Latin and Its Influence on English Language
Latin is one of the most ancient languages and even now it is widely used almost in various fields such as: medicine, learning, science, technology, etc.
Latin has been influencing English throughout its history. Its
authority on English was profound as the Roman army and merchants gave
new names to local objects such as: pise 'pea', catte 'cat', cetel
'kettle', candel 'candle' and a numerous number of other common words.
The influence of Latin on Old English was profound because Latin was
considered the language of a highly developed civilization. For
several hundred years, while the Germanic Tribe who became the English
were still occupying their home land, they had various relations with
the Romans through which they acquired a considerable number of Latin
words. Not only did Latin influence the vocabulary of the English
language, but its syntactic style had an impact on the English of the
16th century. Marcus Tullius Cicero work was particularly imitated, as
there was a search for an oratorical contrast and balance.
Latin's contribution to modern English has not been more than just
derivatives. The concept of grammar also came from the artificial
structure of Classical Latin which can be defined as the Latin used
for poetry, oratory, and by the upper classes. Early English had no
grammar, no rules. Latin provided an example of excellent grammatical
structure and an oratory contrast that English eventually adopted.
Latin has probably impacted legal English the most, as it shares with
science a concern for precision. The language used in the legal system
is simple, universal and rhetoric. The word have made the statements
to be phrased in such a way that we can see its applicability yet
specific enough individual circumstances. The law has to remain
constant so the language has to be precise enough so cases will be
treated consistently and fairly. This is the reason why it has adopted
such a complex grammatical structure.
Words from Latin roots have also entered Modern English through the
modern Romance languages, especially French and Italian.
English-speakers assimilate a variety of foreign words. They dropped
endings without much thought. As a result, we now retain foreign
characters like the French c, and the German B.
The English language has drawn from Latin mainly in its vocabulary,
but also in its grammar. These loans are grouped, by time and
substance, into four periods -- the Zero, First, Second, Third, and
Modern. Each of these has distinctive characteristics, both of the
Latin words adopted and the process of assimilation undergone. Latin
words have also been adopted to English through Modern French and
Modern Italian (grouped under the Modern Period) and Norman French
(the Third Period).
The Zero Period
It includes all English words whose etymology traces back
to Germanic tribes in contact with Romans on the continent. These are
all short words, easily adaptable to the inflections of early Germanic
languages. The tribes' dealings with the Romans were centered in
military matters, cooking, trade, and commerce, especially with wine
merchants. Words current in Modern English with recognizable forms
include camp (L campus), kettle (OE cytel, L catillus, catinus), cheap
(OE ceap), and wine (OE win, L vinum).
The First Period
This period includes words borrowed during Julius Caesar's English
adventures (55 BC) and the Roman Conquest (43-449 AD), but almost none
of these1 survived the Teutonic and Norman invasions. In fact, most
Celtic words in Modern English either were borrowed recently (slogan,
shillelagh) or continued as place names (Kent, Devon, Cumberland). The
most interesting Latin-Celtic-Old English path is that of -chester,
with its variants -cester and -caster, as found in Manchester,
Gloucester, and Lancaster. In Celtic, it is ceaster, from the Latin
castra (encampment).
The Second Period
This period, dating from Augustine's mission of 597, is divided
into two main sub-periods, the Early and the Benedictine. The Early
Second Period includes words taken by the English to describe their
new religion (mass, pope; from the Old English maesse, papa; and the
Latin missa, papa), but also household words (cap, plant; from the Old
English caeppa, plante; and the Latin cappa, planta) and those
relating to education (Latin and school; from the Old English scol;
and the Latin Latinus, schola). The amount and miscellany of the
borrowings show the extent of Christianity's immediate impact on
seventh-century Britain. In this part of the Second Period, direct
translation of Latin terms is characteristic. Thus, the Late Latin
trinitas (three) is the Old English prines (literally, three-ness),
and the Late Latin resurrectio (resurrection) is the Old English
aerist, from arisan (to arise).
The Third Period
The Third Period begins in 1066 with William the Conqueror. With the
Norman invasion came their language, Norman French, which was related
more closely to Latin than was English. Because of this closeness,
words adopted from French (usually of a more colliquial character) are
considered along with those drawn from Latin itself (often more
learned, and first found in written language). The dual sources of
Middle English vocabulary are still apparent today: word pairs such as
example/exemplary and machine (sh)/machinate (k) show the differences
between words with Norman and Latin roots. This period is the first
time that untranslated Latin words are introduced wholesale, in both
prose (Trevisa's translation of De Proprietatibus Rerum) and poetry
(Dunbar et al.). As one Latin-English translator complained in the
early 1400s, 'There is many words in Latin that we have no proper
English accordance therto.'2 Almost all of these aureate terms passed
into general use only after being reintroduced. Others still current
were from Wycliffe's Bible, and gained currency through constant use.
