The Roman Empire was extensive, ranging from Britain in the North, Spain in the West, Egypt in the South and Asia Minor in the East. Much of Rome's culture was spread around this vast territory, including the latin language. When the Roman empire began to lose power and withdraw form its outreaches the languages began to change from Latin to what we know today to be the Romance Languages, French, Spanish, Portugues, Romanian, and Italian.
They say if you speak one "Romance Language" you can speak them all. From my experience this is pretty accurate. I grew up in a home where my parents both spoke Spanish. Later I served as a missionary in Brazil and learned Portuguese. Living in Florida I had the opportunity to meet many people, who spoke Portuguese, Spanish and even French (mostly Hatian's).
To my suprise I could read and understand French as easily as I could Portuguese and Spanish. Later upon returning from my mission I began to read the Book of Mormon in Italian and found that though my pronounciation was a bit off I could understand it just fine. One of my life goals is to become fluent in all of the Romance languages. Obrigado, Gracias , Grazie , Merci , Thank you Rome!
I remember one appointment on my mission in the Netherlands when we were teaching a huge Romanian family in a conglomeration of languages, as none of us spoke the same language. We used words and phrases in Dutch, Spanish, English, Portuguese, Italian, German, and used Romanian pamphlets. We got our message across that way, we think.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for all commenting on my post ya'll! I'll remember that when it comes time for me to comment on yours :) have a great day!
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