"How do the Romance languages reflect the temperament of the peoples who speak them? On what basis can it be asserted that they descend from a common mother tongue? What historical and geographical factors molded their different structures and phonetic qualities? These are a few of the vital questions explored in this comprehensive linguistic study of the five major Romance languages - French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Rumanian. Using a unique comparative approach, Rebecca Posner analyzes the historical development, internal structure, and present-day variants and dialects of each language, bringing into relief both he similarities and the differences in the famous constellation of Latin tongues."--Back cover.