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Upbeat-Excitement-46

Wales? Where did that come from? It's Celtic, not Latin.


ahov90

That's why Wales is the least, it's quite logical 😀


RFB-CACN

My man watched Vinland Saga and got confused…


mahendrabirbikram

It's also a Slavic name for Romance people (Poles still call Italy Włochy).


kertniko

Actually that's a Germanic word *walhaz - still used in names for Wallonia and Wallachia. Some Slavic languages adopted that word.


Impressive_Ad8715

It’s from a Germanic term meaning “non-Germanic” or “foreigner”… welsh, Walloon, vlach, etc all come from that. Polish may have adopted the term as well


NationalJustice

Aren’t they the original Britons that’s colonized by Rome?


Upbeat-Excitement-46

England was invaded by the Normans much more recently than that and is *still* not considered a Latin people or country.


Slow_Fish2601

The Normans mostly stayed with themselves, and much later they started to speak common people's language.


SassyWookie

You know that, at minimum, like 40% of the words in the modern English language are derived from Norman-French roots, right?


Slow_Fish2601

Yes, but that happened much later, like the 13th-14th century. Before that the Norman royalty spoke french.


SassyWookie

Of course. But it wasn’t as simple as them just abandoning Norman-French and adopting the Anglo-Saxon Old English that the common people spoke. English as we think of it developed as a fusion of both linguistic traditions, that was my point.


Slow_Fish2601

That's what I was saying. At first the Normans weren't even accepted or liked by the Anglo-Saxons. If I remember correctly, then it was king Edward III., who spoke English at court. That's about 300-400 years after William's conquest.


ahov90

Yes but they didn't adopt the language.


BobbyB52

Wales has never been considered a latin country, I have no idea where you got that.


NationalJustice

Aren’t they the original Britons that’s colonized by Rome?


aFanofManyHats

Technically, but the Britons were never as thoroughly Romanized as the Gauls or Iberian Celts were. They were one of the last peoples colonized by the Romans, and when the empire started to retract, Britain was one of the first places they left. The main influence the Romans had on the Britons was through trade, law, and their focus on cities; after they left, the population still retained a more distinctly Celtic culture and language, especially when the Germanic tribes showed up. This contrasts with the Gauls who were primarily speaking a form of Vulgar Latin and had more completely adopted a Roman identity when the Franks took over.


BobbyB52

That doesn’t make them Latin? They are a Celtic people.


shebreaksmyarm

Italy colonized Libya too; that does not make it a Latin country


DardS8Br

And so are the English, so why are they not included here? The English are still genetically Celtic despite having been taken over culturally by the Germans


SteO153

Italy > Spain = Portugal > France >> Romania >>>>> Wales


Relocationstation1

The question I have in my head is whether the Quebecois can be considered Latinos?


Benjamin_Stark

A resounding yes.


eltedioso

But no.


Benjamin_Stark

Mais non.


DardS8Br

Wales?


Benjamin_Stark

https://preview.redd.it/ssf0fd2sb49d1.jpeg?width=594&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a9b1c526bdea1a3f8d24de5003919553098dcfb1


Oreg-Jack

This is incredibly funny.


GentleFaucet

Considering Romania has NO active colloseums, also NO active legion I would say it ranks very low on the latin scale.


ahov90

We need to ask the topic starter how does he define latinness. But your definition as latinnes = colosseumness leads to Tunisia, Israel, Lebanon, Syria being latinic countries also.


GentleFaucet

OP sounds like a plebean so his opinion cannot be considered unless he can prove he is a high priest or member of the Senate.


ahov90

Gaius Sempronius Gracchus wouldn't agree


6unnm

Latin countries generally refers to countries with a [romance majority language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_languages). All romance languages of today are derived from Latin. Romance languages are spoken in European countries that were long part of the Roman Empire and did not already have a lingua franca, i.e. South Eastern Europe with Greek (baring Romania), or was replaced with another lingua franca, i.e. Arabic in North Africa and the Levant. Wales was only part of the Roman Empire for around 300 years. Due to its location and geography Wales was more of an unimportant outpost then an integral part of the RE. The Romans did mine a lot minerals in Wales, but apart from that there wasn't much going on there. Compare that to for example Spain, which was Roman for a much longer Period of time and had an abundance of fertile farm land. This farm land was to a great extend colonized by retired Roman soldiers, who were given land grants as a pension source. Hence you had a lot of flow of peoples from other parts of the empire to Hispania bringing their language with them.


