When did Germanic and Romance languages diverge?
After the breakup of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, the dialects spoken in different parts of its territory started to diverge from each other and eventually evolved into dozens of distinct languages by the 9th century AD.
Why is English Germanic and not Romance?
Evolution takes time, and despite 58\% of English vocabulary (more than half) coming from Romance languages (Latin and French), linguists still consider English to be a Germanic language to this day because of how the language followed human migration patterns and the grammar of modern English.
How did the Romance languages develop?
Romance languages, group of related languages all derived from Vulgar Latin within historical times and forming a subgroup of the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family. The major languages of the family include French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian, all national languages.
Why does French sound different from other Romance languages?
The pronunciation of French is different from most Romance languages because it has many vowels, it is experiencing the weakening of consonants, has irregular tonic accent, and a unique stress pattern. This is why so many say French is different, because few Romance languages have any similar features.
Why are the Romance languages similar?
All of the Romance languages derive from Vulgar Latin, or the colloquial form of Latin spoken by the lower classes. The Latin language had its heyday during the Roman Empire, and from there, it separated into various dialects.
Why did Romance languages develop differently?
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire there was a degree of regional isolation. Germanic invasions from the north had a further disrupting effect, and Vulgar Latin was thus differentiated into local dialects, which in time evolved into the individual Romance tongues.
Does French sound Germanic?
French is not a Germanic language, but rather, a Latin or a Romance language that has been influenced by both Celtic languages like Gaelic, Germanic languages like Frankish and even Arabic, other Romance languages such as Spanish and Italian or more recently, English.
Is Latin like French?
None! They are barely different! The big difference comes when pronunciation appears. Spanish is pretty conservative in pronunciation while French has constant pronunciation shifts every century, so French pronunciation diverged considerably from Latin, Spanish diverged too from Latin in sound, but much much less.