This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (October 2018) |
This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2018) |
Although English is a Germanic language, it has significant Latin influences. Its grammar and core vocabulary are inherited from Proto-Germanic, but a significant portion of the English vocabulary comes from Romance and Latinate sources. A portion of these borrowings come directly from Latin, but some also from Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish; or from other languages (such as Gothic, Frankish or Greek) into Latin and then into English. The influence of Latin in English, therefore, is primarily lexical in nature, being confined mainly to words derived from Latin and Greek roots.
Source languages of the English vocabulary
Early Middle Ages
The Germanic tribes who later gave rise to the English language traded and fought with the Latin speaking Roman Empire. Many words for common objects entered the vocabulary of these Germanic people from Latin even before the tribes reached Britain: anchor, butter, camp, cheese, chest, cook, copper, devil, dish, fork, gem, inch, kitchen, mile, mill, mint (coin), noon, pillow, pound (unit of weight), punt (boat), sack, street, wall, wine.
Christian missionaries coming to Britain in the 6th or and 7th century brought with them Latin religious terms. Some of these words are ultimately of Greek origin, as much of the technical language of Christianity developed from the Greek of the New Testament and the works of those fathers of the Church who wrote in Greek.
During this time, Catholic monks mainly wrote or copied text in Latin, the prevalent medieval lingua franca in Europe. When monks occasionally wrote in the vernacular, Latin words were translated by finding suitable Old English equivalents. Often, a Germanic word was adopted and given a new shade of meaning in the process. Such was the case with Old English gōdspell ("gospel") for Latin Evangelium. Previously, the Old English word simply meant "good news", but its meaning was extended in Old English to fit a religious context. The same occurred for the Old Germanic pagan word blētsian, which meant "to sacrifice, consecrate by shedding blood". It was adapted by Old English scribes and Christianized to become the word bless. Similarly fullwiht (literally, "full-being") and the verb fullian came to mean "baptism" and "to baptise" respectively, but probably originally referred to some kind of rite of passage.
Whenever a suitable Old English substitute could not be found, a Latin word could be chosen instead, and many Latin words entered the Old English lexicon in this way. Such words include: biscop "bishop" from Latin episcopus, Old English tepid "carpet" from Latin tapetum, and Old English sigel "brooch" from Latin sigillum, culcer and læfel "spoon" from Latin coclearium and labellum beside Old English spōn and hlædel (Modern English ladle); Old English forca from Latin furca "fork" next to Old English gafol; Old English scamol "chair, stool" from Latin scamellum beside native stōl, benc and setl. All told, approximately 600 words were borrowed from Latin during the Old English period. Often, the Latin word was tightly restricted in sense, and was not widely used by the general populace. Latin words tended to be literary or scholarly terms and were not very common. The majority of them did not survive into the Middle English Period.
Middle Ages
The Norman Conquest of 1066 gave England a two-tiered society with an aristocracy which spoke Anglo-Norman and a lower class which spoke English. From 1066 until Henry IV of England ascended the throne in 1399, the royal court of England spoke a Norman language that became progressively Gallicised through contact with Old French. The Norman rulers did not try to suppress the English language, apart from not using it at all in their courts. In 1204, the Anglo-Normans lost their continental territories in Normandy and became wholly English. By the time Middle English arose as the dominant language in the late 14th century, the Normans had contributed roughly ten thousand words to English, three-quarters of which survive. Continued use of Latin by the Church and centres of learning brought a steady, though dramatically reduced, influx of new Latin lexical borrowings.
Since subjects like science and philosophy, including rhetoric and ethics, were communicated in Latin, the Latin vocabulary that developed for them became the source of a great many technical and abstract words. English words like abstract, subject, communicate, matter, probable and their cognates in other European languages generally have the meanings given to them in late Medieval Latin, and often terms for abstract concepts not available in English. Translated works that contributed significantly included Chaucer's Boece and Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus's De proprietatibus rerum.
