Romance Languages Revisited Trivia Quiz

Answer: They are derived from Vulgar Latin, the language spoken by inhabitants of the Roman Empire and their descendants

The word "Romance" is derived from the Vulgar Latin adverb "romanice", which means "in the Roman vernacular" and contrasts itself to the adverbs "latine", or in Medieval Latin (already distinct from Romance languages by the 9th century AD), and "barbarice," or in "Barbarian," referring to non-Latin languages.

The word "Romance" thus descends from "romanice", so that anything written "romanice" is written in "Romance", or any language derived from "Vulgar Latin."

Answer: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Romanian, Italian, Catalan

By the 21st century, there were 800 million speakers of almost 25 living Romance languages. Most Romance language speakers live in Europe and the Americas, though in Africa French, in particular, is used as a lingua franca among non-native French speakers and is an official language of many African countries.

Answer: true

Interestingly, there did exist versions of Vulgar Latin in Britain and North Africa during Roman times, namely British and African Romance, respectively. These dialects disappeared in the Middle Ages, however, and were supplanted by Anglo-Saxon in Britain and Arabic (incidentally, a non-Indo-European language)in North Africa.

Answer: Spanish - lluvia

The other correct match-ups shpould be: French - "pluie"; Portuguese - "chuva", and Italian - "ploggia". All are cognates and derived from the Latin word for "rain"--pluvia.

Answer: false

Unlike Catalan, Basque is not a Romance language; in fact, it is not even an Indo-European language. Remarkably, Basque is an autochthonous language; it is descended from a language spoken by the original, or aboriginal, inhabitants of Europe. Its preservation owes itself perhaps to the relative geographic isolation posed by the Pyrenees, where the Basque country is located.

Answer: Occitan

Occitan, or Langue d'Oc, the language of southern France, contrasts itself with the Langue d'Oil, the language of northern France, which supplanted Occitan to become the official French dialect of France. Occitan, or Provencal, literature distinguished itself in the 11th and 12th centuries as the language of the troubadours, whose style of poetry flourished and spread throughout Europe. Medieval Occitan is associated with many cultural movements, including a religious one, Catharism, declared heretical by the Church. Practitioners of Catharism were severely persecuted by the Church and the movement was massacred by the Inquisition in the early 13th century.

Answer: Dante

Dante called the language in which the "Divine Comedy" was written "Italian", a mixture of Latin and the dialects of Tuscany and other regions in Italy. Along with Chaucer and Boccaccio, Dante is one of the first European authors of vernacular--instead of Latin--literature, anticipating the Renaissance in his view of the need for a unified Italian literary language.

In French, Italian is sometimes known as "la langue de Dante" or "the language of Dante".

Answer: Romanian

The region of Dacia, corresponding to the present-day countries of Romania and Moldova, was Romanized in the early part of the first millennium. As a result, Romanian, like other Romance languages, descends from Vulgar Latin. As an eastern Romance language, Romanian has been heavily influenced by Slavic languages and by Greek. Romanian was historically established in the 16th century, and the earliest Romanian grammar was published in 1780.

Answer: Snow

The Latin word for "snow" is "nix," reflecting the common origin of the root "ni or "ne" for "snow" in the main Romance languages. Their common Latin origin makes many words in Romance languages mutually intelligible to speakers of these languages.

Answer: Sao Paulo, Brazil

Founded in 2006 as an interactive museum, the Museum of the Portuguese Language features a timeline that details the evolution of Portuguese from the Indo-European origins of Latin to modern Portuguese, covering 6000 years of pre-history and history. African and Native American influences on the development of Brazilian Portuguese are also emphasized.