Here are some of the major Romance languages, along with their approximate number of speakers:
* Spanish (543 million)
* Portuguese (257 million)
* French (267 million)
* Italian (67 million)
* Romanian (24 million)
* Catalan (9 million)
* Galician (2.4 million)
* Occitan (700,000)
* Sardinian (1.5 million)
* Friulian (60,000)
Other Romance languages include:
* Aromanian
* Mozarabic (extinct)
* Dalmatian (extinct)
* Ladino
* Mirandese
These languages evolved from Vulgar Latin, the spoken form of Latin used by ordinary people in the Roman Empire, as opposed to the Classical Latin used in literature and formal contexts.
The geographical spread of the Roman Empire and the subsequent migration of its people led to the development of these distinct languages. Over time, Vulgar Latin diversified, incorporating influences from local languages and evolving into the languages we know today.