• Author / Uploaded
• sierracamorra

Citation preview

T. 41

ROMANISATION. THE INFLUENCE OF LATIN ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. LOANWORDS AND CALQUES.

1.- INTRODUCTION.Before the 5th c. a number of cultures had been in England, and each of them had a language. Jutes, Saxons, and Angles (Germanic) brought dialects to England in the 5th and 6th c. which formed the basis of English grammar and the source of the largest part of its vocabulary. In the course of the 1st seven hundred years of its existence in England, the basis of the English language was brought into contact with three other languages, namely those of Celts, the Romans, and the Scandinavians which brought as a consequence especially additions to its vocabulary. English has been called a Germanic language with a Romance vocabulary. Estimates of native (Anglo- Saxon) words in English range from 20% -33%, with the rest made up of foreign borrowings, being a large number of them Latinate coming directly from Latin, from Latin through one of the Romance languages (French, Romanian , Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish) or from some other language (such as Greek) into Latin and then into English. 2.- ROMANISATION.Romanisation is a process which involved the spread and transmission of Roman law, way of living and culture. 2.1.- THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 54 BC Julius Caesar established himself in the SE of Britain after having being rejected by Celts (whose resistance was unexpectedly spirited) the previous year. He exacted tribute from them (which was never paid as he had by no means struck terror into them) and again returned to Gaul. Then, Britain was not again troubled by Roman legions for nearly a hundred years. So Cesar did little more than establish a foothold on the island. AD 43 The Emperor Claudius decided to undertake the actual conquest of the island taking into account Caesar´s experience he succeeded in getting almost all what is England under Roman rule. 78-85 Roman Governor Agricola, the northern frontier was advanced and the conquest may be said to have been completed. But the Romans never penetrated far into the mountains of Wales and Scotland, and protected the northern boundary by a stone wall stretching across England (Hadrian´s Wall, 122 & Antonine Wall, 142). 2.2.- ROMAN ENGLAND.Where the Romans lived and ruled, Romans ways were found, so the military conquest led to the Romanisation of the province.

[Escribir texto]

Página 1

In the case of Britain, as it required permanent garrisons of troops, it was place under the Emperor´s control, and the provinces were run by governors, whose roles were primarily military but also diplomatic relations with local client kings, building roads, acting as judges, etc. They had an adviser, the legatus iuridicus who seemed to be distinguished lawyers; a procurator dealt with financial administration (tax raising); each legion had a commander who answered to the governor; and below these posts was a network of administrative managers and a staff of seconded soldiers provided clerical services. Colchester was probably the earliest capital of Roman Britain, but London soon eclipsed it because of its strong mercantile connections. Four great highways spread fanlike from London to the N, NW, W, and SW, and a fifth one cut across the island. At the same time there were many lesser roads, and a score of small cities and more than a hundred towns resembling in everything Roman habits of life. By the 3rd c. Christianity had made some progress and there is every reason to think that Romanization had proceeded very much as it had in the other provinces of the empire. The difference is that in Britain the process was cut short in the 5th c. Britannia became one of the most loyal provinces of the empire until its decline, when Britannia´s manpower started to be diverted by civil wars, eventually leading Emperor Honorius to order Roman troops back home to help fight the invading hordes. Thus, the Romano-British were forced to defend their Romanised civilisation with their own forces. Moreover, there were some groups of people threatening her. Scotland was populated by 4 separate groups of people. The Picts (the Romans called them Picti - the painted ones- as they were completely tattooed), lived mostly in the N & NE and spoke a kind of Celtic language which was lost completely. The Scots (Scoti) were Celtic settlers who moved into the western highlands from Ireland in the 4th c. The third group were Britons, who inhabited the lowlands and the last group were the Angles from Northumbria who lived in the lowlands. The struggles of this period have given rise to the legends of Uther Pendragon and King Arthur. It is sometimes said that Arthur´s court of Camelot is an idealised Welsh memory of pre-Saxon Romano-British civilisation. 3.- THE INFLUENCE OF LATIN ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. It took place at different moments of the history of English. The actual use was limited to the period of Roman occupation but Latin did not replace the native language in Britain as it did in Gaul. Its use by native Britons was probably confined to members of the upper classes and some inhabitants of the cities and towns. However, on the whole, there were certainly many people in Roman Britain who habitually spoke Latin or upon occasion could use it. But its use was not sufficiently widespread to cause it to survive the upheaval of the Teutonic, or Germanic invasions, with the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. Its use probably began to decline after 410. → The period of the Roman rule was not the most important of Latin influence.

