| − | The Italic languages were/are a group of [[Indo-European]] languages. They included Etruscan and Umbrian, but [[Latin]] was historically the most important, as it came to dominate much of [[Europe]] under the [[Roman Empire]] and several major languages, notably [[French]], [[Spanish]], [[Portuguese]] and [[Italian]], are descended from it. | + | The Italic languages were/are a group of [[Indo-European]] languages. They included Etruscan and Umbrian, but [[Latin]] was historically the most important, as it came to dominate much of [[Europe]] under the [[Roman Empire]] and several major languages (the so-called Romance languages), notably [[French]], [[Spanish]], [[Portuguese]] and [[Italian]], are descended from it. |