Latin Influence In The English Language

[Tytonidae Alba]

How much of English do you think is related or derived from Latin?

[Ursus]

Most of our scientific and technical terms come directly from Latin or Greek, and most of literary words come from Latin via French. The German influence resides mostly in everyday words.

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

I remember seeing a chart in my Latin class that states 80% of scholarly words are derived from Latin. About 65-70 %(not sure, somewhere around there) of the whole english language is latin-derived. The remaning 30 % are probably mostly french, german, and swedish

[Tobias]

I believe the majority of our legal system and laws are in latin as well, that is, in english speaking countries. I don't know how it works in America etc. but most pf Australia's laws are titled in Latin.

[Silentium]

How much of English do you think is related or derived from Latin?

 

I think 80% is exaggerate if we consider that many of the latin-derived words have a Germanic counterpart. 50% is probably more realistic. The main contributions (in addition to classic latin) were Church latin and French (blame William the Conqueror =)). The majority of the loanwords from latin are technical, the Germanic words are connected to everyday life, but as I said before there are contexts in which the speaker can choose between latin and germanic words that practically have the same significance, although the latin alternative is often the more

[docoflove1974]

Well, English is a (Western) Germanic language...same branch as Dutch. The Romance influences principally come from 2 areas:

 

1) Norman invasion: William of Normandy came over with his men, and set up shop in London. Norman French was the langue du court...and was the 'educated' language. Because of the major influx of Norman/French culture, society, language, etc., there was a MAJOR influx of (Norman) French words. That's it, tho...just words. There's argument that 'of' constructions--city of London--is attributed to Norman French, but I just don't buy it, as it's common in older Germanic constructions, too.

 

2) Renaissance: the thinkers/educators/academians/monks of this era thought that, in order to get back to the 'glory days' of Ancient Rome and Greece, one must use their languages to describe the world. Everything from science to the humanities borrowed not just Latin (and Greek) words wholesale, but took words from these two languages and made them fit into the language. In Spanish they are called cultismos, referring to their high-brow, educated status. Ironically, many of these words are now common use. But everyone in Western Europe borrowed heavily from Latin (in particular) and Greek at this time.

Edited February 13, 2006 by docoflove1974

[Guest Cimmerian]

Hello,

 

Can anyone post (or direct) me to links that offer Latin dictionarys, pronunciation guides & the whole shabang; in .pdf format? I'm having troubles finding anything solid.

 

And apologies if this was a terrible thread to post this question--I havn't had the time to completely browse this part of the forum.

 

Thanks,

 

-Adam

[Q Valerius Scerio]

I remember seeing a chart in my Latin class that states 80% of scholarly words are derived from Latin. About 65-70 %(not sure, somewhere around there) of the whole english language is latin-derived. The remaning 30 % are probably mostly french, german, and swedish

None of English came from German or Swedish. English itself was born out of the Germanic family, and the Viking warriors gave English a lot of words from Old Norse, but those are very different from German and Swedish respectively.

[Eunapius Titus]

English was influenced by Latin (and by extension, Greek) on three major occasions, and each invasion brought a different aspect of the language into play.

 

1) Christianity and the early Dark Ages. While the Celts who lived in Britain when the Romans brought their new religion to the isle were a far cry from the Anglo-Saxons who later invaded, the religion outlasted both the legions and the Celts in the area. As such, ecclesiastical words (such as ecclesiatical, actually) were instilled in the language at its very roots, and never went away. A few Roman words remained in more regular usage to describe remaining Roman inventions, but they were wiped out during the Viking invasions.

 

2) The Norman Invasion. As mentioned before, this brought over the very Latinized French language. In fact, it was forbidden to write in English, or for it to be spoken in the courts. During this time, French words (usually derived from Latin, if not simply cognates) became standard for words for higher class life. The English language did not die out among peasants, however, and evolved steadily into a language of the lower classes.

 

3) Renaissance and later: As the Classical texts are rediscovered and essentially cantonized, Latin works its way into scholarly and intelligent contexts in both Anglocized and pure forms. Until about the time of Newton, Latin remains the language of a growing and fertile international, intellectual community.

 

I'd say probably about twenty to thirty percent of English words are derived directly from Latin. If you add in Latin-influenced French words, the number probably approaches forty to forty-five. Greek takes up a relatively small percentage, and Germanic words occupy the rest.

 

In individual subsections of the language, I'd say Latin has a crushing majority in religious terms (particularly in regards to Catholicism) and scholarly (though Greek does maintain a decent percentage here).