[Escribir texto]

Página 2

There were other periods which are full of examples of Latin influence on English, especially in reference to: *borrowing words (loanwords and calques), making self-explaining compounds, appending familiar prefixed and suffixes to existing words. 4.- LOANWORDS AND CALQUES.García Yebra states that the terms loanword, borrowed word, borrowing or import refer to a foreign lexeme which is imported into a language because it lacks an indigenous one to make reference to a concept which is new to the receiving language. Calques or loan translations are a special type of loanword which consists of copying the syntactic and even lexical aspects of the foreign term without reproducing the phonological component of it (Milky Way is a loan translation from Latin via lactea). 4.1.- CONTINENTAL BORROWINGS.First Latin influence on English was probably due to the early contact between the Romans and the Germanic tribes on the continent. The Germanic population within the empire by the 4th c. is estimated at several million. They are found in all ranks and classes of society and were scattered all over the empire, being most numerous along the northern frontier. Thus, traders, Germanic and Roman, came and went; Germanic youth visited Roman cities, etc. Such intercourse between the two peoples was certain to carry words from one language to the other. After the conquest of Gaul by Caesar, Roman merchants quickly found their way into all parts of the Germanic territory. Moreover, intercommunication between the different Germanic tribes was frequent and made possible the transference of Latin words from one tribe to another. They mainly belong to the fields of agriculture, war, trade (wine trade), domestic life (household articles, clothing and the like), certain foods and building art. (ex. Pag.6). 4.2.- LATIN THROUGH CELTIC TRANSMISSION.It is possible that the use of Latin as a spoken language did not survive the end of Roman rule in the island and that such vestiges were lost in the disorders that accompanied the Teutonic or Germanic invasions. There was thus no opportunity for direct contact between Latin and Old English in England, and such Latin words as could have found their way into English would have had to come in through Celtic transmission. The Celts had adopted a considerable number of Latin words-over six hundred have been identified,- but the relations between the Celts and the English were such that these words were not passed on. Among the few Latin words that the Teutons or Anglo-Saxons seem likely to have acquired upon setting in England, one of the most likely, in spite of its absence from the Celtic languages, is ceaster. This word, which represents the Latin castra, is a common designation in Old English for a town or enclosed community. It forms a familiar element in English placenames such as Chester. A few other words are thought to belong to this period, such as port. 4.3.- EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY ON ENGLISH CIVILIZATION.-

[Escribir texto]

Página 3

The greatest influence of Latin upon Old English was occasioned by the introduction of Christianity into Britain in 597. The faith had a long time ago been introduced, as it had gained a foothold by the mid 2nd c., but this date (5th c.) marks the beginning of a systematic attempt on the part of Rome to convert the inhabitants and make England a Christian country, building churches and establishing monasteries. Latin, the language of the services and of ecclesiastical learning, was heard in England. Schools were established in most of the monasteries and churches. Some of these became through their great teachers, and from them trained men went out to set up other schools at other centres. This movement was begun by Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Canterbury in 699. From the introduction of Christianity in 597 to the close of the Old- English (=Anglo-Saxon, mid 5th c. – mid 12th c.) period, it is likely that the first wave of religious feeling which resulted from the missionary zeal of the 7th c. was responsible also for the rapid importation of Latin words into the vocabulary. That enrichment of the vocabulary took place : 1) immediately (those words whose phonetic form shows that they were borrowed early and whose early adoption is attested also by the fact that they had found their way into literature by the time of Alfred 871-899. 2) at the end of the Christianizing (words of more learned character first recorded in the tenth and eleventh centuries and owing their introduction clearly to the religious revival that accompanied the Benedictine Reform). Obviously the most typical and numerous class of words introduced by the new religion had to do with that religion and the details of its external organization. Words are generally taken over by one language from another in answer to a definite need. They are adopted because they express ideas that are new or because they are so intimately associated with an object or a concept that acceptance of the thing involves acceptance also of the word. So, the great majority of words in Old English having to do with the church and its services, its physical fabric and its ministers, when not of native origin, were borrowed at this time (abbot, pope, priest, etc.). The church also exercised a profound influence on the domestic life of the people: names of articles of clothing and household (cap, chest) , words denoting foods (lentil, lobster), names of trees, plants, and herbs (often cultivated for their medical properties (balsam, pine), and a certain number of words having to do with education and learning (school master, verse). 4.4.- THE BENEDICTINE REFORM.The flourishing state of the church was unfortunately interrupted because of the Danes´ ravages upon the country. By the 10th c. the decline had affected the moral fibre of the church. Wealthy men had given land freely to religious foundations and among the clergy poverty gave way to ease, and ease to luxury. The religious houses discipline became lax, immorality was flagrant. The work of education was neglected, and learning decayed. King Alfred (849-901) lamented that the decay of learning was so great at the beginning of his reign, and restored churches and founded monasteries, spread education, and foster learning, however his efforts bore little fruit. But in the latter half on the 10th c. three religious leaders, imbued with the spirit of reform, arose in the church: Dunstan (archbishop of Canterbury, 988), Athelwold (bishop of Winchester, 984), and Oswald (bishop of Worcester and archbishop of York, 992) who effected a genuine revival of monasticism in England. The true conception of the monastic life was inseparable from the observance of the Benedictine Rule. Monks pledged to the threefold vow of chastity, obedience, and poverty. [Escribir texto]

