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In syntax, word-arrangement within the sentence, use of
verb-tenses and moods, the Romance languages, possessing a
common point of departure and having enjoyed veiy close
cultural relations throughout their history (with the exception
of Roumanian), are fairly close to one another, so that literal
word-for-word translation from one to another is usually possible;
this applies more to the literary and cultivated than to
the lower-class language.
Vocabulary resemblances are fairly common, as may be
seen from the list of words in ordinary use given above. Striking
divergences also appear, however. 3 The vocabularies of
Spanish and Portuguese have borrowed extensively from
Arabic, those of French and Italian from Germanic, and that
of Roumanian from Slavic.
Some degree of mutual comprehensibility, especially
among the more cultured classes, is fairly general for Spanish,
Portuguese and Italian, but does not extend to French and
Roumanian without special study.
Distinctive of the written languages are the symbols g in
Portuguese and French; n in Spanish; a, 6, Ih, nh in Portuguese;
a, j, f in Roumanian.
Distinctive of the spoken tongues are the nasal sounds of
French and Portuguese; the middle vowels (represented in
writing by u, eu, oeu) of French; the a, i of Roumanian (a
sound which Roumanian shares with Russian, and the closest
English approximation to which is the y of "rhythm"); the
clearly audible double consonant sounds of Italian; the guttural
/ of Spanish; the uvular r of Parisian French, in contrast to the
trilled r of the other languages (the trilled r is quite common
in provincial French).
3.
Here you go :
In syntax, word-arrangement within the sentence, use of
verb-tenses and moods, the Romance languages, possessing a
common point of departure and having enjoyed veiy close
cultural relations throughout their history (with the exception
of Roumanian), are fairly close to one another, so that literal
word-for-word translation from one to another is usually possible;
this applies more to the literary and cultivated than to
the lower-class language.
Vocabulary resemblances are fairly common, as may be
seen from the list of words in ordinary use given above. Striking
divergences also appear, however. 3 The vocabularies of
Spanish and Portuguese have borrowed extensively from
Arabic, those of French and Italian from Germanic, and that
of Roumanian from Slavic.
Some degree of mutual comprehensibility, especially
among the more cultured classes, is fairly general for Spanish,
Portuguese and Italian, but does not extend to French and
Roumanian without special study.
Distinctive of the written languages are the symbols g in
Portuguese and French; n in Spanish; a, 6, Ih, nh in Portuguese;
a, j, f in Roumanian.
Distinctive of the spoken tongues are the nasal sounds of
French and Portuguese; the middle vowels (represented in
writing by u, eu, oeu) of French; the a, i of Roumanian (a
sound which Roumanian shares with Russian, and the closest
English approximation to which is the y of "rhythm"); the
clearly audible double consonant sounds of Italian; the guttural
/ of Spanish; the uvular r of Parisian French, in contrast to the
trilled r of the other languages (the trilled r is quite common
in provincial French).
3.