Why is Spanish considered a language of romance?

"When spoken correctly, no matter the accent, Spanish is by far the most beautiful, most romantic language...It has such a melodic tone that even an insult can sound romantic," quips a contributor to the Top Tens website. Indeed Spanish has a well-established repuation for being a language which conjures up romance and beauty. But just why is this the case?

Perhaps it is because of the soft consonants, longer vowels and blurring of beginnings and ends of words which makes Spanish easy to rhyme and conducive to music and poetry.

Or perhaps it is the fact that there are several ways to express love and affection:

And cheesy chat-up lines which usually are high-risk and rarely successful - when spoken in Spanish have the opposite effect:

Romance languages

Yet it's not only it's harmonious sound which puts the romance into Spanish. The language formally belongs to the family of 'Romance languages,' along with French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian. All these languages are derived from Latin, which was the language of the Romans. Indeed the term 'romance' comes from the Latin word romanice, loosely meaning 'in the Roman manner.'

With Latin at its core, Romance languages share a lot of the same vocabulary and grammar. So if you know one Romance language you are likely to be able to pick up another one very easily!

So if you are ready for some romance, see how you can start your language love affair today...