The Greek & Latin Roots of English (5 page)

There are some words, of course, that might benefit from a firm editorial hand. Although we have all been taught that the longest non-technical word in English is
antidisestablishmentarianism
(twenty-eight letters), the prize actually goes to
floccinaucinihilipilification
(twenty-nine letters), a word said to have been coined as a joke by some British schoolboys but now listed in the OED. It is composed of a number of Latin words, all of which mean “of little or no value.” Its meaning is “the action or habit of estimating something as worthless.”

AN OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The Roman Occupation of Britain
: First century CE–410 CE

1. The earlier presence of Celtic languages (which also belong to the Indo-European family)
   
2. Introduction of Latin, the language of conquest and commerce
   
3. Withdrawal of the Roman army (410 CE)
   

The Anglo-Saxons and Old English
: 450-1150 CE

1. Invasion of the Germanic tribes (449)
   
2. Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity (597)
   
3. Beowulf
   : eighth to ninth centuries (?)
   
4. Viking raids on Britain: eighth to ninth centuries
   
5. The Norman Conquest (1066)
   

Middle English
: 1150-1500 CE

1. The Anglo-French connection: loss of many Old English words; addition of thousands of Latin-based words via French; changes in grammar and structure
   
2. Development of a vernacular literature Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400):
   Canterbury Tales
   William Langland (d. 1400):
   Piers Plowman
   
3. First translation of Bible into English, attributed to John Wycliff (d. 1384)
   
4. Introduction of the printing press into England by William Caxton (1476)
   

Modern English
: 1500 CE-present

1. Decline of Latin as common European language of discourse
   
2. Translations of classical Latin and Greek texts into the vernacular
   
3. William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
   
4. Standardization of spelling
   (orthography)
   and enrichment of English vocabulary (sixteenth to seventeenth centuries)
   
5. Dr. Samuel Johnson:
   A Dictionary of the English Language
   (1755)
   
6. The development of the scientific study of comparative, historical, and structural linguistics (eighteenth century)
   
7. The influence of British colonialism and the impact of Empire (nineteenth and twentieth centuries)
   
8. James Murray and the
   Oxford English Dictionary
   (1879–1928)
   

American English

From Jamestown to the end of the colonial period
: 1607–1790

The establishment of the forms and patterns of American English, as distinct from British English.

Westward expansion
: 1790–1860

1. Immigration from Western Europe and Ireland
   
2. Noah Webster:
   An American Dictionary of the English Language
   (1828)
   
3. Settlement of the far west
   

Since the American Civil War
: 1865–present

1. Emancipation Proclamation (1863): influence of “Black” English
   
2. Immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe (1880–1920)
   
3. Immigration from Caribbean and South America (1945–present)
   
4. Immigration from Asia and the Pacific Rim (1975–present)
   
5. Uniformity of language vs. regionalism; the influence of radio, television, and movies
   

Creole

A Creole is a language that has been formed by the mixing of two or more “parent” languages and that has become the first language of a community. Creoles are often the result of trade or colonialism and slavery, developed out of the need for a common means of communication between different groups. Gullah, a combination of English and West African languages that is now spoken by perhaps 100,000 people who live in the islands off the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, was shaped by Africans brought to America as slaves. Although its vocabulary is for the most part grounded in English, its grammar, sentence structure, and pronunciation have been influenced by the original African languages.

AND WHAT IS MORE

Although the strongest influences on the Germanic core vocabulary of English have been Latin and the Romance languages, most of these words have become “Anglicized,” or made to conform to specific English forms and patterns. Some, however, have retained the tones and inflections of their original home, and English contains a host of words and phrases from the Romance languages that have entered English unchanged in form and meaning. But words from many other languages have also found a new home in English. Here's a brief selection: there will be more in following chapters.