Página 4

Athelwold prepared a version of the Benedictine Rule, known as the Concordia Regularis, to bring about a general uniformity in their organization and observances. One of the objects was the improvement of education, the establishment of schools and the encouragement of learning among the monks and the clergy. By the close of the century the monasteries were once more centres of literary activity. Works in English for the popularizing of knowledge were prepared and manuscripts both in Latin and the vernacular were copied and preserved. It is significant that the four great codices in which the bulk of Old English poetry is preserved date from this period. We doubtless owe their existence to the reform movement. The influence of Latin upon the English language rose and fell with the fortunes of the church and the state of learning so intimately connected with it. As a result of the renewed literary activity just described, a new series of Latin importations took place. These differed somewhat from the earlier Christian borrowings in being words of a less popular kind and expressing more often ideas of a scientific and learned character. Many have to do with religious matters (apostle, creed), literary and learned words (accent, decline). In general the later borrowings of the Christian period come thorough books. Specific members of the church organization such as pope, bishop, and priest, or monk and abbot represented individuals for which the English had no equivalent and therefore borrowed the Latin terms; however they did not borrow a general word for clergy but used a native expression meaning the spiritual folk. 4.5.- LATIN BORROWINGS IN MIDDLE ENGLISH.- (1066-≈1470). 1470→The Chancery Standard, a form of London based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the introduction of the printing press in England by Caxton in the 1470s.... Normand conquest began in 1066 with the invasion of the kingdom of England by the troops of William, Duke of Normandy (William the Conqueror). The influence of the Norman Conquest is generally known as the Latin Influence of the 3rd Period. But it is right to include also under this designation the large number of words borrowed directly from Latin in Middle English. These differed from the French borrowings in being less popular and in gaining admission generally through the written language. It must not be forgotten that Latin was a spoken language among ecclesiastics and men of learning, and a certain number of Latin words could well have passed directly into spoken English. Their number, however, is small in comparison with those that we can observe entering by way of literature. 14th and 15th c. were especially prolific in Latin borrowings. Wycliffe and his associates are credited with more than a thousand Latin words not previously found in English. Since many of them occur in the so-called Wycliffe translation of the Bible and have been retained in subsequent translations, they have passed into common use. Some examples of borrowings from this period are: adjacent, allegory, custody. Here we have terms relating to law, medicine, theology, science, and literature, words often justified in the beginning by technical or professional use and later acquiring a wider application. Among them may be noticed several with endings like –able, -ible, -ent, -al, -ous, -ive, and others which thus became familiar in English and, reinforced often by French, now form common elements in English derivates. [Escribir texto]

