Spanish Vocabulary: An Etymological Approach

Section 4.10. Romance (Languages) and Politics

SECTION . Romance (Languages) and Politics The standard family tree of Indo-European languages shows English to be far more closely related to, say, Swedish or Icelandic than it is to any of the Romance languages, including Spanish: PROTOINDOEUROPEAN PIE   Germanic Italic OscoN . Germanic W. Germanic E. Germanic Latin Umbrian Icelandic English Gothic (extinct) Portuguese [extinct] Faeroese Frisian Spanish Norwegian Dutch Catalan Swedish German Occitan Danish Yiddish French Italian RhaetoRomance  Romanian English is in the Germanic family, its closest “living” relative being the West Germanic Frisian language, spoken in coastal parts of Netherlands and Denmark . Nonetheless, one can easily argue that Latin (and its Romance descendants ) share at least equal paternity. Their influence on English extends far beyond the typical back-and-forth borrowing that characterizes the development of many languages: . For several centuries following the Norman invasion of England in , French was the “legal” language of England, spoken by the nobility as  Occitan is the “modern” name for the langue d’oc of southern France, as opposed to the langue d’oïl of central and northern France—the two names arose from the contrasting manner in which the word “yes” was spoken. Oïl subsequently evolved into Modern French oui. Occitan is frequently known (especially outside of France) as Provençal.  The term Rhaeto-Romance refers to a group of dialects spoken in southern Switzerland and northern Italy, of which one—Romansh—is an “official” language of Switzerland (along with German , French, and Italian). T4311.indb 429 T4311.indb 429 8/31/07 6:44:45 AM 8/31/07 6:44:45 AM  SELEC TED TOPICS their native language and used (along with Latin) for legal, religious, and commercial purposes. English continued to be spoken by the “common” people, however, and during (and immediately following) this period, the contribution of French to English vocabulary was enormous, adding to the existing vocabulary and in very many cases replacing previous words of Old English origin. In addition, definitions and uses of many native English words were influenced by those of their French counterparts. . When English eventually supplanted Latin as the language of scholarship, it took directly from Latin (or its Romance descendants) the overwhelming majority of its academic, scientific, and technical vocabulary. Indeed, it is not easy to find words in these fields that are “native” English ones. . In the legal system, despite several earlier attempts (in the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries), it was not until  that it was finally decreed that all court proceedings and statutes “shall be in the English tongue and language only, and not in Latin or French”. This has left its mark not only on quaint courtroom customs—“Oyez, oyez, oyez! The court is now in session !”—but on the overwhelming majority of legal vocabulary. Moreover, apart from the obvious legal words (appeal, assault, battery, judge, jury, plaintiff, plea, etc.), many everyday English words have their origins in “law French”: asset, attach, cheat, entail, fee, gauge, hodgepodge, mere, misnomer, oust, puny, remainder, seize, several, size, suit, surmise, treasure trove, try, etc. If further convincing is required, one need only compare two versions of the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, the first from a Romance language (Spanish ), the second from a Germanic one (German). I. Nosotros, el pueblo de los Estados Unidos, a fin de formar una unión más perfecta, establecer la justicia, asegurar la tranquilidad interior, proveer la defensa común, promover el bienestar general y asegurar para nosotros y para nuestra posteridad los beneficios de la libertad, sancionamos y establecemos esta Constitución para los Estados Unidos de América. II. Wir, das Volk der Vereinigten Staaten, von der Absicht geleitet, unseren Bund zu vervollkommnen, die Gerechtigkeit zu verwirklichen, die Ruhe im  “Law French” refers to a specific form of Anglo-French (or Anglo-Norman) used in England in judicial proceedings, pleadings, and lawbooks until at least the late seventeenth century. For a modern guide, see J. H. Baker, Manual of Law French, nd ed. (Aldershot, UK: Scholar Press, ). T4311.indb 430 T4311.indb 430 8/31/07 6:44:45 AM 8/31/07 6:44:45 AM ROMANCE LANGUAGES AND POLITICS  Innern zu sichern, für die Landesverteidigung zu sorgen, das allgemeine Wohl zu fördern und das Glück der Freiheit uns selbst und unseren Nachkommen zu bewahren, setzen und begründen diese Verfassung für die Vereinigten Staaten von...