Which non-Spanish Romance language is closer to Italian overall -- Portuguese, Romanian or French?

[Sikeliot]

IMO, French.

Portuguese may be close to Spanish but its spelling is not like Italian and its sound even less. French has lexical similarity, and Romanian sounds like it, but IMO French is closer.

[Kriptc06]

overall? Id say Portuguese, even tho the lexicon may not be that close as OP pointed, but the way its spoken and grammar wise, portuguese wins imo

[Sikeliot]

overall? Id say Portuguese, even tho the lexicon may not be that close as OP pointed, but the way its spoken and grammar wise, portuguese wins imo

Grammar is closer to French also.

I don't think Portuguese from Portugal sounds any more like Italian than French does. Brazilian, maybe.

[Lavrentis]

I say French.

Btw, Romanian does sound like Italian, which is something I didn't expect.

[Sikeliot]

I say French.

Btw, Romanian does sound like Italian, which is something I didn't expect.

IMO:

Sound: Romanian (Spanish is closest but not a choice in the poll)
Grammar: French
Lexicon: French

[Odin]

French I think.

[Óttar]

I think French is closer to Italian in terms of vocabulary. I would hesitate to say Romanian because it is quite different phonologically. However, Italian is closer to Romanian than other western Romance languages on account of its geographical position as the most 'eastern' of the western Romance languages. Spanish and French derive the plural form of words i.e. Romanos, casas, lobos, mercadores, etc. from the Latin accusative e.g. "Omnia Gallia est in tres partes divisa..." (Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico), whereas Italian and Romanian construct plurals from the Latin nominative case i.e. Romani, Italiani, lupi, case, etc.

[AphroditeWorshiper]

Catalan is the most similar romance language to Italian

at least, was a discussion that I read in one Catalan forum, maybe Occitan/Catalan, after that I think French

[Newsboy]

French out of those 3

[Seya]

in between French and Romanian. it sounds closer to romanian tho

overall? Id say Portuguese, even tho the lexicon may not be that close as OP pointed, but the way its spoken and grammar wise, portuguese wins imo

not even close




ps: i speak fluently all latin languages included napoletano. i do understand very well all the other dialects.