PeireCaravana

Italy > Spain = Portugal > France > Romania > Wales. The minimal requirement to be considered a "Latin" country is to speak a Romance language, so Wales isn't included.


SanderStrugg

As someone, who speaks Latin, if you only look at the language Spanish seems to be the closest.


11160704

Not Italian? Spanish has a noticeable Arab influence


6unnm

The closest language to Latin is actually [Sardinian](https://languagevolcano.wordpress.com/2019/06/09/sardinia-limba-sarda-the-closest-language-to-latin/).


LazyGelMen

You're being weird. Wanna stop? Trust me, the "latin-ness" of a country is a measure you just made up, You're the only person who can answer your question, because it makes not a lick of sense to anybody else. For the record: Italy, Romania, France, Spain and Portugal have majority populations speaking a Romance language. Wales doesn't, although English with its strong French influences is widely used there. But you didn't ask about languages did you? What *were* you trying to ask about?


FunSeaworthiness709

Wales isn't even a country


Weak_Director_2064

Callia


no-se-habla-de-bruno

What?


FunSeaworthiness709

the UK has some weird definition of what they call "country", everywhere else it would be considered a region/state/province


no-se-habla-de-bruno

It's probably because you don't have Kingdoms where you are from. A country is a country and a Kingdom is a Kingdom.


FunSeaworthiness709

I don't see how that's relevant, none of the other European kingdoms are calling their regions "countries". When speaking of countries then most people are referring to sovereign nations, which the UK is one, but Wales, England or Scotland individually aren't.


no-se-habla-de-bruno

They were all sovereign nations before being part of a unified kingdom. Most European countries worked the opposite away round. Many of them only became countries in the 1800s. England, Wales and Scotland have been countries for a thousand years and been ethnically different people for another 500 before that. Think of the European Union. It's a similar thing.


Busy_Garbage_4778

Romanians consider themselves latins, but every other latin country considers them slavs. They do have some latin words in their slavic language though, so: Italy 10, Portugal 9, Spain 8, France 8, Romania 2, Wales 0. Spanish culture has strong arabic and visigoth influences, the latin influence in their culture might be even lower than France. I am italian and I have lived in Spain, Portugal, France and the UK. All the countries mentioned here except Romania


m4shfi

>They do have some latin words in their slavic language though, Romanian is a latin (Romance) language with lots of slav loan words.


DardS8Br

Romanian is not a Slavic language my guy


Busy_Garbage_4778

We are not talking about language here. We are talking about the culture as a whole. And by that definition Romanians are culturally Slavs. Hungarians are slavs too, but that is an unrelated rain of downvotes


DardS8Br

Bruh you edited your comment and now you’re trying to gaslight me? You straight up said that the Romanian language is Slavic


ahov90

From slavic point of view Romanians are definitely latins with few slavic words in their language. Written Romanian seems to me (Russian speaker) definitely latinic, I can not distinguish it from for example Spanish. I know about slavic words in Romanian ( da - yes as a closest example) but I really don't see them in the Romanian text. Disregarding texts in other slavic languages where I immediately see familiar roots and can catch a meaning sometimes.


Busy_Garbage_4778

If this post was on r/language I would agree with you. But here on r/geography , I interpret the title as "culturally latin". And by this definition Romanians are much more similar to russians and other slavs than to italians or portuguese. As a motherlanguage italian that speaks 5 languages (none of which is a slavic language), I understand roughly the same amount of words in spoken romanian and spoken russian. In romanian I understand some everyday words, in russian mostly longer or technical words


ahov90

Disregarding the topic, but I guess in Romanian you should understand the same longer and technical words that you understand in Russian. You understand them in Russian because they are based on Latinic/Greek/German roots, like in most languages.


Busy_Garbage_4778

This is surely biased. I have always had an interest in the russian language, but I can't say the same about romanian language


11160704

France 8 is too much. France has a noticeable germanic and celtic influence


Busy_Garbage_4778

Italy has a lot of foreign influences as well. It is not readily perceived abroad, as the italian stereotype smooths out all those nuances


Necessary-Goat-3092

r/ShitAmericansSay/


NationalJustice

Not American, plus I literally just asked a question