Página 5

Aureate Terms: The introduction of unusual words from Latin became a conscious stylistic device in the 15th c., extensively used by poets and occasionally by writers of prose. By means of such words as abusion, dispone, tenebrous, poets attempted what has been described as a kind of stylistic gilding, and this feature of their language is accordingly known as “aurate diction”. This tendency occurs in moderation in the poetry of Chaucer (1343?-1400), becomes a distinct mannerism in the work of Lydgate, and runs riot in the production of the Scottish Chaucerians – James I, Henryson, Dunbar, etc. Some words which were aureate in Chaucer have sometimes become part of the common speech (like laureate, mediation, oriental), although this is not the general case. The result of this mingling of Latin, French and native elements is a richness in synonyms. In some cases we have a synonym at three different levels (popular, literary and learned): rise-mount-ascend (E/F/L). Latin word is generally more bookish. 4.6.- THE RENAISSANCE 1500 -1650: THE PROBLEM OF ENRICHMENT. Enlarging the vocabulary was one of the major problems confronting the modern languages for the men of the 16th c. It was the time of rediscovery of Latin and Greek literature. The scholarly monopoly of Latin throughout the Middle Ages had been broken (Revival of Learning), the deficiencies of English were at the same time revealed. Translations were numerous at this time, and the very act of translation brings home to the translator the limitations of his medium and tempts him to borrow from other languages the terms whose lack he feels in his own. In this way many foreign words, mainly Latin, French or Italian, were introduced into English, which acquired in the 16th and 17th c. thousands of new and strange words. The use of learned words (foreign words) had its detractors who called them “inkhorn” terms. The strongest objection was on the score of their obscurity (a great exponent of this view is Thomas Wilson, Arte of Rhetorique, 1553). The opposition to inkhorn terms was at its height in the middle of the 16th c. At the end of Elizabeth´s reign (1533-1603)it had largely spent its force. Nevertheless, there were many supporters of importations. And something interesting about this is that they aroused popular interest, getting even to the playhouses (B.Jonson pag.12). The words that were introduced at this time were often basic words -nouns, adjectives and verbs- : anachronism, expensive, exit, etc. Some words, in entering the language, retained their original form (appendix); others underwent change, sometimes by cutting off the Latin ending (consult –are). But more often a further change was necessary. Latin ending –us in adjectives was changed to –ous (conspicu -us, -ous), or replaced by –al (extern –us, -al). Latin nouns ending in –tas were changed in English to –ty (celeritas, -ty), and nouns ending in –antia, -entia appear in English with the ending –ance (consonance), -ence (concurrence), -ancy (constancy), ency (frequency), while adjectives ending in-bilis take the usual English ending –ble (susceptible). It was a common thing in English to make verbs out of adjectives (busy, dry). Reintroduction and new meanings: Sometimes the same word has been borrowed more than once in the course of time. Old English as bishop and dish, was later borrowed again: Episcopal [Escribir texto]

Página 6

and disc. A word when introduced a 2nd time often carries a different meaning, thus it is as essential to consider new meanings as new words. Chaucer, for instance, uses the words artificial, declination, hemisphere in astronomical senses, but their present use is due to the 16th c.; and the word abject (nowadays= without self-respect), although found earlier in the sense of `cast off, rejected´, was introduced in its present meaning in the Reinassance. Among the many new words that were introduced into English at this time there were a goodly number that have not been permanently retained. The most convincing reason for the failure of a new word to take hold is that it was not needed. In fact, we must look upon the borrowings of this period as often experimental. It is not always possible to say whether a word borrowed at this time was taken over directly from Latin or indirectly through French, for the same enrichment was going on in French simultaneously and the same words were being introduced in both languages. 4.7.- One of the characteristics of the 18th c. was its strong sense of order and the value of regulation, a desire for system and regularity. The most important consideration in the foundation of this standard is reason, which was often supported by the force of authoritative example, particularly classical example. Not only in literature but in language Latin was looked upon as a model, and classical precedent was often generalized into precept. Attention was turned to the grammar, and it was discovered that English had no grammar. Labouring under the mistaken notion that the classical languages had continued unchanged for many centuries, some men held that English might be rendered equally stale. In order to settle the language reason, etymology, and the example of Latin and Greek were settled as the main considerations to be made. Johnson expressed himself in those terms but throughout the 18 th c. a feeling grew up that there were more disadvantages than advantages in trying to fit English into the pattern of Latin grammar. 4.8.- THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES.The great developments in science and rapid progress in every field of intellectual activity is reflected in the English vocabulary. Most of the new words coming into the language since 1800 have been derived from the same sources or created by the same methods as those that have long been familiar.

[Escribir texto]

Página 7