Online English Lesson

Explain relationship between English and Latin

English is related to Latin in two ways. First, they are both descendants of the "parent speech," Indo-European. English belongs to the Germanic branch of the family and Latin to the Italo-Celtic branch. Important core vocabulary cognates of English and Latin include father/pater, mother/mater, one-two-three/ unum-duum-tres and so on.

Second, Norman French, a heavily germanicized form of late Latin, was fused with the utterly Germanic Old English, becoming Middle English which evolved into our modern speech. In addition to giving us the Norman French words (which almost all derive from Latin), this fusion also grants us direct access to the Latin words themselves. We have many of those words in both French and Latin form. For example, the word counsel comes from the French form of the Latin conciliare, but conciliate was later borrowed directly from the Latin.