Renaissance
During the English Renaissance, from around 1500–1650, some 10,000 to 12,000 words entered the English lexicon, including the word lexicon. Some examples include aberration, allusion, anachronism, democratic, dexterity, enthusiasm, imaginary, juvenile, pernicious, sophisticated. Many of these words were borrowed directly from Latin, both in its classical and medieval forms. In turn, Late Latin also included borrowings from Greek.
Industrial Age
The dawn of the age of scientific discovery in the 17th and 18th centuries created the need for new words to describe newfound knowledge. Many words were borrowed from Latin, while others were coined from Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes, and Latin word elements freely combine with elements from all other languages including native Anglo-Saxon words. Some of the words which entered English at this time are: apparatus, aqueous, carnivorous, component, corpuscle, data, experiment, formula, incubate, machinery, mechanics, molecule, nucleus, organic, ratio, structure, vertebra.
Consequences for English
In addition to a large number of historical borrowings and coinages, today Latinate words continue to be coined in English – see classical compounds – particularly in technical contexts. A number of more subtle consequences include: numerous doublets – two or more cognate terms from both a Germanic and Latinate source (or Latinate sources), such as cow/beef; numerous cases of etymologically unrelated terms for closely related concepts, notably Germanic nouns with a Latin adjective, such as bird/avian or hand/manual; complicated etymologies due to indirect borrowings (via Romance) or multiple borrowings; and usage controversies over the perceived complexity of Latinate terms.
Noun/adjective doublets
As with Germanic/Latinate doublets from the Norman period, the use of Latinate words in the sciences has created pairs with a native Germanic noun and a Latinate adjective:
- animals: ant/formic, bee/apian, bird/avian, crow/corvine, cod/gadoid, carp/cyprine, fish/piscine, gull/larine, wasp/vespine, butterfly/papilionaceous, worm/vermian, spider/arachnid, snake/anguine (or serpentine), tortoise (or turtle)/testudinal, cat/feline, lion/leonine, rabbit/cunicular, hare/leporine, dog/canine, deer/cervine, reindeer/rangiferine, fox/vulpine, wolf/lupine, goat/caprine, sheep/ovine, swan/cygnean, duck/anatine, starling/sturnine, goose/anserine, dove/columbine, ostrich/struthious, horse/equine, chicken/gallinaceous, ox/bovine, pig/porcine, whale/cetacean, ape/simian, bear/ursine, human/hominine (gender specific: man/masculine, woman/feminine); these Germanic nouns can be made into adjectives by adding "-like".
- physiology: head/capital, body/corporal, ear/aural, eye/ocular or visual, nose/nasal, mouth/oral, tooth/dental, tongue/lingual, lips/labial, neck/cervical, shoulder/scapular, finger/digital, hand/manual, arm/brachial, foot/pedal, sole of the foot/plantar, leg/crural, thigh/femoral, chest/pectoral, nipple/papillary, brain/cerebral, mind/mental, nail/ungual, hair/pilar, lung/pulmonary, kidney/renal, blood/sanguine, heart/cardiac.
- astronomy: moon/lunar, sun/solar, earth/terrestrial, star/stellar.
- sociology: son or daughter/filial, mother/maternal, father/paternal, brother/fraternal, sister/sororal, wife/uxorial, uncle/avuncular.
- other: book/literary, edge/marginal, fire/igneous, water/aquatic, sea/marine, wind/vental, ice/glacial, boat (or ship)/naval, house/domestic, door/portal, window/fenestral, wall/mural, bridge/pontine, town/urban, sight/visual, ring/annular, tree/arboreal, bloom/floral, marsh/paludal, land (country)/national, sword/gladiate, king/regal, earl/comital, fighter/military, law/legal, church/ecclesiastical, bell/tintinnabulary, cooking/culinary, clothes/sartorial.
Thus Latin constitutes a linguistic superstratum for English just as Japanese has a Chinese superstratum and Hindustani has a Persian superstratum.
