Why does English seem to share so much in common with Latin languages if it is Germanic?

by Wolfeman0101

It seems like a lot of our words and cadence seem to be closer to the Latin languages like Spanish and seem to not have much in common with German or other Germanic languages such as Dutch.

CommodoreCoCo

By the fifth century AD, the Germanic Saxons from northern Europe had entered southern England. They brought their language with them, giving rise to what we call Old English. Later, other Germanic speaking peoples would also attack, such as the Norwegians led by Harald Hadrada in 1066. But less than a month after Anglo-Saxon King Harold defeated Harald, Normans from what is now France landed in England. Under William the Conqueror, the Normans defeated Harold. The Normans, of course, brought with them numerous words descended from Vulgar Latin.

But they didn't replace the Germanic Anglo-Saxon tongue, they just exposed it to new vocabulary more directly. Let's look at the words in your sentence. I'll provide the language family, a recognizable earlier form/cognate from before the Normans, and interesting other notes:

  • It: Germanic, Old Saxon it

  • Seems: Germanic, Old Norse: sǿma

  • Like: Germanic, Old Germanic galîko- (German lagnuages kept the g, as in modern German *gleich)

  • A: evolved from an unstressed "one", Germanic, Old Saxon en

  • Lot: Germanic, Old English hlot (compare modern Danish lot)

  • Of: Germanic, Old Saxon of

  • Our: Germainic, Old Saxon user

  • Words: Germanic, Old English wurd (this one hasn't changed much, see German wort Danish ord or Dutch woord)

  • And, Germanic, Old English ond (German und)

  • Candence, Romance, Latin cadentia

Well, after ten words, we finally found our Latin word. Some of the words listed do share an etymology with Latin words; the Indo-European base for "one" can be recognized in most modern descendants: one, un/uno, unus, ein, etc. Other Latin words in your question are:

  • Close

  • Latin (duh.)

  • Language

  • German

  • Common

While German ones include:

  • Much

  • Such

  • Have

  • With

As you can see, most of English's "base" words are Germanic, while more specific or descriptive ones are Latin. These are a lot more prone to be borrowed from neighboring languages. It's easy to take a foreign noun and use it as your own. I can say "Let's go the tienda and buy some milk" without cutting as many grammatical corners as if I were to say "Shaq is taller que me." The Spanish que doesn't really translate to the English "than," but here they are used with a similar structural function. Base forms of nouns, verbs, and adjectives, however, don't bring much structure with them. We do this all the time: tortilla isn't technically an English word, but it might as well be. Crescendo is an Italian gerund (verb turned into a noun, like our "-ing"), meaning "growing," but we've stuck it into our English structures as a noun and a regular verb: "The music crescendoed into a climax."

While the Normans contributed much of this Latin, we've adapted some of it from other sources: sciences often use Latin or Greek roots for new words, like "internet," "television," or "neutron."

Searocksandtrees
Catalunya4Ever

I'm sure an official "historian" will eventually chime in but much of this is a legacy of the Norman invasion in 1066. The Normans were descendants of a Viking legacy that spoke French. From William's reign on, the official language of the court was French while the vast majority of the population spoke Mercian, Saxon, as well as other Anglian dialects. With French being the official language of the English Court for +/- 300 years, as well as the omnipresent influence of the Catholic Church's Latin, these words had a trickle-down effect into the common tongue.

Source: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Norman_language