Western Romance languages are one of the two subdivisions of a proposed subdivision of the

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...

based on the

La Spezia–Rimini Line The La Spezia–Rimini Line (also known as the ''Massa–Senigallia Line''), in the linguistics of the Romance languages, is a line that demarcates a number of important isoglosses that distinguish Romance languages south and east of the line fr ...

. They include the Gallo-Romance and Iberian Romance branches.

Gallo-Italic The Gallo-Italic, Gallo-Italian, Gallo-Cisalpine or simply Cisalpine languages constitute the majority of the Romance languages of northern Italy. They are Piedmontese, Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian, and Romagnol. Although most publications de ...

may also be included. The subdivision is based mainly on the use of the "s" for pluralization, the weakening of some consonants and the pronunciation of “ Soft C” as /t͡s/ (often later /s/) rather than /t͡ʃ/ as in Italian and Romanian. Based on

mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...

, Dalby counts thirteen languages:

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Asturleonese Asturleonese ( ast, Asturlleonés; es, Asturleonés; pt, Asturo-leonês; mwl, Asturlhionés) is a Romance language spoken primarily in northwestern Spain, namely in the historical regions and Spain's modern-day autonomous communities of Asturi ...

, Aragonese, Catalan, Gascon, Provençal, Gallo-Wallon, French,

Franco-Provençal Franco-Provençal (also Francoprovençal, Patois or Arpitan) is a language within Gallo-Romance originally spoken in east-central France, western Switzerland and northwestern Italy. Franco-Provençal has several distinct dialects and is separ ...

, Romansh, Ladin and Friulian.David Dalby, 1999/2000, ''The Linguasphere register of the world’s languages and speech communities.'' Observatoire Linguistique, Linguasphere Press. Volume 2. Oxfor

/ref> Some classifications include Italo-Dalmatian languages, Italo-Dalmatian; the resulting clade is generally called Italo-Western Romance. Other classifications place Italo-Dalmatian with Eastern Romance. Sardinian does not fit into either Western or Eastern Romance, and may have split off before either. Today the four most widely spoken standardized Western Romance languages are

(c. 410 million native speakers, around 125 million second-language speakers),

(c. 220 million native, another 45 million or so second-language speakers, mainly in

Lusophone Africa The Portuguese-speaking African countries ( pt, Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa; PALOP), also known as Lusophone Africa, consist of six African countries in which the Portuguese language is an official language: Angola, Cape Ve ...

), French (c. 80 million native speakers, another 70 million or so second-language speakers, mostly in Francophone Africa), and Catalan (c. 7.2 million native). Many of these languages have large numbers of non-native speakers; this is especially the case for French, in widespread use throughout

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

as a lingua franca.

Gallo-Romance

Gallo-Romance includes: *The Oïl languages. These include

Standard French Standard French (in French: ''le français standard'', ''le français normé'', ''le français neutre'' eutral Frenchor ''le français international'' nternational French is an unofficial term for a standard variety of the French language. It ...

, Picard, Walloon, Lorrain and Norman. *The Arpitan language, also known as Franco-Provençal. It shares features of both French and the Provençal dialect of Occitan. *The

Occitan language Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Vall ...

, or langue d'oc, has dialects such as Provençal dialect, and Gascon-Aranese dialect. Gallo-Romance can include: *The

Catalan language Catalan (; autonym: , ), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as ''Valencian'' (autonym: ), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern ...

has standard forms of Catalan and

Valencian Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the El Carche comarca in Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance language also known as Catal ...

. Can be classified as East Iberian. *The

Rhaeto-Romance languages Rhaeto-Romance, Rheto-Romance, or Rhaetian, is a purported subfamily of the Romance languages that is spoken in south-eastern Switzerland and north-eastern Italy. The name "Rhaeto-Romance" refers to the former Roman province of Raetia. The quest ...

. They include Romansh of Switzerland, Ladin of the Dolomites area, Friulian of Friuli. Rhaeto-Romance languages can be classified as Gallo-Romance, or as an independent branch of the Western Romance languages. *The

Gallo-Italic languages The Gallo-Italic, Gallo-Italian, Gallo-Cisalpine or simply Cisalpine languages constitute the majority of the Romance languages of northern Italy. They are Piedmontese, Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian, and Romagnol. Although most publications def ...

. This group includes languages such as

Piedmontese Piedmontese (; autonym: or , in it, piemontese) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, northwestern region of Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly reg ...

, Ligurian, Lombard, Emilian, Gallo-Italic of Sicily, Gallo-Italic of Basilicata. The Oïl languages, Arpitan and Rhaeto-Romance languages are sometimes called Gallo-Rhaetian, but it is difficult to exclude from this group Gallo-Italic, which according to several linguists forms a particular unity with Rhaeto-Romance.Hull, Geoffrey, ''The Linguistic Unity of Northern Italy and Rhaetia: Historical Grammar of the Padanian Language'', Sydney: Beta Crucis, 2017. 2 vols.

Iberian Romance

Iberian Romance languages of the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...

include:Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Western Romance"
Glottolog
Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. *The

West Iberian languages West Iberian is a branch of the Ibero-Romance languages that includes the Castilian languages ( Spanish, Judaeo-Spanish, Extremaduran (sometimes) and Loreto-Ucayali), Astur-Leonese ( Asturian, Leonese, Mirandese, Extremaduran (sometimes) and ...

: **The

Castilian languages The Castilian languages are Castilian (Spanish) and its closest relatives. Besides derivatives of Spanish such as Judaeo-Spanish and Amazonic Spanish, this refers principally to Extremaduran, a partially mutually intelligible language that is ...

: includes

and Judaeo-Spanish. **The Galician-Portuguese languages: includes

, Galician and Fala. **The Astur-Leonese languages: they are, from east to west, Cantabrian, central-eastern Asturian and Leonese proper. Going from north to south, they are Leonese proper, Mirandese, Extremaduran and

Barranquenho Barranquenho (; English: Barranquian) is a Romance linguistic variety spoken in the Portuguese town of Barrancos, near the Spanish border. It is a mixed language, and can be considered either a variety of Portuguese (Alentejan Portuguese) heavi ...

. *The

Pyrenean–Mozarabic West Iberian is a branch of the Ibero-Romance languages that includes the Castilian languages ( Spanish, Judaeo-Spanish, Extremaduran (sometimes) and Loreto-Ucayali), Astur-Leonese ( Asturian, Leonese, Mirandese, Extremaduran (sometimes) and ...

languages: includes Aragonese, and the extinct

Mozarabic Mozarabic, also called Andalusi Romance, refers to the medieval Romance varieties spoken in the Iberian Peninsula in territories controlled by the Islamic Emirate of Córdoba and its successors. They were the common tongue for the majority of ...

. Can be classified as West Iberian. *The East Iberian language, or

: also classified as part of Occitano-Romance, see Gallo-Romance above.

References

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