It's not. It's derived from Germanic languages.
The romance languages (Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, French, Italian, Romanian, Friulian, etc.) are derived from Latin, but not English.
English has words derived from Latin, but only because English speakers have a great habit of borrowing words from other languages.
2006-08-04 04:56:08 · 9 answers · asked by Joy M 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Germanic languages are not derived from Latin, they are derived from the same languages as Latin, but they formed into two separate branches. I know Modern English (and really most modern languages) are a hodgepodge of influences. But I've noticed that people think English derived directly from the language of the Romans.
2006-08-04 05:06:45 · update #1
Children are being taught by people who don't know because language arts is a forgotten subject in the American curriculum. Today teachers and kids alike are more interested in designing a colorful web page than in teaching and learning accurately about their past. Kids in America today are not being required to learn the truth about history.
English grammar is 100% Germanic. There is NO NO NO French influence in English grammar. If you examine the English Aux structure, for example, it is nearly identical to the German, Dutch, Danish, Icelandic, and Gothic Aux structures. There is more Scandinavian influence on English grammar than there is French influence (the "she" pronouns, the -s in third person singular verb conjugation, etc.). If you count up all the words spoken by an average English speaker on an average day, 80% of those words are Germanic. French, Latin, and Greek account for only about 20% of those words. Nearly ALL the grammatical words (the, a, on, of, by, for, with, when, where, etc.) are Germanic. Nearly ALL the most common nouns and verbs (eye, hand, father, mother, fire, wind, sky, come, go, eat, sit, stand, drink, sing, etc.) are Germanic. These are the measures of what language family a language belongs to, NOT the ephemeral detritus of fancy speech. English is 100% a Germanic language. Period.
2006-08-04 06:19:25 · answer #1 · answered by Taivo 7 · 12⤊ 3⤋
English is a hodgepodge of many linguistic influences. A huge amount of words in modern English come from Latin and French (due to the Norman invasion of England). There is just as much influence from Latin as from Old English, the Germanic language.
You are correct, English is classified as Germanic, not Romance. However, people are justified in linking it with Latin, both directly and through French, because about half of the language derives from it in some way.
2006-08-04 05:00:45 · answer #2 · answered by Sappho 4 · 3⤊ 2⤋
English does have a significant Latin influence which was a result of the French occupation in the last 11th century. The language then evolved from a combination of Anglo-Saxon english and French. That is why so many modern English words are so similar to the French translation, particularly any words ending in -ment.
2006-08-04 05:03:18 · answer #3 · answered by Robert S 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
They don't know Latin but they do know some English words are from Latin. They know Latin is dead and English is alive and maybe even that the Romans were in England. They may know that the English alphabet developed from the Latin alphabet.
I didn't get to take much of any linguistics until university (and I loved it when I did) so plenty of people won't have taken any linguistics classes at all. Or maybe they sat in the back row knitting. (OK no that was me but I WAS listening!)
2006-08-04 08:08:04 · answer #4 · answered by Goddess of Grammar 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's not *derived* from Latin, but a large portion of our vocabulary comes from an older French, which is. Thanks to the Norman Invasion of England, most newer words in English (by this I mean relatively newer, this was in 1066 CE, after all) come to us from Latin, through French. That's why the similarity is obvious. It's not really "borrowing," it's just how the language has been made to evolve politically.
2006-08-04 07:53:25 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
I would just say lack of education. Not many people in America can give the history of England and all of the invasions on the isle that contributed to the English language.
2006-08-04 05:02:28 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
You are wrong...because the English language is formed of the romance and Germanic languages, which are all derived from Latin, then the English language has to ultimately be derived from Latin.
2006-08-04 05:01:20 · answer #7 · answered by auntb629 3 · 0⤊ 5⤋
I agree with Cynthia C, very big portion of words come from French, which origin is Latin.
2006-08-04 08:02:24 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
I dunno because i took latin for 4 years and boy i didn't learn or understand a damn thing and i speak English. (most of the time)
2006-08-04 05:01:14 · answer #9 · answered by KingstonGal 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