The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family.
The five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are:
Spanish (489 million): the official language in Spain and most of Central and South America
French (321 million): official in 29 countries
Portuguese (240 million): official in Portugal, Brazil and Portuguese-speaking Africa
Italian (67 million): official in Italy, Vatican City, San Marino, Switzerland; minority language in Croatia; regional in Slovenia (Istria) and Brazil (Santa Teresa, Espírito Santo and Encantado, Rio Grande do Sul)
Romanian (30 million): official in Romania and Moldova
The Romance languages spread throughout the globe owing to the period of European colonialism beginning in the 15th century; there are more than 900 million native speakers of Romance languages found worldwide, mainly in the Americas, Europe, and parts of Africa. Portuguese, French and Spanish also have many non-native speakers and are in widespread use as lingua francas. There are also numerous regional Romance languages and dialects.
In European context, the Romance languages tend to be contrasted with the Germanic languages.
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