Romance Languages - Samples

Samples

Lexical and grammatical similarities among the Romance languages, and between Latin and each of them, are apparent from the following examples having the same meaning:

English: She always closes the window before she dines.

Latin	(Ea) semper antequam cenat fenestram claudit.
Aragonese	(Ella) zarra siempre a finestra antes de cenar.
Aromanian	(Ea/Nâsa) încljidi/nkidi totna firida ninti di tsinâ.
Asturian	(Ella) pieslla siempres la ventana enantes de cenar.
Bergamasque	(Lé) la sèra sèmper sö la finèstra prima de senà.
Bolognese	(Lî) la sèra sänper la fnèstra prémma ed dsnèr.
Catalan	(Ella) sempre tanca la finestra abans de sopar.
Corsican	(Ella/Edda) chjode sempre u purtellu nanzu di cenà.
Emilian	(Lē) la sèra sèmpar sù la fnèstra prima ad snàr.
Extremaduran	(Ella) afecha siempri la ventana antis de cenal.
Franco-Provençal	(Le) sarre toltin/tojor la fenétra avan de goutâ/dinar/sopar.
French	Elle ferme toujours la fenêtre avant de dîner/souper.
Friulan	(Jê) e siere simpri il barcon prin di cenâ.
Galician	(Ela) pecha/fecha sempre a fiestra/xanela antes de cear.
Italian	(Ella/Lei) chiude sempre la finestra prima di cenare.
Judaeo-Spanish	Eya serra syempre la ventana antes de senar.
Ladin	(Ëra) stlüj dagnora la finestra impröma de cenè. (badiot) (Ëila) stluj for l viere dan maië da cëina (gherdëina)
Leonese	(Eilla) pecha siempre la ventana primeiru de cenare.
Ligurian	(Le) a saera sempre u barcun primma de cenà.
Milanese	(Le) la sara semper sü la finestra prima de disnà.
Mirandese	(Eilha) cerra siempre la bentana/jinela atrás de jantar.
Mozarabic	Ella cloudet sempre la fainestra abante da cenare. (reconstructed)
Neapolitan	Essa nzerra sempe 'a fenesta primma 'e magnà.
Norman	Lli barre tréjous la crouésie devaunt de daîner.
Occitan	(Ela) barra sempre/totjorn la fenèstra abans de sopar.
Picard	Ale frunme tojours l’ creusèe édvint éd souper.
Piedmontese	Chila a sara sèmper la fnestra dnans ëd fé sin-a/dnans ëd siné.
Portuguese	Ela fecha sempre a janela antes de jantar/cear.
Romanian	Ea închide totdeauna fereastra înainte de a cina.
Romansh	Ella clauda/serra adina la fanestra avant ch'ella tschainia.
Sardinian	Issa serrat semper sa bentana innantis 'e chenare.
Sassarese	Edda sarra sempri lu balchoni primma di zinà.
Sicilian	Idda chiui sempri la finestra prima di pistiari/manciari.
Spanish	(Ella) siempre cierra la ventana antes de cenar.
Umbrian	Essa chjude sempre la finestra prima de cena'.
Venetian	Eła ła sara/sera sempre ła fenestra vanti de xenàr/disnar.
Walloon	Ele sere todi li finiesse divant di soper.

Some of the divergence comes from semantic change: where the same root word has developed different meanings. Portuguese, for example, has the word fresta, and Spanish fenestra/finiestra (which is a cognate of French fenêtre, Italian finestra, Romanian fereastra and so on, from Latin fenestra "window"), however it now means "skylight" and "slit" as opposed to "window." The Spanish and Portuguese terms defenestrar and defenestración/defenestração meaning "to throw through a window" or "defenestrate, defenestration", and fenestrado, "replete with windows", also have the same root (but are later derivations from Latin).

Likewise, Portuguese also has the word cear, a cognate of Italian cenare and Spanish cenar, but uses it in the sense of "to have a late supper" in most varieties, while the preferred word for "to dine" is actually jantar (related to archaic Spanish yantar "to eat") because of semantic changes in the nineteenth century. Galician has both fiestra (from medieval fẽestra which is the ultimate origin of standard Portuguese fresta), and the less frequently used ventá and xanela.

As an alternative to lei (originally the accusative form), Italian has the pronoun ella, a cognate of the other words for "she", but it is hardly ever used in speaking.

Spanish, Asturian and Leonese ventana and Mirandese and Sardinian bentana come from Latin ventus "wind" (cf. English window, etymologically 'wind eye'), and Portuguese janela, Galician xanela, Mirandese jinela from Latin *ianuella "small opening", a derivative of ianua "door".

Sardinian balcone (alternative for bentana) comes from Old Italian and is similar to other Romance languages such as French balcon (from Italian balcone), Portuguese balcão, Romanian balcon, Spanish balcón, Catalan balcó and Corsican balconi (alternative for purtellu).