Why the English Language is Amazing, Part 2

I write at the command of my co-laborer in the art of words...okay, not really, I actually was anxious to follow up on my last post. Today I want to focus on the spelling and etymology of various European language influences in English.

Europe has always had a great impact on the English lanuage. After all, it is from Rome that much of Europe sprung, and it is to Rome that all roads lead. And Rome was in many ways a very grandiose nation. As most people know, Rome has served for ages as a model of architecture, art, government, literature, and naturally, language. This is why we have the Rom-ance languages: they are derived from Latin, the language of Rome. So, since I left off with Latin yesterday, I'm going to dive straight in to one of its closest relatives, Spanish.

When you think of Spanish words, you probably think burrito, quesadilla, amigo...The list goes on and on. Spanish words have really pushed their way into American English, thanks to the fact that we border Mexico. But evidences of Spanish influence in the English language go back much farther than that, possibly as early as the 15th century (fun fact: Spain is probably a much older country than you thought, dating back to the early days of Rome, arguably earlier). Did you know that the word alligator is from the Spanish? How about vanilla? And buffalo? Well, whether you knew those or not, you might notice that all those words had a common factor: double consonants. This is a defining element in both Spanish and Italian words. Other common features of English-from-Spanish words include the long o or e at the end of a word (due to the grammar of the language). K sounds are often spelled with a qu, and even more likely a c.

Moving along in our European vocabulary, let's head to te next most closely related language in my quick overview, Italian. Like I mentioned in my previous post, the Italians (and much of Europe, for that mater), decided in the Renaissance, and even somewhat in the Middle Ages, that they were sick and tired of having boring old spelling and pronunciation: they were above that. So, the Italians worked on their, "Mama mia!" and improved their pasta so that they could have all kinds of fancy names for it...not really, but the spelling can seem a bit mind-boggling at first. More likely than not, you'll run across the most Italian words when dealing with food, art, and music. In case you aren't already aware of it, let me give you some of the most commonly used Italian words in English: graffiti, extravaganza, balcony, stucco, allegro, salami, ravioli, fresco, cauliflower, provolone, macaroni, staccato, sonata, mozzarella, prosciutto, vivace...hopefully you get the point. Aesthetics are in the blood for Italians...trust me, I know some. How do we deal with these complex spellings, though? Well, although there are more "heart words" in Italian than you might want, it's not as difficult as it looks. Notice that many words have a long e sound that end in an i, though an e is used in cases such as provolone. The long o sound at the end of words, like Spanish is spelled with an o. Throw in some double consonants right in the middle, and you're good to go.

The final language I'll work on for you is French, as it, too, is a Romance language. The French, like the Italian, were obsessed with sounding highly educated, so their words have some different kinds of spellings. These words have more of a scope than the Italian ones, making them ocassionally harder to identify, though most likely you'll recognize many of them as French. Commonly used words from French include bureaucracy, denture, diplomat, rehearse, expertise, elite, rouge, quiche, baton, manicure, croquet, leotard, mayonnaise, entourage, and many, many, many more. Note that if you see the \sh\ sound, it's probably spelled with a ch cosonant blend, and word that ends \et\ is spelled ette, and a long \a\ at the end, is spelled et, quite frequently, though that is not a certain rule in various cases. Double consonants are less common than they are in Spanish and Italian, but still appear in odd places, and the letter e at the end as a silent add-on is not completely uncommon. Spell \eer\ as ir. If you hear a long o, there's no guarantee, but try an eau, or ot. And sometimes there are just silent letters in all the wrong places...or rather, unexpected. But I can assure you that learning to spell these words is a blast!

Lastly, I want to show you really briefly how all three of these languages point straight back to Latin. I'll keep it short and sweet with one word from each language, cross my heart. The English word amenable comes from the French word amener, meaning "to bring," and that word comes from the Latin word minare, meaning "to drive." The Italian word piazza is actually just a severely altered version of the Latin word platea, meaning "a broad street." The Spanish word conquistador is an adapted way of saying the Latin word conquirere, "search." Impressed? You should be. English is truly an amazing language, and I haven't shown you half of it. Once again, I'll only post more if this is truly interesting. And again, ignore me if I just bored you to death. Maybe I am a little wacked after all.

Meridian