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English -Spanish
The influence of religion on English
English is one of the most spoken languages in the worldwide, but what is curious is how
it gained such a impressive position. As a brief recapitulation of the English evolution, one must
start with the present days and consider the diachronic and the synchronic factors that influenced
the language. The historical moment in the English development that helped the language to
spread all around the world was marked by the England's colonial expansion. England was one
of the most colonial active country and English became the official language of the colonies. The
colonization of America was an apogee because the international corporations and the
Hollywood have made sure that English has remained an international language.
In order to understand the evolution of English, one must take into account the following
historical events that lead to the language's progress. The Norman conquest(1066), brought with
it the Norman French. In that period the nobility spoke French and read Latin, while the
ordinary people spoke varieties of old English; but since they existed side by side, the two
languages immediately began to influence each other. Norman French became Anglo-Norman,
and Old English, picking up lots of vocabulary from Anglo-Normans, evolved into Middle
English. Middle English was thus rather different from other European languages. It was partly
Germanic (particularly the vocabulary of everyday life, the grammar and structures), and partly
Romance (a lot of the more literary vocabulary). After the Norman conquest, considering that the
reading language was Latin, a lot of words from this cultural language were introduced in the
Anglo-Norman vocabulary. The language of the Church was Latin too.
Looking back in the history, in the early period of evolution, the Roman Empire
influenced most of the European languages inclusive the Old English. The Roman conquest of
the Britain island in 55 BC brought with it the Christian religion and also the Latin.
Considering this circumstance, what it is important to point out is that by means of all the
major languages of Europe have been profoundly influenced by Latin, not only in their
vocabulary, but also in their grammar. When considering the role of Latin in Europe, we have to
make a clear distinction between the spoken Latin of the empire, and the later written language
which influenced the standard languages of Europe over a thousand years later.
The three languages that influenced the English language were: Celtic, Latin and Norse.
Very few of the Celtic words prevail to persist in the English language: Kent, York, Dover,
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Cumberland, Thames, Avon, Trent, Severn. The arrival of St. Augustine in 597 and the
introduction of Christianity into Saxon England brought more Latin words into the English
language. They were mostly concerned with the naming of Church dignitaries, ceremonies, etc.
Some, such as church, bishop, baptism, monk, Eucharist and presbyter came indirectly through
Latin from the Greek. Unlike Celtic, one can observe that Latin was the only language that
added an appreciable number of words to Literature and not only. After the Anglo-Saxon
conversion to Christianity, religious conflicts came to impart into political and social problems.
Bede, writing in the earlier half of the eighth century, says, that in his day it was not the
custom of the Britons to pay any respect to the faith and religion of the English, or to correspond
with them any more than with pagans. Inconsequence, very few of the Celtic words in our speech
go back to a very early date. Certainly the modern importations from that quarter far exceed in
number the earlier ones. Moreover, they have generally come to us from the Gadhelic branch,
and not from the Cymric 1: and in most cases they denote objects peculiar, or originally peculiar,
to the race by which they were first employed. The words bard, brogue, 'shoe,' claymore, druid,
plaid, shamrock, whiskey, for illustration, are all of Celtic origin; but none of them existed in the
English of the Anglo-Saxon period, and most of them are of comparatively recent introduction.
The Norman-French. Toward the close of the ninth century a band of Northman, under a
renowned leader named Rolf, or Rollo, sailed up the Seine, captured Rouen, and, from that point
as a centre, carried on a continuous and destructive war with the native inhabitants. At last, in
912, peace was made. To the invaders, Charles the Simple, the king of the French, ceded a large
territory bordering upon the British Channel, which was called from them Normandy. On the
other hand, Rollo agreed to become the feudal vassal of the French monarch, and to embrace the
50 English Language. Christian religion. These conditions were fully carried into effect. The
Norsemen, in consequence, became the undisturbed owners of the district given up to them, and,
along with the religion of their subjects, they also adopted their language. Two general facts in
regard to language become apparent as the effect of the Conquest. One is, that, though the native
tongue continued to be spoken by the great majority of the population, it went out of use as the
language of high culture. It was no longer taught in the schools. It was no longer employed at the
court of the king, or the castles of the nobles. It was no longer used in judicial proceedings ; to
some extent even it ceased to be recognized in the services of the church. This displacement was
probably slow at first ; but it was done effectually at last. The second fact is, that, after the
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Conquest, the educated classes, whether lay or ecclesiastical, preferred to write either in Latin or
in French ; the latter steadily tending to become more and more the language of literature as well
as of polite society. We have, in consequence, the singular spectacle of two tongues flourishing
side by side in the same country, and yet for centuries so utterly distinct and independent, that
neither can be said to have exerted much direct appreciable influence upon the other, though in
each case the indirect influence was great.
General Adoption of English by all Classes. All these agencies co-operated in bringing
about the adoption of the native speech by all classes ; yet at the end of the fourteenth century,
while the success of English was well assured, its victory was even then far from complete. As
was not unnatural, French, after it ceased to be necessary, came to be fashionable; and its use
long survived its usefulness. In fact, it had been for centuries the language not only of law and of
judicial proceedings, but also of official communications of all sorts. This continued to be the
case after it had gone entirely out of use as the speech of any portion of the people. Nearly all the
letters of Henry IV., who ruled from 1399 to 1413, are written in it or in Latin. Indeed, in the
early part of the reign of that monarch it almost seems as if it were not considered respectful to
address him in English. Letters to him are even found written in two languages.
A lot of religious works dating since the Old English, ere founded in manuscripts and
translated in French or Latin.Of these, one of the earliest and on the whole the most important is
the " Ormulum,"a poem without rhyme or alliteration, written about 1200, by an Augustinian
monk named Ormin or Orm. It is essentially a life of Christ made up from the Gospels. It is
marked by one peculiarity, which has made it- of special importance in the history of English
pronunciation. It intentionally carries out one principle which has to some extent governed the
spelling of our speech. This is the doubling of the consonant after a short vowel. Thus, for
illustration, and, under, taken, birth, appear in this poem as annd, unnderr, takenn, and birrth,
while word, book, write, and right are spelled as at present. There were also a number of works
of a moral and religious character, both in prose and verse; homilies and homiletic treatises,
some of which are of an earlier date than the "Ormulum"; legends of saints and martyrs; and
versions of histories or parts of histories contained in the Bible, intermixed with narratives drawn
from other sources.
During my incurs into the development of the English language and the influence of
religion, I observed that the Latin and the French languages brought with them a lot of changes
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in grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. English became much more heterogeneous, showing
many borrowings from French, Latin. Large-scale borrowing of new words often had serious
consequences for the meanings and the stylistic register of those words which survived from Old
English. Eventually, various new stylistic layers emerged in the lexicon, which could be
employed for a variety of different purposes. As Lounsburry asserted, the religion had a great
influience among cirizens and their manner of speech considering that each new invaders
brought with them new changes and new religions.

Bibliography
http://linguapress.com/
http://www.studyenglishtoday.net/. n.d.
Lounsburry, T.L. History of the English Language . New York : Henry Holt and Company, 1897.