What languages evolved from Latin?

Question

Did the German language evolve from Latin?

Answer 1

Italian obviously, Spanish, French, and the various Balkan dialects, which are a mixture of Latin and Slavonic languages.  While the people of the Balkans, like Russians, are predominantly Slavs, the language is completely different.  Russian is a mixture of Slavonic and Scandinavian languages, while Balkan languages, Latin and Slavonic, meaning, its almost impossible for Russians and the people of the Balkans to communicate unless they learn each other's languages, or both speak English.

Hope that helped.

Answer 2

Primarily, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian.  A number of local languages and dialects within Spain, France and Italy also emerged, as did languages in the Balkans that have since died out largely as the Slavs moved in during the 8th and 9th centuries.  The chief Balkan language of Latin origin, Dalmatian, died out in the late 19th century.  It was spoken in Croatia.  Serbo-Croat is a Slavic language with some Slavic influences (much less than English or German), it is very similar to Czech or Polish and many words are mutually intelligible to speakers of either language, although they would not be able to have a fully coherent conversation, many words share similar roots.

Aragonese, Neapolitan, Bergamasque, Asturian, Catalan, French, Occitan, Italian, Sicilian, Sardinian, Romansh, Romanian, Galician, Milanese, Mirandese, Piedmontese, Portuguese, Venetian, Spanish, Walloon, Valdotain, and Friulian are all officially recognized Romance languages, with a number of local dialects that could inflate this list.  Together, they are spoken by some 700 million people around the world as their native language.

While English, German and Dutch aren't of Latin origin, you'll find that large percentage of the words in those languages are of Latin origin, as they've borrowed from Latin very heavily.

Answer 3

German isn't derived from Latin. The major Romance (from "Roman") Languages are French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian, but there are several others. More info can be found at the Wiki page.

Answer 4

No, French, Spanish, and Italian came from a base of Latin

But, English and German are of a Germanic base. The only reason Germanic languages still exist are because the Romans (who spoke latin) never fully conquered the Germanic peoples. The Reason English is a Germanic language is because the Angles,(where the word England comes from) Saxons, and Jutes, all Germanic tribes conquered England

Answer 5

The Romans never occupied Germany, so the influence of Latin  was not felt by German speakers.  The border was the Rhine River, which remains the border for Romance and Germanic languages.

Answer 6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_langu...

Latin  is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe. It later evolved into such languages as French, Italian, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan. There are two varieties of Latin: "Classical Latin", the literary dialect used in poetry and prose, and "Vulgar Latin", the form of the language spoken by ordinary people, which later diverged into the various Romance languages.

    The Latin alphabet, together with its modern variants such as the English, Spanish and French alphabets, is the most widely used alphabet in the world. Latin is a member of the Italic languages. Its alphabet is based on the Old Italic alphabet, derived from the Greek alphabet.

     The expansion of the Roman Empire spread Latin throughout Europe, and, eventually, Vulgar Latin began to diverge into various dialects. Vulgar Latin gradually evolved into a number of distinct Romance languages by the 9th century. These were for many centuries only oral languages, Latin still being used for writing.

    For example, Latin was still the official language of Portugal until 1296 when it was replaced by Portuguese. Many of these "daughter" languages, including Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Romanian flourished, the differences between them growing greater and more formal over time.

     There has also been a major Latin influence in English. Although English is Germanic in grammar, its vocabulary is mostly Italic. Sixty percent of the English vocabulary has its roots in Latin.

     However, German belongs to the West Germanic sub-branch (along with English, Frisian, Yiddish, Dutch and Afrikaans) of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. The language was shaped by migration of the Germanic tribes who lived in northern Europe during the first millennium BC. It underwent several major changes in pronunciation before it crystallized in the form of High German in the 6th century AD.

    Linguists separate the history of the German language into four major periods:

   Old High German --  From 750-1050 A.D.  

   Middle High German --  From 1050-1350

   Early New High German --  From 1350-1650 A.D.  

   New High German --  From 1650 onwards

(Info from www.utils.ex.ac.uk/german)