iberoromance

Ibero-Romance, or Iberian Romance, is a branch of Western Romance languages that developed on the Iberian Peninsula. The languages typically included are Spanish (Castilian), Portuguese, Galician, and the minority varieties Astur-Leonese and Mirandese. Catalan and other Pyrenean Romance languages are not generally classified as Ibero-Romance, though some broader schemes place certain western varieties together with them.

The evolution of Ibero-Romance begins with Vulgar Latin spoken in the Roman province of Hispania after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. By the early Middle Ages the Iberian vernaculars had begun to diverge from one another, giving rise to the distinct languages known today. The Moorish presence left lexical borrowings and some phonological influence, while later standardization developed around Castilian for Spanish and Lusophone traditions for Portuguese. Today these languages are spoken across Spain and Portugal, and in the Americas due to centuries of colonization. Galician is co-official in Galicia; Mirandese has regional official status in Portugal; Astur-Leonese has regional recognition in parts of northern Spain.

Linguistically, Ibero-Romance languages share core Romance features such as the simplification of certain Latin consonant clusters and a Romance vowel system, while exhibiting regional phonological and lexical differences that affect mutual intelligibility to varying degrees. The term is used by linguists to group these Iberian languages, though internal classifications differ on the inclusion of certain varieties and the precise boundaries of the subgroup.