Friulian or Friulan is a Romance language belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance family. Friulian is spoken in the historical region of Friuli in the northeastern part of Italy. It has around 600,000 speakers, the vast majority of whom also speak Italian. It is sometimes called Eastern Ladin since it shares the same roots as Ladin, but over the centuries, it has diverged under the influence of surrounding languages, including German, Italian, Venetian, and Slovene. Documents in Friulian are attested from the 11th century and poetry and literature date as far back as 1300. By the 20th century, there was a revival of interest in the language.