Ladinakeelsest

Ladinakeelsest is the term used in Estonian to refer to the Romance languages, a branch of the Italic group within the Indo-European language family. These languages descend from Vulgar Latin, the spoken form of Latin used across the Roman Empire. The Romance family includes widely spoken languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian, as well as Catalan, Galician, Occitan, Sardinian, Romansh and several others, including smaller regional varieties.

Origin and development: Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Latin dialects in different regions diverged, giving rise to distinct languages during the Middle Ages. The modern Romance languages emerged over a broad period, with major diversification occurring between the 8th and 15th centuries and subsequent standardization in more recent centuries. Classification is based on shared innovations in phonology, morphology and syntax.

Key features: The Romance languages share a large proportion of vocabulary with Latin and retain many Latin concepts, but they typically lack the Latin’s inflected case system. Most languages developed definite articles from demonstratives, and verb systems show varying degrees of synthetic morphology for mood, tense and aspect. Substantial regional variation exists, leading to a wide array of dialects and standardized national languages.

Global presence and status: Romance languages are official or widely used across Europe, Latin America, parts of Africa and beyond. They are frequently taught as foreign languages and are prominent in literature, media and international communication due to historical exploration and migration.

In Estonian linguistic usage, ladinakeelsest denotes the broader family of Romance languages or elements derived from them, and appears in linguistic descriptions, education and translation contexts.