Indirect influence
It is not always easy to tell at what point a word entered English, or in what form. Some words have come into English from Latin more than once, through French or another Romance language at one time and directly from Latin at another. Thus there are pairs like fragile/frail, army/armada, corona/crown, ratio/reason, and rotund/round. The first word in each pair came directly from Latin, while the second entered English from French (or Spanish, in the case of armada). In addition, some words have entered English twice from French, with the result that they have the same source, but different pronunciations reflecting changing pronunciation in French, for example, chief/chef (the former a Middle English borrowing and the latter modern). Multiple borrowings explain other word pairs and groups with similar roots but different meanings and/or pronunciations: canal/channel, poor/pauper, coy/quiet, disc/disk/dish/desk/dais/discus.
Sociolinguistical consequences
David Corson in The Lexical Bar (1985) defended the thesis that the large portion of Greco-Latinate words in Academic English explains the difficulties of working class children in the educational system. When exposed at home mainly to colloquial English (primarily Anglo-Saxon words), children may have more difficulty at school than their peers who have more access at home to academic words (often longer, more Greco-Latinate). This difference tends not to become less by education but greater, potentially impeding their access to academic or social careers. In various experiments and comparative studies Corson measured fewer differences between 12 year olds than 15 year olds due to their unfamiliarity with Greco-Latinate words in English and the way teachers deal with them. Corson's views were not always represented correctly. In his totally revised Using English Words (1995) the linguistic, historical, psychological and educational aspects have been integrated better.
See also
- English words of Greek origin
- List of Latin words with English derivatives
- List of English words of French origin
- Classical compound
- Hybrid word
- List of Greek and Latin roots in English
- List of Latin phrases
- Latin mnemonics
- Latin school
- List of Latin abbreviations
- List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names
- List of Latinised names
- List of legal Latin terms
- Medical terminology
- Romanization (cultural)
- Toponymy
- Help:IPA/Latin
References
- Bryson, Bill. The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way. New York: Avon, 1990.
- Corson, David. The Lexical Bar Oxford: Pergamon, 1985.
- Corson, David. Using English Words Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1995.
- Hughes, Geoffrey. Words in Time. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988.
- Kent, Roland G. Language and Philology. New York: Cooper Square, 1963.
- McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. The Story of English. New York: Elisabeth Sifton, 1986.
Notes
- "What is the proportion of English words of French, Latin, or Germanic origin?". Ask the experts. Oxford University Press. 2008. Archived from the original on 17 August 2008.
- Lounsbury, History of the English Language, page 42.
- Franklin, James (1983). "Mental furniture from the philosophers" (PDF). Et Cetera. 40: 177–191. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
External links
- Wikiversity: English as a hybrid Romance-Germanic language
This article includes a list of general references but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations October 2018 Learn how and when to remove this message This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Latin influence in English news newspapers books scholar JSTOR October 2018 Learn how and when to remove this message The template Pie chart is being considered for merging Although English is a Germanic language it has significant Latin influences Its grammar and core vocabulary are inherited from Proto Germanic but a significant portion of the English vocabulary comes from Romance and Latinate sources A portion of these borrowings come directly from Latin but some also from Italian Portuguese and Spanish or from other languages such as Gothic Frankish or Greek into Latin and then into English The influence of Latin in English therefore is primarily lexical in nature being confined mainly to words derived from Latin and Greek roots Source languages of the English vocabulary French including Anglo Norman 28 30 Latin including modern scientific and technical Latin 28 24 Germanic languages Old English Old Norse Dutch 25 Greek 5 32 No etymology given 4 03 Derived from proper names 3 28 Other 5 83 Early Middle AgesThe Germanic tribes who later gave rise to the English language traded and fought with the Latin speaking Roman Empire Many words for common objects entered the vocabulary of these Germanic people from Latin even before the tribes reached Britain anchor butter camp cheese chest cook copper devil dish fork gem inch kitchen mile mill mint coin noon pillow pound unit of weight punt boat sack street wall wine Christian missionaries coming to Britain in the 6th or and 7th century brought with them Latin religious