The Latin influence on English vocabulary

The influence of Latin on the English language began long before the English language ever came to England, and this influence continued throughout the Old English period. Cable and Baugh break down this Latin influence on Old English vocabulary to three different periods: borrowings by Germanic tribes before the invasion of Britain, Celtic borrowings, and borrowings that came with the Christianization of Britain . The earliest influence of Latin on the English language would have to be the influence that the Romans had on early Germanic tribes while they were still located on mainland Europe.

Before the Germanic tribes invaded Britain, they had contact with Romans due to trade and war. Latin influenced the early, middle, and late periods of Old English, and it continued this influence into the period of Middle English.

Although this period of Middle English begins with the Norman Conquest and is most notable for its French influence, Latin words were still being borrowed. It should also be noted that many of the borrowed French words were originally derived from Latin words. During this period there were some direct borrowings from Latin, but these were not as popular as the words borrowed from French (Baugh & Cable, 2002). During the Middle English period, Latin gave English such words as: client, conviction, discuss, essence, folio, imaginary, instant, library, medicine, and quadrant (Algeo, 2010, p. 251). Clearly, there would be numerous borrowings of religious words due to the continued use of Latin by the Catholic Church; furthermore, according to Baugh and Cable, John Wycliffe's translation of the bible borrowed over a thousand words from Latin (2002). Latin was also known as the language of intellectuals and was still being taught in schools, albeit through French. As can be seen from the list above, the Latin borrowings were not restricted to only religious words. Although there have obviously been numerous Latin borrowing during the Middle English period, researchers have difficulty following the exact etymology of certain words of this period because of the relationship between English, French, and Latin. Students, who spoke English at home, were studying Latin via French, and their Latin pronunciations and spellings were probably French (Crystal, 2005). Even if a word was borrowed directly from Latin, it would be difficult to clearly say that it is a direct borrowing because it may be pronounced in a French manner. Besides spelling and pronunciation, there was also a problem with word combinations. David Crystal asks, "If an English author encounters a Latin word and decides to use it with a French suffix, then what should we call it?" (Crystal, 2005). This question is difficult to answer and is another reason why it is difficult to show an exact number of Latin words that were borrowed during this period. A third problem was that French was borrowing Latin words at the same time, and the English borrowings may have been because of both the Latin and French languages (Baugh & Cable, 2002). These three problems all cause difficulties in determining exactly how a word entered into English use. Despite these difficulties, it is clear that thousands of Latin words were borrowed during the Middle English period, but it is the early Modern English period that most Latin borrowings take place.

Latin has had an enormous influence on English vocabulary, and this influence can be historically and linguistically traced from before the Germanic invaders arrived in what would later be known as England. Even if it is difficult to determine if some words were borrowed directly from Latin, we know that Latin borrowings have played an enormous role in the creation of Modern English. This influence continued thorough all periods of English and even continues today. The English language would be unrecognizable if we were to not use words of Latin origin. Although English is clearly a Germanic language and doesn't belong in the Romance family, it will be forever bound to Latin. Latin words follow a strict structure. Prefixes must be placed before the root and suffixes must follow the root: in visible Latin roots (spect, dict, ject, rupt) are unlikely to stand alone as an English word. Many roots are closed syllable (short vowels).[13,(57)]

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1866