Bill Wright

I need your advice on a couple of European Countries.

The word I’m going to use is Latin, now that may not be what they are
called and if not perhaps you can correct me.

I was telling my wife that to the best of my knowledge there are 5
country’s in Europe that are or were called the Latin countries.
1. France
2. Spain
3. Portugal
4. Germany
5. Italy

Is this right or wrong? I know there is Latin America and there
countries, but Europe I don’t know.

If these countries are called Latin countries are there more or just
these 5.

I appreciate any information you have.

Thanks in advance.

Bill W.

Ken Blake

In news:[email protected] m,
Bill Wright <bilcyn*@*flash.net> typed:

    > I need your advice on a couple of European Countries.
    > The word I’m going to use is Latin, now that may not be what
    > they are
    > called and if not perhaps you can correct me.
    > I was telling my wife that to the best of my knowledge there
    > are 5
    > country’s in Europe that are or were called the Latin
    > countries.
    > 1. France
    > 2. Spain
    > 3. Portugal
    > 4. Germany
    > 5. Italy
    > Is this right or wrong? I know there is Latin America and there
    > countries, but Europe I don’t know.
    > If these countries are called Latin countries are there more or
    > just
    > these 5.


In my view, it's not clear-cut and there no clear right or wrong.
I personally don't like to use the word "Latin" for countries at
all, since it's ambiguous. Some people mean Spanish-speaking
countries, others mean all those which speak languages derived
from Latin.

But I've never seen *anybody* before call Germany a Latin
country. What possible justification could there be for that
usage?

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

Iceman

Maybe you mean Romania instead of Germany.

The French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian languages are
all derived from Latin, while the German language is not.

Wolfgang Schwanke

Bill Wright <bilcyn*@*flash.net> wrote in
news:[email protected] m:

    > I was telling my wife that to the best of my knowledge there are 5
    > country¢s in Europe that are or were called the Latin countries.
    > 1. France
    > 2. Spain
    > 3. Portugal
    > 4. Germany
    > 5. Italy

"Latin America" means those countries on the American continent where
they speak languages derived from Latin. In Europe the common term for
the same meaning is "Romance countries". Your list is mostly correct
except Germany isn't in it, but you can add Romania instead.

Regards

--
Letzter Bahnhof in Berlin-West!

http://www.wschwanke.de/ usenet_20031215 (AT) wschwanke (DOT) de

Alan Harrison

"Iceman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected] ups.com...
    > Maybe you mean Romania instead of Germany.
    > The French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian languages are
    > all derived from Latin, while the German language is not.
There are other Romance languages (derived from Latin), most notably
Catalan, the giant of minority languages (though I believe it's the official
language of Andorra!). It's spoken in parts of mainland Spain (including,
obviously, Catalonia), the Balearic Islands, France and in at least one
place in Sardinia.

Alan Harrison

Bill Moore

In article <[email protected]>,
ALAN HARRISON <[email protected]> wrote:
    >"Iceman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    >news:[email protected] oups.com...
    >> Maybe you mean Romania instead of Germany.
    >> The French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian languages are
    >> all derived from Latin, while the German language is not.
    >There are other Romance languages (derived from Latin), most notably
    >Catalan, the giant of minority languages (though I believe it's the official
    >language of Andorra!). It's spoken in parts of mainland Spain (including,
    >obviously, Catalonia), the Balearic Islands, France and in at least one
    >place in Sardinia.

http://www.june29.com/HLP/lang/Catalan/webcat2.html

There is a map here, which shows 10 Romance languages:

Galician
Portuguese
Spanish
Basque
Occitan
Catalan
French
Italian
Sardinian
Rhaeto-Romance (Romansh)
Rumanian

Linguists talk about even more, I guess they are mostly dialects of these.

http://www.orbilat.com/General_Surve...Languages.html

Iceman

"There are other Romance languages (derived from Latin), most notably
Catalan, the giant of minority languages (though I believe it's the
official language of Andorra!). It's spoken in parts of mainland Spain
(including, obviously, Catalonia), the Balearic Islands, France and in
at least one place in Sardinia."

And Romansch, which is the living language that most closely resembles
Latin. It is spoken only in one canton (province) of Switzerland, and
it appears on Swiss paper money.

Jack Campin - bogus address

    > http://www.june29.com/HLP/lang/Catalan/webcat2.html
    > There is a map here, which shows 10 Romance languages:
    > Galician
    > Portuguese

More or less the same language.

