Eva Bianca Dima, EN-LUC, IIIrd year

The influence of religion on the English language

Religion began to leave a mark on the English language once the Romans invaded the
Celtic land and decided to form a colony and share their knowledge with the “blue, nasty,
br(u→i)tish and short”1 natives. Latin influenced the development of Old English more than any
other non-West Germanic language with which Old English came into contact. Most scholars
divide the influence of Latin chronologically into three time periods. The first time period
concerns such influence as occurred on the continent prior to the arrival of Anglo-Saxons in
England and which arose from contacts between West-Germanic speaking peoples and L
speakers. The second period of influence spans from the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in England
up to their Christianization ca. 600-650. The last period of influence spans from the time of
Christianization up to the arrival of the Normans in 1066. The greatest influence of Latin upon
Old English was occasioned by the conversion of Britain to Roman Christianity beginning in
597.

The Roman troops had brought the new religion to the Brits, where it was adopted by the
Celtic natives. After the Romans withdrew and the Germanic tribes invaded Britain,
communication with the Roman papacy became quite difficult during the 5th and 6th century and,
without dogmatic rulers from outside, the freshly planted Irish church developed an
aoutonomous Celtic adaptation of the Christian religion. Nevertheless, the Irish monks started
several missions in the neighbouring lands, first among the Angles of Northumbria, and Mercia,
therefore touching the sphere of the Christianization coming from Augustine’s Canterbury.

There was some conflict between the officials of the two parts, ended in the 7 th century
when the Irish church accepted the supremacy of the Roman dogma. A paramount outcome of
the generalized Christianity was the flourishing of some important cultural centres, among which
Canterbury in the South, and York in the North were the most productive. New links with
Europe were established, not only with Rome, but also with the Carolingian Empire. What is

1
Owen Alun and Brendan O’Corraidhe, A Concise History of the English Language,
http://www.danshort.com/ie/ConciseHistory.htm
Eva Bianca Dima, EN-LUC, IIIrd year

more, as it had happened with the Roman conquerers in Greece, the Scandinavian invaders
adopted in the end the religion and higher culture of Britain, and spreaded them to their native
lands.

What is interesting is that two linguists, Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable, point out the
fact that the Christian religion was far from new in the island, as the Irish monks had been
preaching the gospel in the north since the founding of the monastery of Iona by Columba in
563. Yet, 597 marks the beginning of the systematic Roman attempt to christian the inhabitans of
Britain. According to the well-known story reported by Bede as a tradition current in his day, the
mission of St. Augustine was inspired by an experience of the man who later became Pope
Gregory the Great. Walking one morning in the marketplace at Rome, he came upon some fair-
haired boys about to be sold as slaves and was told that they were from the island of Britain and
were pagans. “‘Alas! what pity,’ said he, ‘that the author of darkness is possessed of men of such
fair countenances, and that being remarkable for such a graceful exterior, their minds should be
void of inward grace?’ He therefore again asked, what was the name of that nation and was
answered, that they were called Angles. ‘Right,’ said he, ‘for they have an angelic face, and it is
fitting that such should be co-heirs with the angels in heaven. What is the name,’ proceeded he,
‘of the province from which they are brought?’ It was replied that the natives of that province
were called Deiri. ‘Truly are they de ira’ said he, ‘plucked from wrath, and called to the mercy of
Christ. How is the king of that province called?’ They told him his name was Ælla; and he,
alluding to the name, said ‘Alleluia, the praise of God the Creator, must be sung in those parts.’”
The same tradition records that Gregory wished himself to undertake the mission to Britain but
could not be spared. Some years later, however, when he had become pope, he had not forgotten
his former intention and looked about for someone whom he could send at the head of a
missionary band. Augustine, the person of his choice, was a man well known to him. The two
had lived together in the same monastery, and Gregory knew him to be modest and devout and
thought him well suited to the task assigned him. With a little company of about forty monks
Augustine set out for what seemed then like the end of the earth.

Augustine’s chore was not easy at all; the inhabitant’s problem was not so much to
substitute one ritual for another as to change the philosophy of a nation. The religion that the
Anglo-Saxons shared with the other Germanic tribes seems to have had but a slight hold on the
Eva Bianca Dima, EN-LUC, IIIrd year

people at the close of the sixth century; but their habits of mind, their ideals, and the action to
which these gave rise were often in sharp contrast to the teachings of the New Testament.
Germanic philosophy exalted physical courage, independence even to haughtiness, loyalty to
one’s family or leader that left no wrong unavenged. Christianity preached meekness, humility,
and patience under suffering and said that if a man struck you on one cheek you should turn the
other.

The introduction of Christianity meant the building of churches and monasteries. Latin,
the language of the services and of ecclesiastical learning, was once more heard in England.
Schools were established in most of the monasteries and larger churches. Some of these became
famous through their great teachers, and from them trained men went out to set up other schools
at other centers. The beginning of this movement was in 669, when a Greek bishop, Theodore of
Tarsus, was made archbishop of Canterbury.

