The Iberian Romance, or Ibero-Romance, languages are a group of Romance languages that developed on the Iberian Peninsula, an area consisting primarily of Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Andorra and French Catalonia. They are today more commonly separated into West Iberian, East Iberian (or Occitano-Romance) and Southern Iberian language groups, though East Iberian's classification remains a subject of ongoing scholarly debate, since some scholars argue the Occitano-Romance languages, composed of Occitan alongside Catalan and Valencian, are better classified as Gallo-Romance languages instead.
Facts
RegionOriginally the Iberian Peninsula and French Catalonia; the languages descended from it are now spoken worldwide. 1 Speaker CountSum of the figures the article itself publishes for its four largest constituent languages: Spanish (over 570 million), Portuguese (over 250 million), Catalan (about 10 million) and Galician (around 3.2 million). Excludes Asturleonese, Aragonese, Occitan, Gascon and other smaller varieties, so this is a floor, not a full total. Proto-Language StatusLike all Romance languages, Iberian Romance descends from Vulgar Latin, the nonstandard form of Latin spoken by soldiers and merchants across the Roman Empire, rather than from a separately named proto-language of its own. 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Iberian Romance languages
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Originally Iberian Peninsula and French Catalonia; now worldwide
Classification section
Like all Romance languages, the Iberian Romance languages descend from Vulgar Latin, the nonstandard (in contrast to Classical Latin) form of the Latin language spoken by soldiers and merchants throughout the Roman Empire.
speaker figures given for Spanish and Portuguese
Spanish is the fourth-most widely spoken language in the world, with over 570 total million speakers
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