terms Some of these words are ultimately of Greek origin as much of the technical language of Christianity developed from the Greek of the New Testament and the works of those fathers of the Church who wrote in Greek During this time Catholic monks mainly wrote or copied text in Latin the prevalent medieval lingua franca in Europe When monks occasionally wrote in the vernacular Latin words were translated by finding suitable Old English equivalents Often a Germanic word was adopted and given a new shade of meaning in the process Such was the case with Old English gōdspell gospel for Latin Evangelium Previously the Old English word simply meant good news but its meaning was extended in Old English to fit a religious context The same occurred for the Old Germanic pagan word bletsian which meant to sacrifice consecrate by shedding blood It was adapted by Old English scribes and Christianized to become the word bless Similarly fullwiht literally full being and the verb fullian came to mean baptism and to baptise respectively but probably originally referred to some kind of rite of passage Whenever a suitable Old English substitute could not be found a Latin word could be chosen instead and many Latin words entered the Old English lexicon in this way Such words include biscop bishop from Latin episcopus Old English tepid carpet from Latin tapetum and Old English sigel brooch from Latin sigillum culcer and laefel spoon from Latin coclearium and labellum beside Old English spōn and hlaedel Modern English ladle Old English forca from Latin furca fork next to Old English gafol Old English scamol chair stool from Latin scamellum beside native stōl benc and setl All told approximately 600 words were borrowed from Latin during the Old English period Often the Latin word was tightly restricted in sense and was not widely used by the general populace Latin words tended to be literary or scholarly terms and were not very common The majority of them did not survive into the Middle English Period Middle AgesThe Norman Conquest of 1066 gave England a two tiered society with an aristocracy which spoke Anglo Norman and a lower class which spoke English From 1066 until Henry IV of England ascended the throne in 1399 the royal court of England spoke a Norman language that became progressively Gallicised through contact with Old French The Norman rulers did not try to suppress the English language apart from not using it at all in their courts In 1204 the Anglo Normans lost their continental territories in Normandy and became wholly English By the time Middle English arose as the dominant language in the late 14th century the Normans had contributed roughly ten thousand words to English three quarters of which survive Continued use of Latin by the Church and centres of learning brought a steady though dramatically reduced influx of new Latin lexical borrowings Since subjects like science and philosophy including rhetoric and ethics were communicated in Latin the Latin vocabulary that developed for them became the source of a great many technical and abstract words English words like abstract subject communicate matter probable and their cognates in other European languages generally have the meanings given to them in late Medieval Latin and often terms for abstract concepts not available in English Translated works that contributed significantly included Chaucer s Boece and Trevisa s translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus s De proprietatibus rerum RenaissanceDuring the English Renaissance from around 1500 1650 some 10 000 to 12 000 words entered the English lexicon including the word lexicon Some examples include aberration allusion anachronism democratic dexterity enthusiasm imaginary juvenile pernicious sophisticated Many of these words were borrowed directly from Latin both in its classical and medieval forms In turn Late Latin also included borrowings from Greek Industrial AgeThe dawn of the age of scientific discovery in the 17th and 18th centuries created the need for new words to describe newfound knowledge Many words were borrowed from Latin while others were coined from Latin roots prefixes and suffixes and Latin word elements freely combine with elements from all other languages including native Anglo Saxon words Some of the words which entered English at this time are apparatus aqueous carnivorous component corpuscle data experiment formula incubate machinery mechanics molecule nucleus organic ratio structure vertebra Consequences for EnglishIn addition to a large number of historical borrowings and coinages today Latinate words continue to be coined in English see classical compounds particularly in technical contexts A number of more subtle consequences include numerous doublets two or more cognate terms from both a Germanic and Latinate source or Latinate sources such as cow beef numerous cases of etymologically unrelated terms for closely related concepts notably Germanic nouns with a Latin adjective such as bird avian or hand manual complicated etymologies due to indirect borrowings via Romance or multiple borrowings and usage controversies over the perceived complexity of Latinate terms Noun adjective doublets As