Latin Influences on Old English

In this excerpt from Foreign Influences on Old English, a chapter from their book A History of the English Language, Baugh & Cable explain very carefully the Latin influences on Old English. They not only describe some historical points that contributed to such language contact, but also bring several examples that illustrate such process. They present, for instance, many words from the semantic field of trade, war and agriculture as the result of Romans and Germanic tribes’ contact throughout the continent. Besides, they make some references to the role of celts in the process of Latin transmission and to the influence of Christianity on the English vocabulary. They show how this process of christianizing Britain was extremely essential to such Latin effect upon the English language. This site is, therefore, an interesting tool for we understand the extent of the Latin influence in English.

An introduction to the theme

This page is an introduction of a book, and gives a broad overview about the theme. Firstly, it tells about the classical Latin and how it was spread through the Roman Empire. Then it quickly explains the influence of Latin on English, how they were related in the Indo- European family and why it had so much importance on the English we speak today. The nicest thing on this page is the "exercise" they give to the English speakers, so they can see clearly this influence. They give a text in German and after, the same test in Latin. English speakers can read much easier the last one, because of the vocabulary resemblance. It also has examples of differences in the pronunciation and punctuation of both languages, and gives hints to those who want to learn Latin.

The English language: borrowed words from Latin

Here we can find a list of 171 words that were borrowed from Latin. It does not bring a detailed reflection about the theme but it is a useful tool for we see some of such words. The site quickly group these words in some areas, such as business and trade, politics, Mathematics and names of months. Besides, the site brings several links through which we can search for some brief information about Language and Linguistics.

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language – Google books

This site brings David Crystal’s book as an extensive material on English history with a short but interesting reference to the effect of Latin on English vocabulary. The author explains that Christian missionaries from Ireland and Rome were the great responsible for bringing many Latin words to the language. In this way, through examples and illustrations he briefly presents the reverberation of these lexical invasions in the Modern English.