From the introduction of Christianity in 597 to the close of the Old English period is a
stretch of more than 500 years. During all this time Latin words must have been making their
way gradually into the English language. t it would be a mistake to think that the enrichment of
the vocabulary that now took place occurred overnight. Some words came in almost
immediately, others only at the end of this period. In fact, it is fairly easy to divide the Latin
borrowings of the Second Period into two groups, more or less equal in size but quite different in
character. The one group represents words whose phonetic form shows that they were borrowed
early and whose early adoption is attested also by the fact that they had found their way into
literature by the time of Alfred. The other contains words of a more learned character first
recorded in the tenth and eleventh centuries and owing their introduction clearly to the religious
revival that accompanied the Benedictine Reform. The contribution of the Christian culture was
paramount and significant in the history of English along with the new writing adopted by the
Anglo-Saxons. Certain phonetic features, as well as the presence of corresponding loans in other
Germanic languages have enabled philologists to include the following Old English words in the
continental stock. It is obvious that the most typical as well as the most numerous class of words
introduced by the new religion would have to do with that religion and the details of its external
organization. Among many borrowings such as warfare terminology, words reflecting Roman
technical abilities, names of new kinds of food, trade and social-life terms, domestic life and the
Eva Bianca Dima, EN-LUC, IIIrd year

new cultural life, there was a considerable amount of loan-words from the church life. Some
words relating to Christianity such as “Church” and “Bishop” were borrowed earlier because the
Anglo-Saxon had had contact with some bishops and had plundered churches before they came
to England. But most of the words relating to religion were borrowed at the time of Christian
evolution. The following words given in their modern forms have survived over time: abbot,
alms, altar, angel, anthem, Arian, ark, candle, canon, chalice, cleric, cowl, deacon, disciple,
epistle, hymn, litany, manna, martyr, mass, minster, noon, nun, offer, organ, pall, palm, pope,
priest, provost, psalm, psalter, relic, rule, shrift, shrine, shrive, stole, subdeacon, synod, temple,
and tunic.

The early, continental borrowings from Latin, as well as many of the later ones that
entered general usage, were very well assimilated, not only phonetically (today cheese, street,
wall, are felt as “natives”), but also as regards their productivity on English ground: some
developed whole families of derivatives created by means of Germanic affixes (mangere
“monger”, mangian “trade”, mangunk “trade”); several Latin words are adopted to the Old
English verbal system. Many of the Latin words which became English in the Old English period
were reinforced by their French correspondants after the Norman Conquest. Taking into account
the whole historical evolution of English one can observe that Latin provided the only permanent
external source of new English vocabulary.

Last but not least, although religion played its part when the Romans decided to invade
and culturalise Britain, some would say that, besides being ovetly present and active in the
English literature, being a great source of inspiration for writers, it has also played an intriguing
part in the 17th century, once King James decided to translate the Bible (1611). The Oxford
English Dictionary has identified 43 new words, a pretty amount of words added to the English
vocabulary in the 17th century. An online search for the 1611 Authorized Version reveals it as the
first source for 43 new headwords: abased (adj.), accurately, afflicting (n.), almug, anywhither,
armour-bearer, backsliding (adj.), battering-ram, Benjamite, catholicon, confessing (n.),
crowning (adj.), dissolver, epitomist, escaper, espoused (adj.), exactress, expansion, Galilean
(n.), gopher, Gothic (adj.), grand-daughter, Hamathite, ingenuously, Laodicean (n.), light-
minded, maneh, miscarrying (adj.), Naziriteship, needleworker, night-hawk, nose-jewel,
palmchrist, panary, peaceable kingdom, phrasing (n.), pruning-hook, Sauromatian, shittah,
Eva Bianca Dima, EN-LUC, IIIrd year

skewed, way-mark, whosesoever, withdrawing (adj.). Yet, some say that some words are to be
find in earlier translations of the Bible, therefore the credits shouldn’t go to the King James
version.

In conclusion, I believe that the Romans were not the first ones who brought Christianity
to Britain, althought they were the first who exercised a greater interest in civilizing and
culturalizing the inhabitans. Therefore, I agree with Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable, who
made this statement. Nonetheless, I found that all linguists were on a common ground when
dealing with the influence religion had on the development of the English language.
Eva Bianca Dima, EN-LUC, IIIrd year

Bibliography:

 Poruciuc, Adrian, A concise history of the English language, ed. Universitatea

„Al.I.Cuza” Iași, Facultatea de Filologie, 1987
 http://faculty.mu.edu.sa/public/uploads/1380984377.3491A%20History%20of
%20English%20Language.pdf
 http://www.nou.edu.ng/NOUN_OCL/pdf/SASS/ENG%20211%20History%20of
%20the%20English%20Language.pdf
 http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/courses/1001Moore.htm
 http://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/english-in-time/fly-in-the-ointment-
assessing-the-influence-of-the-king-james-bible/