with Germanic Latinate doublets from the Norman period the use of Latinate words in the sciences has created pairs with a native Germanic noun and a Latinate adjective animals ant formic bee apian bird avian crow corvine cod gadoid carp cyprine fish piscine gull larine wasp vespine butterfly papilionaceous worm vermian spider arachnid snake anguine or serpentine tortoise or turtle testudinal cat feline lion leonine rabbit cunicular hare leporine dog canine deer cervine reindeer rangiferine fox vulpine wolf lupine goat caprine sheep ovine swan cygnean duck anatine starling sturnine goose anserine dove columbine ostrich struthious horse equine chicken gallinaceous ox bovine pig porcine whale cetacean ape simian bear ursine human hominine gender specific man masculine woman feminine these Germanic nouns can be made into adjectives by adding like physiology head capital body corporal ear aural eye ocular or visual nose nasal mouth oral tooth dental tongue lingual lips labial neck cervical shoulder scapular finger digital hand manual arm brachial foot pedal sole of the foot plantar leg crural thigh femoral chest pectoral nipple papillary brain cerebral mind mental nail ungual hair pilar lung pulmonary kidney renal blood sanguine heart cardiac astronomy moon lunar sun solar earth terrestrial star stellar sociology son or daughter filial mother maternal father paternal brother fraternal sister sororal wife uxorial uncle avuncular other book literary edge marginal fire igneous water aquatic sea marine wind vental ice glacial boat or ship naval house domestic door portal window fenestral wall mural bridge pontine town urban sight visual ring annular tree arboreal bloom floral marsh paludal land country national sword gladiate king regal earl comital fighter military law legal church ecclesiastical bell tintinnabulary cooking culinary clothes sartorial Thus Latin constitutes a linguistic superstratum for English just as Japanese has a Chinese superstratum and Hindustani has a Persian superstratum Indirect influence It is not always easy to tell at what point a word entered English or in what form Some words have come into English from Latin more than once through French or another Romance language at one time and directly from Latin at another Thus there are pairs like fragile frail army armada corona crown ratio reason and rotund round The first word in each pair came directly from Latin while the second entered English from French or Spanish in the case of armada In addition some words have entered English twice from French with the result that they have the same source but different pronunciations reflecting changing pronunciation in French for example chief chef the former a Middle English borrowing and the latter modern Multiple borrowings explain other word pairs and groups with similar roots but different meanings and or pronunciations canal channel poor pauper coy quiet disc disk dish desk dais discus Sociolinguistical consequences David Corson in The Lexical Bar 1985 defended the thesis that the large portion of Greco Latinate words in Academic English explains the difficulties of working class children in the educational system When exposed at home mainly to colloquial English primarily Anglo Saxon words children may have more difficulty at school than their peers who have more access at home to academic words often longer more Greco Latinate This difference tends not to become less by education but greater potentially impeding their access to academic or social careers In various experiments and comparative studies Corson measured fewer differences between 12 year olds than 15 year olds due to their unfamiliarity with Greco Latinate words in English and the way teachers deal with them Corson s views were not always represented correctly In his totally revised Using English Words 1995 the linguistic historical psychological and educational aspects have been integrated better See alsoLanguage portalEnglish words of Greek origin List of Latin words with English derivatives List of English words of French origin Classical compound Hybrid word List of Greek and Latin roots in English List of Latin phrases Latin mnemonics Latin school List of Latin abbreviations List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names List of Latinised names List of legal Latin terms Medical terminology Romanization cultural Toponymy Help IPA LatinReferencesBryson Bill The Mother Tongue English and How It Got That Way New York Avon 1990 Corson David The Lexical Bar Oxford Pergamon 1985 Corson David Using English Words Dordrecht Kluwer 1995 Hughes Geoffrey Words in Time Oxford Basil Blackwell 1988 Kent Roland G Language and Philology New York Cooper Square 1963 McCrum Robert William Cran and Robert MacNeil The Story of English New York Elisabeth Sifton 1986 Notes What is the proportion of English words of French Latin or Germanic origin Ask the experts Oxford University Press 2008 Archived from the original on 17 August 2008 Lounsbury History of the English Language page 42 Franklin James 1983 Mental furniture from the philosophers PDF Et Cetera 40 177 191 Retrieved 29 June 2021 External linksWikiversity English as a hybrid Romance Germanic language
