Romance languages

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 total speakers are: Spanish (530 to 600 million), official in Spain and most of central and south America; French (320 to 500 million), official in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and French-speaking Africa and America; Portuguese (280 million), official in Portugal, Brazil and Portuguese-speaking Africa; Italian (71 million), official in Italy, Vatican City, San Marino and Switzerland; and Romanian (30 million), official in Romania and Moldova. There are more than 1 billion total 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 linguae francae. There are also numerous regional Romance languages and dialects. Provided by Wikipedia