CONDITIONS, CAUSES AND FACTORS OF THE EMERGENCE OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES

The simplified concept of the direct development of a single literary Latin language or any other, so-called “general Romance”, into separate Romance languages and dialects from vernacular Latin did not satisfy many researchers for several centuries: G. Schuchardt, J. Mol, F. Dietz, and others. The main goal of the presented scientific research is to clarify the nature of the development and the path of formation of modern Romance languages. The goal involves solving the following tasks: studying modern theories of the origin of modern Romance languages; clarifying the state of vernacular Latin, which entered Romanized territories; examining the ethno-linguistic factors of the emergence of modern Romance languages.The main reason for the formation of modern Romance languages was the substrate on which Vulgar Latin was superimposed. The formation of Romance languages was influenced by the languages of those tribes and nationalities that were conquered by Rome, the consequences of their influence on Latin were different: The substrate of the Spanish language (as well as all other Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula) is Celtic, Iberian and Basque; the substrate of the French language is Celtic, in the south of France it is still ancient Greek (Marseille – previously Marsilio, Massalia – was a Greek colony); the substrate of the Italian language is Italian and Etruscan linguistic features. For example, the words Roma and chianti come from the Etruscan language; the substrate of the Sardinian language is Punic and Ancient Greek; the substrate of the Rhaeto- Romance language(s) is Raetian (Rhaetian), which is considered to be a non-Indo-European pre-Romance language of Italy; the substrate of the Romanian language is considered to be Thraco-Dacian.The process of Romanization of various regions of Europe lasted for several centuries, during which the Latin language itself changed quite significantly. In the process of the spread of Latin from the Roman Empire, it reached the provinces at different stages of its development. The Romance languages developed as a result of the divergent, centrifugal development of the oral tradition of different dialects of the once single vernacular Latin language.