    > [...] Basque

Not Romance and not even Indo-European. (That page doesn't
imply it is - the map is confusing). Some linguists think
it's ultimately a relative of Georgian (Kartvelian) and the
rest of the Southern Caucasian language group, with borrowed
vocabulary and syntax from North African languages, Latin
and Spanish on top of that. (The extraordinarily complex
verb endings do vaguely resemble Lazuri, which is the only
language of that group I have any paper info about). But
usually it's categorized as a one-off unrelated to anything
else.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
<http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

Bill Moore

In article <[email protected]>,
Jack Campin - bogus address <[email protected]> wrote:
    >> http://www.june29.com/HLP/lang/Catalan/webcat2.html
    >> There is a map here, which shows 10 Romance languages:
    >> Galician
    >> Portuguese
    >More or less the same language.
    >> [...] Basque
    >Not Romance and not even Indo-European. (That page doesn't
    >imply it is - the map is confusing).

Yes, the map seems to be outright incorrect in that regard,
though the text further down seems to avoid the mistake.

    >Some linguists think
    >it's ultimately a relative of Georgian (Kartvelian) and the
    >rest of the Southern Caucasian language group, with borrowed
    >vocabulary and syntax from North African languages, Latin
    >and Spanish on top of that. (The extraordinarily complex
    >verb endings do vaguely resemble Lazuri, which is the only
    >language of that group I have any paper info about). But
    >usually it's categorized as a one-off unrelated to anything
    >else.
    >============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
    >Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
    ><http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
    >stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

The Reids

Following up to Bill Wright

    >I was telling my wife that to the best of my knowledge there are 5
    >country’s in Europe that are or were called the Latin countries.
    >1. France
    >2. Spain
    >3. Portugal
    >4. Germany
    >5. Italy

Spain, Portugal, Italy, yes. France, Greece we tend to think of
as rather in that same group of non anglo saxon countries.

Germany is the typical non-latin country.
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" <-- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" <-- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap
Photos of both "http://www.lawn-mower-man.co.uk"

Ingeborg Denner

"Bill Wright" <bilcyn*@*flash.net> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:[email protected] m...
    >I need your advice on a couple of European Countries.

You could check the thread "I need your knowledge".

inge

Tom Peel

Ken Blake wrote:
    > In news:[email protected] m,
    > Bill Wright <bilcyn*@*flash.net> typed:
    >
    >
    >>I need your advice on a couple of European Countries.
    >>The word I’m going to use is Latin, now that may not be what
    >>they are
    >>called and if not perhaps you can correct me.
    >>I was telling my wife that to the best of my knowledge there
    >>are 5
    >>country’s in Europe that are or were called the Latin
    >>countries.
    >>1. France
    >>2. Spain
    >>3. Portugal
    >>4. Germany
    >>5. Italy
    >>Is this right or wrong? I know there is Latin America and there
    >>countries, but Europe I don’t know.
    >>If these countries are called Latin countries are there more or
    >>just
    >>these 5.
    >
    >
    >
    > In my view, it's not clear-cut and there no clear right or wrong.
    > I personally don't like to use the word "Latin" for countries at
    > all, since it's ambiguous. Some people mean Spanish-speaking
    > countries, others mean all those which speak languages derived
    > from Latin.
    >
    > But I've never seen *anybody* before call Germany a Latin
    > country. What possible justification could there be for that
    > usage?
    >
Well, the Romans spent quite a long time in Germany, and they gave the
country the name under which the rest of the world knows it - Germania.
There are also quite a lot of German words with latin origins, for
example "Fenster", from the latin for window.

T.

Aabne

You already posted this, ****tard.

Jordi

ALAN HARRISON ha escrito:
    > "Iceman" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    > news:[email protected] ups.com...
    > > Maybe you mean Romania instead of Germany.
    > >
    > > The French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian languages are
    > > all derived from Latin, while the German language is not.
    > >
    > There are other Romance languages (derived from Latin), most notably
    > Catalan, the giant of minority languages (though I believe it's the official
    > language of Andorra!).

It is, that's why it is an accepted language at the UN.

J.

Jordi

Tom Peel ha escrito:

    > >
    > Well, the Romans spent quite a long time in Germany, and they gave the
    > country the name under which the rest of the world knows it - Germania.

Well, not all of the rest of the world.

They're Nemets for Russian, Poles, etc., Allemandes for French (and
similar word in Spanish, etc.) Tedeschi for Italians....

Germans are probably the people known with more different names all
over the world :)


J.