The Modern Period
The Modern Period begins with the advent of Modern English, usually
dated to 1500.3 By the time of Thomas Eliot, the classical languages
were entering English mostly as compounds, either with English or
previously-assimilated words, or with other classical roots. An
incomplete list of widely used classical roots includes -ation, -ana,
-ite, -ism, ex-, co-, -ist, and de-, while scientific English uses
many more specialized ones : mille-, matri-, menti-, and reticul-,
though these often come ultimately from the Greek.
Latin roots are also apparent in commercial names, especially of
high-tech companies (Sun Microsystems, from the Greek micro, as in the
Late Latin microcosms), but also in many from the early days of this
century (Bovril, from the Latin bovis)4. Classically derived names
seem to give credence to claims to knowledge and capability5.
Assimilation of Latin words into English
Having treated when, how, and why Latin words are used in English, the
next question is "how have these Latin words assimilated into
English?" English words like harp, cousin, chime, chesnut, prove, and
truck certainly don't advertise their Latin roots (Late Latin harpa,
Latin consobrinus, Latin cymbalum, Latin castanea, Latin probus, and
the Latin trochaicus, respectively)11. Yet, linguists and etymologists
can somehow trace the history and forms of English words, and
recognize patterns in the changes they undergo.
Other patterns have been recognized that not only reveal an English
word's source, but can also help date its adoption. The two most
important of these were palatal diphthongization, in which some vowels
preceded by palatal consonants were changed to diphthongs, and the
i-umlaut (or i-mutation), in which the value of some accented vowels
was changed. The other prominent area of change in adopted words was
in their accenting, which sometimes led to more vowel mutations. These
changes all took place in English, so their presence can tell us only
by when a word must have been adopted; other changes can tell us
before what time a word must have been used in English. The most
important of these was in the Latin itself, and is the change that
took place when a word was simplified by speakers of Vulgar Latin13.
Others were changes in the forms adopted by other Germanic languages,
but these are often only speculation.
The other major change words underwent after adoption was
simplification, either dropping a case ending (Latin cornu -- English
horn14) or dropping syllables. Syllables were especially likely to be
lost from words of the Zero Period (learned by continental Germanic
tribes), who found it hard to decline even shortened words from Vulgar
Latin in their heavily-inflected Old High and Low Germans.
Latin's Impact on English Grammar
Latin's contribution to modern English has not been based solely on
derivatives. The very ideas of grammar also came from the artificial
structure of Classical Latin (the Latin used for poetry, oratory, and
by the upper classes). Early English was in no way an artificial or
learned language, and had no grammar, no rules, nothing but
conflicting precedent15 in everything: spelling, word order,
declension, and conjugation.
In this structural vacuum, those who wanted order were forced to
create it, which they did by imposing classical grammar on the
language16. These early grammarians are the source of the stigma on
ending a phrase with a preposition, of the choice we have today
between who/which (identified with the Latin qui) and that as a
relative pronoun17, and with the absolute participle, whose first use
in English was direct translation from the Latin. While the last is a
benefit, the first two lead to unnaturally worded phrases, and have no
justification other than classical grammar.
Latin's Overall Impact
Latin is so large a part of English that, even if we wanted to, we
could not purge ourselves of even one tenth of our words derived from
it. Even our grammar, which has been influenced less than our
vocabulary, would be amazingly different without its Latin base. But,
is all that we have received from Latin useful?
Our grammar has been turned on its head by classical scholars, and our
vocabulary does not need the amount of words that it has. If one idea
has just one word derived from each language contributing the most to
Modern English (Greek, Latin, Saxon (Germanic), and Norman French), we
would still have useless synonyms. "Everything in moderation," though
a cliché is still true; Modern English would be simpler and more
efficient if there had been less of a Latin influence. But, the flip
side of the phrase is that everything is necessary, if only in
(relatively) small doses. What would English be like without our
Latin-derived vocabulary, or our knowledge of the classics? Without
this most crucial components, English would not be English.
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