from the Romance languages

aficionado
(Sp): literally, affectionate; an ardent fan

avant-garde
(Fr): literally, guard before; experimentalists in any art in a particular period

carte blanche
(Fr): literally, a blank document; unconditional authority

coup
(Fr): literally, a blow; a clever action or accomplishment

desperado
(Sp): outlaw

fiasco
(It): literally, a bottle; a total failure

prima donna
(It): literally, first lady; a temperamental individual

from further afield

bazaar (Persian
bazar)
: market

candy
(Arabic
qandi
): literally, a piece of sugar

guru
(Hindi): literally, a teacher or priest. An influential teacher or mentor

pajama
(Hindi): literally, a loose garment

tycoon
(Japanese): literally, great prince; a businessperson having great wealth and power

Of course, the etymological road leads in two directions. Take, for example, the French “le weekend” or “le drugstore.”

SOME USEFUL TERMS

Etymology
: the study of the history of a particular word; the derivation or origin of a word

Lexicography
: the compiling of dictionaries; Dr. Johnson labeled lexicographers as “harmless drudges”

Lexicon
: a dictionary

Linguistics
: the science of language, including the history, formation, and structures of languages

Orthography
: correct spelling

Philology
: the study of written records; linguistics

Phonology
: the science of speech sounds, speech elements, and pronunciation

Semantics
: the study of linguistic meaning and form

Syntax
: the rules or patterns of the formation of sentences

Let Me Count the Words

How many words are there in English? As the
Oxford English Dictionary
points out, there is no single sensible answer to this question, but it adds that there are 170,476 entries of words in current use; if distinct meanings were counted, the number would rise to nearly 750,000.

On the other hand, most lists of basic English vocabulary contain 800–1,000 words. That doesn't mean, of course, that one's vocabulary is limited to that number of words; there are 25,000 words in the
Oxford Pocket Dictionary
,but it is claimed that 90 percent of the concepts that these words define can be expressed with a vocabulary of 850 words.

Let Me Count the Words (Again) …

According to scholars, William Shakespeare's works contain 31,534 vocabulary words (yes, someone has counted them). And yet, perhaps as an illustration of the decline of the classical languages as an indication of learning, the playwright Ben Jonson, his contemporary, describes him with these words: “Though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek.”

We Speak the Same Language, Don't We?

If in London you follow the sign marked subway, you will find yourself in an underground passage that allows you to cross a heavily traveled street. The London Underground is the New York City subway. Got that?

But What Does It Mean?

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”—Lewis Carroll,
Through the Looking Glass

Words, Words, and More Words

It is said that because of the various linguistic strands that form English vocabulary, English contains more synonyms than any other language. Some Latin-based synonyms are simply more elegant forms of Germanic-based vocabulary. For example,

Studying Language Can Be Glamorous

The words
grammar
and
glamour
have the same etymology.
Grammar
, a system that describes the structures of a particular language, is derived from the Greek word
gramma
(something written). In medieval Europe, few people could read, and those who could were thought to possess special magical power. The original meaning of
glamour
, which is a variant pronunciation of
grammar
, was magic or enchantment.

NAME __________________________________________________________________________

1. Approximately how many languages are there estimated to be spoken in the world?

2. List three ways by which language families are distinguished:

(a) _________, (b) _________, (c) _________

3. Name four language families other than Indo-European:

(a) _________, (b) _________, (c) _________, (d) _________

4. Where are the Dravidian languages spoken? _________ Mon-Khmer? _________

5. How many varieties of Chinese are there? _________ What common factor unites them? _________

6. To what language family does Quechua belong? _________ Where is it spoken? _________

7. How many, approximately, languages are spoken in Africa? _________

8. To what branch of the Indo-European family does English belong? _________

9. To which branch of the Indo-European family does Latin belong? _________

10. To which branch of the Indo-European family does Greek belong? _________

11. What percentage of English vocabulary is derived from Latin and Greek? _________ percentage of scientific and technical vocabulary? _________

12. List five Germanic languages that are still spoken today.

(1) _________ (2) _________ (3) _________ (4) _________ (5) _________

13. To which language family does Anglo-Saxon belong? ____________ To which branch? _________ Where and when was it spoken? _________