25.02.24: ways of learning; derivatives and detective work!

25.02.24: ways of learning; derivatives and detective work!

Some people say that English comes from Latin, but it doesn’t. The original English language, known as Anglo-Saxon evolved from the languages of the Germanic tribes that settled in what we now call England after the departure of the Romans in the late 5th century. English is a Germanic language with grammar and syntax and vocabulary of Germanic origin. However, after the Norman Conquest in 1066, the English language became enriched with thousands of words from French which, in itself, developed from Latin. It is not accurate to say that Latin words were imported into English but, in most cases, came indirectly into the language from French. Those words had undergone spelling and pronunciation changes in French, and underwent subsequent changes in English, but they are still there, and they can be of great use when learning Latin.

Many Latin words can be recognised when reading because they exist in English as derivatives; that does not suggest that the words in English mean exactly the same as they did in Latin – most often they don’t – but they are related to them, and can help you get to the meaning of an unknown word.

amāre: to love. If you describe somebody as amorous, what kind of person is (s)he?

ambulō: to walk. What are you doing if you are ambling through the woods?

cantāre: to sing. What role does a cantor perform in a ceremony e.g. religious?

clāmāre: to shout. If you describe people or their voices as clamorous, what are they doing?

errāre: to wander; to make a mistake: “To err is human.” (La. Errāre hūmānum est.)

habitāre: to live. To what are we referring when we talk about an animal’s habitat?

labōrāre: to work. What kind of task is laborious?

laudāre: to praise. Why would somebody make a laudatory speech for somebody else?

parāre: to prepare. We make preparations for a party.

portāre: to carry. What does a porter do?

pugnāre: to fight. If you describe somebody as pugnacious, what kind of person is (s)he?

spectāre: to watch. Who are spectators?

lavāre: to wash. We associate the word lavatory with a room containing a toilet, but the original English meaning refers to any fixture used for washing e.g. a washbasin.

An interesting example is nāvigāre (to sail); the English language already had a Germanic word i.e. ‘sail’ from Old English seġl but still adopted the word navigate. What does it mean?

Less obvious at this stage is data which is a form of the verb dare (to give) referring to given information.

Sometimes a derivative is rather archaic. Nonetheless, it exists, for example English natation meaning ‘swimming’ is derived from Latin natātiō (swimming) c.f. natāre (to swim).

Equally less obvious at the moment, but nonetheless ‘hiding’ in English, is the word state i.e. the situation as it currently stands (La. stāre: to stand).

Therefore, all the verbs introduced in the previous post are, in some shape or form, evident in English derivatives.

There are simply too many derivatives to deal with individually, but, when they are of particular use, they will be referred to. Derivatives will be particularly helpful when we look at third declension nouns.