How did the English language get Latin roots?

Zachery
#1. February 3rd, 2010, at 2:05 PM.

Well, I don’t know about that.

English is a germanic language. It is descended from the Anglo-Saxxon Language which was a group of the Visigoths that migrated into England during the Hun invasion of East Europe.

The thing is, the moved through North France and such which at the time was occupied by the Roman Empire, which spoke Latin: the mother of all Romance Languages.

So, I’m sure that during the 200 year migration or so, they picked up some words.

Hope that helps.
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JOExHIGASHI
#2. February 3rd, 2010, at 2:24 PM.

From the Roman Empire many other interactions with Romantic language speakers.
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chocoroco
#3. February 3rd, 2010, at 3:09 PM.

yeah that doesn’t make sense to me either. english is a germanic language and lots of words in english, as in other languages as well, are from other languages and are latin-based. the only thing i can think of to compare is spanish, my other language and a romance language as well — tons of words in spanish come from english, and in fact a lot of words in spanish AND english are really just variations of the original latin word.
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Tanya
#4. February 3rd, 2010, at 3:51 PM.

I think either your teacher is wrong, or you mis understood him, or i’m mis understanding you.

1) we are a germanic language, not a latin one. the roots of our language are indo european like romance langauges.

2) If you or your teacher meant "roots" as in STEMs of words, then that’s quite easy. English has roughly 40-50% of it’s words directly from French, from teh time when the french were in control of England. Science is grounded in latin and greek for whatever reason, and that’s another 5% of our language. so the roots of individual words can be greek or latin based for those reasons.
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Allan
#5. February 3rd, 2010, at 4:13 PM.

Latin is an Italic language (NOT Romance), and English is a Germanic language.

English possibly got Latin roots from the reign of the Roman empire, and invasion of the French (which was vulgar Latin).
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Mikhail
#6. February 3rd, 2010, at 4:56 PM.

Firstly, Latin is an Italic language, it’s technically not a Romance language, and the term "romantic language" is incorrect. You can have a good deal of fun correcting your teacher if this is the terminology he used. In linguistics, the term "Romance" has a completely different meaning from the general sense of the English word "romance". Romance, in this context, means "of or pertaining to the Romans"– i.e. a language DERIVED from Latin. Latin is NOT a Romance language, but rather an Italic one. Conversely, as Latin was an Italic language, all Romance languages are also Italic languages. I tend to use the term "Italic" when referring to this group of languages to include Latin and avoid this sort of confusion.

English, on the other hand, is a Germanic language. Perhaps you misunderstood your teacher as to that end?

The story of the Latin roots used in the English language is not one I like to tell. You need to understand that only about a dozen English words, including place names like "Manchester" came into English during the Roman occupation of Britain. About 99.8% of the words or roots of Latin origin came into English long after the fall of Rome.

During the early medieval period, Latin was the "lingua franca" of science and learning in Europe. As such a prestigious language, many began to view it as the most scientific, educated language as it was spoken by most scholars of the period and the majority of scientific and religious works were written in Latin. Gradually, words and roots of Latin origin began to come into the English language as the English felt that Latin words (and Greek words) were superior to the terms that they had inherited from their Saxon and Norman ancestors. As the liturgical language of the Roman Catholic church, many Latin words also came into English through the work of Catholic missionaries in the British Isles.

The English Renaissance and the work of said missionaries are the reasons why English has a number of Latin roots. Nothing comes from the Roman occupation of Britain, and English has only a relatively distant genetic relationship to Latin.

If you’re interested in the subject, George Orwell actually wrote an essay that partially addressed this phenomenon, "Politics and the English Language".
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aida
#7. February 3rd, 2010, at 5:41 PM.

English is a Germanic language, not "dramatic." Latin is the ancestor of the Romance (not "romantic") languages but is not one itself. (The Romance languages include French, Spanish, Italian, and several others.)

English has a large stock of words of Latin origin for several reasons. First, the area that is now England was part of the Roman Empire for almost 400 years. No other country that speaks a Germanic language was under Roman rule. Although the Romans withdrew from Britain (about A. A. 409) before the Anglo-Saxons migrated there (c449), the Roman place-names remained.

Then, England was the first Germanic-speaking area to become Christian. Missionaries arrived from Rome in A. D. 597, and the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms converted within a few generations. Of course Latin was the language of the Church, so quite a few Latin words came into the language at that time.

Finally, in 1066 English was conqureed by the Normans, who spoke French and made it the official language of the country through most of the Middle Ages. When English re-emerged as a literary language, it had absorbed a great deal of French–a Romance language. (This last fact is probably the one your teacher is fishing for.)
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Medievalist and retired English professor who majored in Latin