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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:

Latin (Illa) claudit semper fenestramantequamcenat.

Aragonese

(Ella) tranca/zarrasiempre la finestra antes de zenar.

Aromanian

(Nsa/ea) ncljidi/nkiditotnafiridaninti di tsin.

Asturian

(Ella) piesllasiempre la ventana/feniestraenantes de cenar.

Bergamasque (L) la srasmpers la finstra prima de sen.

Bolognese

(L) la srasnper la fnstraprmmaeddsnr.

Corsican Ella chjudesempre u purtelluprimma di cen. (Northern) /Eddachjudisempri u

balconu prima di cin. (Southern)

Catalan

(Ella) sempretanca la finestraabans de sopar.

Extremaduran

(Ella) siempriafecha la ventana antis de cenal.

Franco-

Provenal(Le) sarretoltin/tojor la fentraavan de gout/dinar/sopar.

French

Elle fermetoujours la fentreavant de dner/souper.

Friulian

J e sieresimpriilbarconprin di cen.

Galician

(Ela) fechasempre a fiestra/xanela antes de cear.

Italian (Ella/Lei) chiudesempre la finestra prima di cenare.

Leonese Eillapechasiempre la ventanaprimeiru de cenare.

Milanese (Le) la sara semper s la finestra prima de disn.

Mirandese

Eilhacerrasiempre la bentana/jinelaatrs de jantar.

Neapolitan

Essanzerrasempe 'a fenestaprimma 'e magn.

Norman

Llibarretrjous la crousiedevaunt de daner.

Occitan

(Ela) barrasempre/totjorn la fenstraabans de sopar.

Picard

Ale frunmetojours l creusedvintdsouper.

Piedmontese Chila a sarasmper la fnestradnansdf sin-a/dnansdsin.

Portuguese (Ela) fechasempre a janela antes de jantar/cear.

Romanian Eanchidetotdeaunafereastranainte de a cina.

Romansh

Ella clauda/serraadina la fanestraavantch'ellatschainia.

Sardinian

Issaserrat semper sabentana antes de chenare.

Sicilian

Iddachiudisempri la finestraavanticapista/cena.

Spanish (Ella) siemprecierra la ventana antes de cenar.

Umbrian

Essachjudesempre la finestra prima de cena'.

Venetian Ela la sera sempre la fenestra vanti de disnar.

Walloon

Ele sere todi li finiessedivant di soper.

English Translation: She always closes the window before dining (or having dinner).

Note that some of the lexical divergence above comes from different Romance languages using

the same root word with different meanings (semantic change). Portuguese, for example, has

the word fresta, which is a cognate of French fentre, Italianfinestra, Romanian fereastra and so

on, but now means "slit" as opposed to "window." (The Portuguese terms defenestrar, meaning

"to throw through a window" and fenestrada, "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

Spanishyantar) because of semantic changes in the 19th century. Galician has both fiestra (from

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medieval festra which is the ultimate origin of standard Portuguese fresta), and the less

frequently used vent andxanela.

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/Leonese/Cantabrian ventana and Mirandese and Sardinian bentana come

from Latin ventum, Spanish viento, "wind" (c.f. English window, etymologically 'wind eye'), and

Portuguesejanela, Galicianxanela, Mirandesejinela from Latinianua + ella, "small opening",

same root as "January" and "janitor".

Sardinian balcone (alternative forbentana) comes from Old Italian and is similar to other

Romance languages such as French balcon, Portuguese balco, Romanian balcon,

Spanish balcn, Catalan balc and Corsican balconi(alternative forpurtellu).