How much Italian and Spanish are alike?

Question

If you had to give it a percentage, what would you say the Italian language and Spanish are similar.
The reason why I'm asking is that there are a lot of Spanish words in Italian vocabulary, or the other way around.
By the way, which language is older than the other because one had to copy the other since there are a lot of similar words and sounds.

Answer 1

I would bet no more than a 20%.
I'm Italian and I've studied Spanish so I'm aware of all the differences between these 2 languages. In fact, in spite of a lot of Italian/Spanish people say they can understand each others even if they've never studied the other language (and this is absolutely true...!!!), I know mostly of them are not noticing the differences since on the whole the sentence can be understood. On the contrary a lot of words written in the same way have a different meaning in the 2 languages and this might originate funny situations.
A few examples :
largo means wide in Italian and long in Spanish
caldo means warm in Italian and soup in Spanish
burro means butter in Italian and donkey in Spanish

As to their origin everybody knows they're both coming from Latin; it's really hard to state which is the older one since both have had several degrees of evolution and it's impossible to say the one who did it as first in a valuable measure.

Answer 2

Yes They Are Very Similar, The Spanish Came From The Latin Speak Way, That's Why The People Call Us "Latins" It's A Romance Language. Came Since Like The X Century. A Text Was Found From That Time In Spanish, 1st Text.

Italian, Came From The Latin Too. At The Same Time.

Blessings From Argentina.

FILITA,

Answer 3

Yes they're equivalent, all of them are from the "Romance" Language household which is composed of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Latin and French. Spanish audio system can realize alot of what an Italian or Portugese speaker is pronouncing. A buddy of mine is a local Spanish speaker and she or he would even realize french. Spanish persons could make out alot of what Italian/Portuguese audio system are pronouncing and vice versa. Yes if you'll be able to study this sort of languages the opposite ones are alot less complicated.

Answer 4

I honestly can't give a percentage. I've heard people saying 50%, but I think it's too much. Let's say that many words and grammar are similar. I'm Italian, and even though I've never studied Spanish, I can understand it and can keep a conversation with a Spanish speaker, me speaking Italian and he/she speaking Spanish.

Which one is older? Don't know, but I think they are more or less the same. They both come from Latin, and when the Roman Empire fell, they just took different paths.

Answer 5

Yes, they are both derived from Latin and so of equal age. If you understand how to relate Italian words to Spanish ones, e.g., that llamar and chiamar are the same word because Spanish LL and Italian CHI are related historically, then you will see that they are extremely close. Certainly more than 50% of the vocabulary is essentially the same, I'd guess more than 75%. And the grammar is even closer.

Answer 6

I don't know, but they are both Romance languages as are Portuguese and French. If you think Italian and Spanish are a lot alike, try comparing Spanish and Portuguese. They all came from Latin.

Answer 7

well they both came from Latin, which is older than both Spanish and Italian so one didnt have to copy another,.
It's hard to say a percentage, as these languages like french, spanish, italian and portuguese and even english all share many verbs, improper nouns etc.etc.

Answer 8

Italian is roughly midway between Spanish and Romanian. For example, the Italian words for cat and mouth (gato and bocca) are the same as in Spanish (gato; boca) while the Italian words for dog and face (cane and faccia) are more like the Romanian câine and fatsa.

In spite of this, most linguists still classify Spanish as "Western Romance" along with Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan and French" while they classify Italian as "Eastern Romance" along with Sardinian, Dalmatian (extinct) and Romanian.

An Itlaian man I met from Naples about 30 years ago told me that about half of the vocabulary of Spanish was similar to his Neopolitan dialect of Italian. I think that's a fair statement.

Spanish is based on an older form of Vulgar Latin than Italian. After the Romans conquered Spain from Carthage (206 B.C.) Latin developed somewhat in isolation and at a slower pace than Latin in Italy.

Answer 9

I would say about 40% at least. I don't speak Italian but I do speak spanish fluently. I've been able to watch Italian movies and understand most of what they say without looking at the subtitles.

Answer 10

correction: italian for cat is gatto with 2 't' not gato