What accounts for the presence of so many latin terms in the English language?

Question

There are historical reasons. But which culture contributed mostly and how?

Answer 1

The simple explanation is this has nothing to do with national origin but has a lot to do with class disitinction. The reason Latin is used as a root has alot to do with the influence of the Catholic Church coming out of the dark ages. They were the custodian of most of the written word saved from the Greeks, Romans and earlier civilizations. They passed this information on to men of financial power who in turn passed large sums of money on to the Church for sanctifying their monarchies in the eyes of the citizenry. Latin became the language of the rich and powerful. All Royals were expected to know it. That carried down to guildsmen like lawyers and doctors who were trying to protect their income by using latin to keep people with less money out of it. Add to this the fact that Guttenberg did not invent the printing press until much later and you can see how written word was hard to come by and only the rich could afford it. Even with Guttenberg it took decades before things began to be printed in languages other than Latin or Greek. So when you are asking yourself this question think about this, currently the geeks of the world are rewriting your language with computer terminology designed to give them a competitive advantage over you. They especially love abbreviations these days. Still, lawyers and doctors use latin. Accountants use number a lot like the dewey decimal system only more confusing and not cross referenced.

Answer 2

There are two main cultural sources:

The Church used Latin as a universal language until the Protestant Reformation, and even then the Catholics kept using Latin until the 1960s [Vatican 2]. All educated people spoke Latin, and many of the great works of literature were in Latin - from them we retain many phrases.

Also, the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 brought the Norman [who spoke a form of French that derived from Latin] into the law courts and political leadership of the British Isles.

Add to this that almost all early printing was in Latin, especially including the Bible, and you can understand why so much Latin still exists in our culture today.

So, I would say the culture of Christianity [the Roman church] is the main source.

Answer 3

The Church initially was the only source of the written word and all the writings were in Latin and were gradually incorporated into the common speech. You will also find many words which are french not only in usage but actually in the language of the country examples such as cul-de.sac .Latin is however the root of most of our present language which is why it is so useful to learn Latin.Described as a dead language sometimes but found in all medical and musical terms I would be hard pressed to state with certainty the exact culture though

Answer 4

As mentioned above, the Romans introduced many but the majority probably came from the Norman conquest of 1066, which is kind of ironic since the Normans themselves were invaders to France as the Norsemen in the 8th/9th centuries.

Answer 5

English is a hodge-podge of Romantic and Germanic language. It's mostly Germanic, but there is the Latin influence especially when you get into science

Answer 6

Kathleen S and LORD Z have the most correct answers. I have been a Roman Catholic for 55 years, and I took Latin in highschool and had history as a second major in college, so, I've heard a bit about it all. God Bless you.

Answer 7

As I understand it England is a Germanic language, I was also confused as to why there are so many Latin sounding words. Apparently around the time when English was being standardised these words were introduced to the language to give it a higher status.

England is a combination of:
Germanic (Anglo-saxon)
Nordic
Gaelic
French
Latin

Answer 8

English evovled over many hundreds of years with influences from many languages.. Latin, Greek.. etc..

Answer 9

The Romans spoke Latin & brought it to Britain.

Answer 10

The second poster said it best; it intermixed with the language of the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons (which is how English is related to German).