérito perfeito pretérito imperfeito	passato remoto imperfetto passato prossimo
future future-in-the-past	future pluperfect future perfect

etc

of it/that/them/etc	ne		ne
there	y		ci
there is	il y a	y ha $\to$ hay	c’è/vi è
there are			ci sono/vi sono

très

muy

muito

molto

Interesting facts..
● ‘werden’ (to become) is the 3rd most common verb in German. (It’s not easy [for gringos] to say ‘become’ in ES!)

Sources:
about.com
ielanguages.com
nativlang.com/romance-languages
orbilat.com
spanishlinguist.us
The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages, Vol 1 Structures (2011)
Heatwole – A Comparative Practical Grammar of French, Spanish and Italian (1949)
[S] Joseph B. Solodow – Latin Alive : The Survival of Latin in English and Romance Languages (2010)

Source of quotes