Which most related to Latin,Fr,It,Spanish,Portuguese?

prolatin   Tue Jun 12, 2007 5:10 pm GMT
They say English hasnt the power to creat new words,so has always the tendency to borrow from other languages.

No matter that's right or not,
I think Latin definitely has!

So I want to know some about Latin,however,it's a dead language.So I must to find a substitute

Which one among French,Italian,Spanish and Portuguese is most related to Latin in terms of lexical similarity?
frenche   Tue Jun 12, 2007 5:17 pm GMT
I would say Italian is closest to Latin . After Italian, Spanish is the most similiar and well behind of these two, French and Portuguese.
Guest   Tue Jun 12, 2007 5:20 pm GMT
And you failed.
No it's not italian, it's English and French.
They have words that are close to latin much more than Italian has
guest   Tue Jun 12, 2007 5:25 pm GMT
English Does have the power to create new words, English speakers however would rather borrow

why I don't know

it's getting old
frenche   Tue Jun 12, 2007 5:35 pm GMT
All languages can create easily new words but usually they tend to borrow words from other languages instead of creating new ones. Thank to this Spanish or Italian speakers find less strange English, because 60% of its vocabulary is related to Latin.
guest   Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:54 pm GMT
<<All languages can create easily new words but usually they tend to borrow words from other languages instead of creating new ones. >>

German tends to deviate here, and Icelandic as well...they are very adept at creating their own words rather than borrowing...
guest   Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:58 pm GMT
italian and spanish are the closest to latin, french is to germanized
Guest   Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:11 pm GMT
French is close to Latin exaclty like Italian and Spainish abd it isn't germanized at all, or at least in the same amount like Italian is
frenche   Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:12 pm GMT
Are you sure? German has tons of words derived from Latin, but English has more simply because England is closer to romance speaking countries. Norsemen ruled in England for a long time and French was the language of the court. Germany had a different historical evolution and this explains why German has less borrowed words. But nowadays German is borrowing many words from English. Perhaps Japanesse , because it is a more isolated culture with respect to Western World create new words instead of borrowing them. I don't know Japanesse, but what I mean is that this has to do with cultural interactions rather than with the inner characteristcs of languages .
Guest   Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:58 pm GMT
Sardinian first and Italian second, as most similar to Vulgar Latin.
oliver   Wed Jun 13, 2007 9:05 am GMT
<<And you failed.
No it's not italian, it's English and French.
They have words that are close to latin much more than Italian has>>

You must be so high right now...

And by the way, prolatin,you have started from a completely wrong perspective. Latin never had the power to create new words,it has borrowed extensively from Greek,which was way more developped and elaborate than Latin back then.
German is the most creative and innovative language,and the closest to Latin is Romanian.
prolatin   Wed Jun 13, 2007 2:15 pm GMT
I am not sure

but i think learning both romance languages can make the answer more clear
Doggy   Mon Jun 18, 2007 2:49 pm GMT
The most related to Latin is Romanian...
elbarto   Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:01 pm GMT
lol, now everyone wants to say that their language comes directely from latin, hey Frenchies deal with it, French is only 50% latin and 50% germanic, only Spanish and Italian could be considered real Latin Languages.
Guest   Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:26 pm GMT
50% of French is Germanic?? AHAHAH!!!! Yes, and the other 50% is Tibetan!!!
Spanish is NOT considered really Latin and Italian has pretty strong Germanic influences