Latin Europe
From Freepedia
Latin Europe (Italian/Portuguese/Spanish: Europa latina; Romanian: Europa latină; French: Europe latine) is composed of those nations and areas in Europe that speak a Romance language and are seen as having a distinct culture from the Germanic and Slavic parts of Europe. The terms Latin Civilization, Germanic Civilization and Slavic Civilization can also be used.
Latin Europe culture is based on the Roman one, thus Latin. Latin European countries include Andorra, France, Italy, Moldova, Monaco, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Spain and Vatican City. It also includes some regions from other countries, such as Wallonia in Belgium and the French- and Italian-speaking cantons of Switzerland. Many of these countries are members of the Latin Union. Note that some parts of these countries can in addition show also non-latin local identities : Alsace or French Flanders in France has some germanic roots, south Tyrol in Italy is a German-speaking area, with German as official language; Brittany in France, Galicia and Asturias in Spain show a Celtic flavour; some parts of Fruili-Venetia are speaking slovenian; Basque is a co-official and usage language in the autonomous regions of Basque Country and Navarre in Spain. The neighbouring French region of Pays Basque shows a Basque identity, even if Basque language is few spoken.
In geographical terms, Latin Europe is southwestern Europe (including France, Italy, Portugal and Spain and, occasionally, including neighbouring Latin-speaking areas of other countries). Romania and Moldova are often not included because these countries lie isolated from the rest in Eastern Europe surrounded by Slavic peoples.
Latin America is an equivalent term to refer to countries in the Americas with a Romance language. Although the language and cultural features of parts of the society (often the upper part) is derived from Roman, Latin American countries have partial Latin culture, due to Amerindian and African influence. The use of the words Latin and latino as used in the United States to speak only about Latin-American things is considered ignorance-derived by some Latin Europeans, and occasionally offensive.
History of Latin Europe
- Roman Empire
- Western Roman Empire
- History of Andorra
- History of France
- History of Italy
- History of Moldova
- History of Monaco
- History of Portugal
- History of Romania
- History of San Marino
- History of Spain
Romance languages
- Main article: Romance languages
The Romance languages, often known as Neo-Latin languages (Latin neo means new) by the Latin Europeans are the languages descendants from the spoken varieties of Latin in the Latin areas of the Roman Empire.
