People typically learn that English is part of the Germanic language family, but the truth is that the case is not so clear. After all, if you look at a given sentence, you will likely see as many words of Romance origin as of Germanic origin, if not more. In fact, recent research points to only 26 percent of English words being Germanic in origin. Perhaps more shocking is that 29 percent are Latin and another 29 percent are French. To understand how we arrived at this figure, it is important to go pretty far back in time. Old English emerged as a language in the fifth century, which is when the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes all arrived on the Southeastern Coast of modern England. These three Germanic tribes spoke similar languages that fell together while simultaneously pushing the Celtic language formerly spoken there to the North.
Adding French and Latin to the Mix
Old English was spoken for about 600 years. This language is actually quite far removed from modern English, but it provides many words that are still in use today. The first major disruption came in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings. This battle occurred after Harold Godwin was appointed the successor to the king. Duke William of Normandy was outraged and declared war. In the battle, the Anglo-Saxons ended up losing to the Normans, who spoke French. As a result, French and Old English began to be spoken alongside each other in the territory now known as England. Norman landsmen replaced the Anglo-Saxon nobility and it came to pass that commoners spoke Old English while the upper and ruling class spoke French. Over time, Old English and Norman-French blended together to create Middle English.
While Middle English was predominantly English in origin, a considerable number of French words had been assimilated. This accounts for the high volume of French words in modern English, but what about Latin? These words were largely introduced by clerics. Along the Southern coast of England, clerics began to appear among the Anglo-Saxon farmers in the sixth century. These people spoke a strange language that was actually Latin, which began to mix with Old English. At that point, the Bible was only available in Latin and so people learned the language and adopted words into English. This was only the first wave of Latin additions to English.
The second wave came during the Middle Ages when Latin became the language of science. During this period, many neologisms were created as they were driven by scientific discovery. The term neologism refers to new English words created out of Latin roots. In addition, Latin prefixes and suffixes grew in popularity in terms of describing scientific processes. Many of these neologisms still exist today, which accounts for the high percentage of Latin words in English. Does the fact that Germanic words account for less than a third of English vocabulary mean that English is actually a Romance language?
The Factors That Contribute to a Language Family
While words do account for some of the considerations involved in assigning a language to a family, other factors come into play. In addition to vocabulary, sounds and grammar need to be considered. In relation to these factors, English is squarely Germanic. In terms of the sound system, English largely follows Germanic pronunciation rather than the rules of French or Latin. Similarly, the grammar of English is based on rules from Proto-Germanic, albeit a simplified version of those structures. While German still uses an inflected case system, English has only a few, most evident in pronouns like “he,” “him,” and “his.” English also maintains the genitive case formed by adding “s” to the end of a word, although the Romance structure involving a preposition has also gained popularity.
In addition, there are more points to consider in terms of vocabulary. While French and Latin collectively account for 60 percent of vocabulary, these words are not used as frequently in everyday communication as those of Germanic origin. Indeed, just considering how these words entered the language, it does make sense why they would not be used as frequently as Germanic words. There is no official rule giving more weight to words that are used more commonly than those that are not, but the fact is that common vocabulary more fully characterizes a language.
The Ease of Learning English for Non-Native Speakers
Another point that can be deliberated in terms of considering English a Germanic language is the ease of learning it among people who speak a different native language. People who first learned a Romance language often consider English quite difficult, largely because the grammar is so different and the vocabulary of everyday communication can likewise sound much different than the comparable words in their native language. On the other hand, people who speak German, Dutch, and other Germanic languages as a native tongue typically pick up English without much difficulty because of the similarities. In many ways, English grammar is similar to these languages but is actually a bit simpler. This fact has also been used to support counting English as a Germanic language.