Catalan language:

Catalan bears varying degrees of similarity to the linguistic varieties subsumed under the cover term Occitan language (see also differences between Occitan and Catalan and Gallo-Romance languages). Thus, as it should be expected from closely related languages, Catalan today shares many traits with other Romance languages.

Please answer a question about this article. If the question is unanswerable, say "unanswerable". Why does Catalan share many traits with other Romance languages?
closely related