Why does English have a mix of Latin-based words and Germanic-based words? And why is there other influence from other languages like Greek?

by MomtanaWildhack

And did this happen with other major modern languages?

The_Manchurian

All languages take bits of words from other languages near them (and sometimes far-off! Shampoo, bungalow, kung fu, etc). So yes, in modern Latin languages (Spanish, French, etc) you'll find some German words, and in Germanic languages (German, Dutch, etc) you'll find some Latin words. For example, the German word Kaiser is derived from the Latin word Caesar. And of course, as today English is the word's predominant language in technology, many languages use English-derived words for various pieces of modern technology (look at the German words "Komputer" and "das Internet").

You can also see this in non-European languages too. Turkish and Persian, for example, have some Arabic words.

But, in terms of Latin and German words, English has much more of a mix than some other European languages. Why?

The reason of course, is history.

At the tail end of antiquity, the Romano-British were culturally dominated by the arriving Angles, Saxons and Jutes. How exactly this happened is not completely clear, so I won't go into it here. But, in short, by the 7th century AD the people of central and southern Britain (today called England, ie Angle-land) were speaking Anglo-Saxon, a West Germanic language. As a Germanic language, this was, unsurprisingly, somewhat similar to other Germanic languages.

However, in 1066, England was conquered by the Normans, who spoke their own language, somewhat similar to French. They had deep connections to French, and English monarchs would continue to learn French, marry French women, and own large areas of land in France (which some monarchs would spend more time in than England). Most importantly, the court language of England wasn't English, but French, until the later Middle Ages.

So, we have a peasantry that speaks the Germanic language of English, and a nobility that speaks the Latin-derived language of French.

Then of course, there's a Church that uses classical Latin. As the main institution of learning in Europe is the Catholic Church, this means that Latin is also the language of learning, philosophy, science, universities, etc. (Hence why all plants and animals have genus names in Latin).

Over time of course, English was heavily influenced by the French of the nobility and the scientific/religious Latin.

It's also important to remember that this continued all throughout the middle ages and into the modern age. France continued to be a centre for learning, fashion, philosophy, art, etc, while England was, until the 17th century, not so much.

You can often see this when you look at what words are French or Latin derived, and what words are Germanic derived. Basic words used by English peasants every day (be, have, is, yes, no, hound, cow, hello, name, I, me, God, Hell) are similar to modern-day German.

But words of philosophy, politics, riches, and the Church hierarchy (democracy, duke, communism, cuisine, philosophy) are derived from French. And of course, since French is itself a Latin-based language, French words are often derived from Latin. That, plus the more direct Latin influence from the Church and scientific community, ensured Latin words found their way into English.

But what about Greek? Since Roman times, Greek was considered a language of learned philosophers, scientists and thinkers. Educated men in the Roman Empire often learned Greek, and this continued up to the 19th century. In fact, some of Britain's top schools still teach ancient Greek. This then led to Greek-derived words influencing English.

But this isn't something particularly notable to English. French, Italian, etc, also have plenty of Greek-derived words. Consider the Greek word "Biblion", meaning "book" and "theke" meaning store or box. A latinised version of this became "Bibliotheque", the French word for library (you'll note, I'm sure, that the Bible, half of which was written in Greek, derives from this as well).

Deez_N0ots

I suggest you ask this question r/linguistics