Impact of Latin Language on the Vocabulary of English Language during the Old English Period

Introduction

The history of the English Language is mainly divided into three main periods such as Old English[1] or Anglo-Saxon (400 AD-1150 AD), Middle English[2] (1150 AD-1500 AD) and Modern English[3] (1550 AD-2018 AD) During the Anglo-Saxon period, Latin Language has influenced the expansion of the vocabulary of Old English more than any other language. This development occurred within three time periods. The first time period took place prior to the arrival of Anglo-Saxons in England between West-Germanic speaking people and Latin speakers. The second period of influence began from the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in England during their Christianization. The last period of Latin commenced from the time of Christianization up to the arrival of the Normans in 1066, which is known as the Norman Conquest. During this period, the most prominent influence that Latin had on Anglo-Saxon was the use of the Latin alphabet and gradually the Latin influence on the vocabulary of the English language developed. Later, it was found that approximately 70% of the English words were borrowed from the Latin language. Hence, it is very significant to investigate the way how Latin words were gradually added to the English vocabulary.

Objective of the study

The objective of the present study is to explore and investigate the roots of Latin words, which were added to the vocabulary of the English Language during the Old English Period.

Research Methodology

          Methodology applied in the present study is entirely based on the secondary data. In other words, it is a library based survey. Relevant and related books, journals, magazines and research papers were used to collect information to support the research.

Literature Review

Old English (Ænglisc, Anglisc, Englisc), or Anglo-Saxon,[4] is the earliest historical form of the English language. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th century. After the Norman conquest of 1066, English was replaced for a time as the language of the upper classes by Anglo-Norman. During this period, Latin influenced the English language tremendously.  Most of the Latin influence was indirect.  The indirect effect of Latin on English came mainly after the Normans invaded England in 1066.  Since their language (French) was a Romance language descended from Latin, this gave Latin an indirect influence on English.

N.S. Gill[5] points out through her article, Latin Words in English (Words in newspapers that English has adopted- April 18, 2018) the following words have derived from Latin.

1.     acumen - ability to make good judgments

2.     agenda - list of things to be done

3.     altruism - selfless concern for others

4.     ambiguous - having a double meaning

5.     aplomb (Fr.) - self-confidence

6.     atrocity - cruel act

7.     avarice - greed

8.     bibulous - excessively fond of drinking alcohol

9.     celibate - abstaining from sex or marriage

10.                        chivalrous (Fr.) - gallant

11.                        condign - worthy, appropriate

12.                        conglomerate - parts put together to form a unit while remaining separate identities

13.                        crepuscular - pertaining to twilight

14.                        cull - select from a variety of sources

15.                        debilitate - weaken

16.                        dirigible - capable of being guided

17.                        facsimile - exact copy

18.                        ferrous - made of iron

19.                        flux - in the process of flowing

20.                        futile - in vain

21.                        garrulity - loquaciousness

22.                        impecunious - poor

23.                        incalculable - too great to be counted

24.                        incommunicado (Sp.) - not in communication with others

25.                        indefatigability - tireless

26.                        insipid - lacking flavor

27.                        introspection - looking within at one's mental or emotional state

28.                        languid - slow, relaxed

29.                        lucubration - meditation

30.                        malfeasance (Fr.) - wrongdoing

31.                        modicum - small amount

1.     moribund - near death

2.     mundane - wordly as opposed to spiritual

3.     naive - exhibiting lack of experience

4.     obeisance - respect

5.     obvious - clear (from the Latin for "in the way")

6.     parvenu - celebrity from obscure origins

7.     perpetuate - preserve

8.     perturb - make anxious

9.     plausible - probable

10.                        precarious - uncertain

11.                        puerile - childishly silly

12.                        pulchritude - beauty

13.                        pusillanimity - showing a lack of courage

14.                        rapport - close relationship

15.                        rapprochement (Fr.) - establishment of a harmonious relationship

16.                        recalcitrant - obstinate

17.                        renegade - a rebellious person

18.                        reprisal - retaliation

19.                        sacrosanct - very important or holy and not to be messed with

20.                        simulacrum - image

21.                        stipend - fixed allowance

22.                        stultify - make appear foolish, cause to loose enthusiasm

23.                        succumb - fail to resist

24.                        taunt (Fr.) - provoke

25.                        tentative - provisional

26.                        turpitude - depravity

27.                        ubiquity - found everywhere

 J Hladký[6] highlights through his book, The first Latin words in English (Brno studies in English, 1772) that it is well known that Old English had an extremely low percentage of loan words, about three per cent, which means it was a thoroughly Germanic language. Nearly all these loans were of Latin origin. The first Latin words to get into what later became Old English were mostly words learnt from Roman merchants. The number of these words cannot be established beyond any doubt, the maximum estimate reaching about 170 words.

Latin also influenced Old English directly because of the Roman Conquest of England.  But, this influence was not as great or as lasting as the indirect influence. In between the end of Roman occupation and the Norman invasion, Latin also influenced English because Latin was the language of the Catholic Church.

Results and Discussion

It is found that about 70% of the English words originated from Latin. Hence, it is obvious that Latin is the most prominent language to influence English. For example, the word, promise, comes from the Latin word, "pro-mitto"[7]. Some more examples are given below.

word = verbum[8]

canine = canis[9]

college =collegium ("Collegium" is borrowed from Latin)

English is predominantly formed from Greek and Latin languages with grammar and   vocabulary inherited from those languages. However, a significant portion of the English vocabulary comes from Latin Language. The influence of Latin in English is primarily lexical in nature, being confined mainly to words derived from Latin roots.

The Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxon and Jutes), who gave rise to the English language traded and fought with the Latin speaking Roman Empire. Many words for common objects therefore entered the vocabulary of these Germanic people via Latin even before the tribes reached Britain.

1.     anchor (borrowed from Latin ancora, which means hook) 

2.     butter (fatty part of milk -an early loan-word from Latin butyrum  

3.     camp (The Latin word had been taken up in early West Germanic as kampo-z and appeared originally in Old English as camp "contest, battle, fight, war."

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.[10] 

Christian missionaries, who came to Britain in the 6th century and 7th century, brought with them Latin religious terms which entered the English language: abbot, altar, apostle, candle, clerk, mass, minister, monk, nun, pope, priest, school,     shrive. 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, the Catholic Church had great influence on the development and expansion of the Old English language. Catholic monks mainly wrote or copied text in Latin, the prevalent Medieval lingua franca of Europe. However, 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 christened to become the word bless. Similarly fullwiht (literally, "full-being") and the verb fullian came to mean "baptism" and "to baptize" 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 teped "carpet" from Latin tapetum, and Old English sigel "brooch" from Latin sigillum. Other words came in, even though an adequate Old English term already existed, and this caused enrichment of the Old English vocabulary: 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.[11] Often, the Latin word was severely restricted in sense, and was not widespread in use among 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.

Many names of the animals also derived from Latin. 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, tortoise (or turtle)/testudinal, cat/feline, 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, ostrich/struthious, horse/equine, chicken/gallinaceous, cattle/bovine, pig/porcine, whale/cetacean, ape/simian, bear/ursine, man/human or hominid (gender specific: man/masculine, woman/feminine) these words can also be altered informally by adding "-like" as a suffix to the Germanic prefix.

A number of words related to physiology also originated from Latin. The words such as  head/capital, body/corporal, ear/aural, tooth/dental, tongue/lingual, lips/labial, neck/cervical, finger/digital, hand/manual, arm/brachial, foot/pedal, sole of the foot/plantar, leg/crural, eye/ocular or visual, mouth/oral, chest/pectoral, nipple/papillary, brain/cerebral, mind/mental, nail/ungual, hair/pilar, lung/pulmonary, kidney/renal, blood/sanguine.

It was also found that a few words related to astronomy borrowed from Latin. Some of such words are moon/lunar, sun/solar, earth/terrestrial and star/stellar.

The words such as son, daughter/filial, mother/maternal, father/paternal, brother/fraternal, sister/sororal, wife/uxorial related to Sociology originated from Latin.

Book/literary, edge/marginal, fire/igneous, water/aquatic, wind/vental, ice/glacial, boat/naval, house/domestic, door/portal, town/urban, sight/visual, tree/arboreal, marsh/paludal, sword/gladiate, king/regal, fighter/military, clothes/sartorial are some other words borrowed from Latin.

Conclusion

          It is now apparent that the English language has widened its vocabulary adding more Latin terms as discussed earlier during the period of Old English. It is also found that approximately 70% of the English words were borrowed from the Latin language. At present, Latin words can be found in the fields of religion, law, education, military ranks, weapons, dressing, architecture, marriage, family, astronomy, Psychology, parts of body, animals, furniture, meals and drinks and so on. This indicates that Latin has spread almost all the aspects related to the most significant areas of the environment.

  References

1. Bryson, Bill, (1990), The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way. New York: Avon
2. Hughes, Geoffrey, (1988), Words in Time. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
3. Kent, Roland G.,( 1963), Language and Philology. New York: Cooper Square.
4. McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil, (1986.), The Story of English. New York: Elisabeth Sifton.

5.       Crystal, David (2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 

6.       Baugh, Albert C. A, (1957) History of the English Language. 2^nd ed. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1957. 86-106

7.       Hogg, Richard M., (1992) The Cambridge History of the English Language. Vol. 1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

8.       Williams, Joseph M., (1975) Origins of the English Language: A Social and Linguistic History. New York: The Free Press.

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[1] Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Old English is one of the West Germanic languages and its closest relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon.

[2] Middle English (ME) is collectively the varieties of the English language spoken after the Norman Conquest (1066) until the late 15th century; scholarly opinion varies but the Oxford English Dictionary specifies the period of 1150 to 1500.

[3] Modern English is the form of the English language spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England, which began in the late 14th century.

[4]  By the 16th century the term Anglo-Saxon came to refer to all things of the early English period, including language, culture, and people. While it remains the normal term for the latter two aspects, the language began to be called Old English towards the end of the 19th century, as a result of the increasingly strong anti-Germanic nationalism in English society of the 1890s and early 1900s. However, many authors still also use the term Anglo-Saxon to refer to the language.

[5] N.S. Gill has a B.A. in Latin and an M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Minnesota

[6]   J Hladký is a researcher at the Institute of Mathematics of the Czech Academy of Sciences

[7] Latin – Verb, present active prōmittō, present infinitive prōmittere, perfect active prōmīsī, supine prōmissum

[8] Verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word

[9] Etymology:  The generic name Canis means "dog" in Latin. The term "canine" comes from the adjective form, caninus ("of the dog"), from which the term canine tooth is also derived. The canine family has prominent canine teeth, used for killing their prey.

[10] Dennis Freeborn, From Old English to Standard English: A Course Book in Language Variation Across Time, 2nd edn. (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1998

[11]  Lounsbury, History of the English Language, page 42.