History of the English Language

There is a reason why the English Language aquired more words from Latin than, for example, from Celtic languages. Outside place names and very few loan words like 'binn' (basket), not many Celtic words entered the vocabulary of the English language. Latin was the language of a highly advanced civilization, and the Anglo-Saxon people wanted to learn from them.

There are 3 separate scopes of time when latin words were acquired: Continental borrowing, Latin through celtic transmission, and the christianaizing of Britain.

- Continental Borrowing (Latin Influence of the Zero Period)

This first Latin words came into contact with the English Language through the borders of the Roman Empire in the continent, and the contact between the Romans and the Germanic tribes. This contact happened in the borders as well as trough the Germanic population inside the Roman Empire (whether slaves or commanders in the Roman army).This is, however, difficult to prove, since we have no written records of such contact other than the analysis of sound changes. Here's a list of these words:

a. War: camp (L. campus) 'battle,' pil (L. pilum)
'javelin,' straet (L. strata) 'road,' mil (L. milia)
'mile;'

e. Other: mul 'mule,' pipe 'pipe,' cirice 'church.'
http://pages.towson.edu/duncan/forinfoe.html

- Latin Through Celtic Transmission ( Latin Influence of the First Period)

This is probably the period with the less record of Latin Influence. It is likely that the use of Latin was gone from the Isles with the Romans. Nevertheless the very few words remaining from that period are found in place names such as those ending in 'chester' (caestre, walled encampment): Dorchester, Winchester, Manchester,or Lancaster.

- The Christianaizing of Britain (Latin Influence of the Second Period)

This is the greatest influence that Latin ever had in the english language (that is, directly; not taking into account the Norman Conquest). In the year 597 there was a systematic attempt by Rome to convert the inhabitants of England. Christianity, however, was not a satrange religion in the BI, since Irish monks had been preaching the bible in the northern parts of the country. We could start discussing how Augustine set out for the quest of christianizing Britain, but I will just leave this link [wikipedia] here. The words that entered the language at that stage were:

a. Religion: abbot, alms, altar, angel, anthem, candle,
collect, creed, deacon, demon, disciple, hymn, martyr,
mass, nun, offer, organ, palm, pope, priest, prime,
prophet, psalm, relic, rule, sabbath, temple, tunic.

f. Other: fever, cancer, paralysis, plaster, place,
sponge, elephant, scorpion, camel, tiger, giant,
talent.
http://pages.towson.edu/duncan/forinfoe.html

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