We've said it before and we'll say it again: etymology is fascinating.
English is the power-child of two ancient languages: Latin (from ancient Rome) and Anglo Saxon (from the ancient Northern European Germanic tribes).
We use words that are all considered English, but are actually modifications of words from either of these languages. Once you learn to spot the difference, you can't unsee it.
For example, below are two lists of words.
The words in one list have their origins in Latin, which was spoken by a bunch of politicians and generals in marble and stone palaces, ruling over a vast and complex Mediterranean Empire.
The words in the other list have their origins in Anglo Saxon, which was spoken by a bunch of blacksmiths and alewives in the bogs and forests of ancient Germany.
Can you guess which set is which?
- give up, gain, start, guess
- relinquish, benefit, commence, estimate
All these words are English, but the first set have Anglo Saxon roots, and the second set have Latin roots.
Invasion, conquest and class
Without going into too much detail or too far back in time, here's roughly what happened:
- A few thousand years ago, England is an island inhabited by a variety of tribal peoples (think Stonehenge and bog-men) who speak what you might loosely call Celtic languages.
- Around 40AD the Romans invade England, take over most of the island, build some roads, forts and towns, and introduce Latin, which some English natives learn as part of living with the new rulers and administrators.
- Around 400AD the Romans decide it's all too hard and go back home, leaving behind the roads and towns, and the Latin spoken by a relatively small number of people.
- With the Romans gone, the Anglo Saxons migrate/invade from Germany and over a couple of centuries come to dominate England, and their language—which is simple, straightforward, and great for describing things like bacon and wagon wheels—spreads far and wide.
- Then in 1066AD a bunch of French invaders called the Normans take over England, become the new ruling class, and bring their own language which is an early version of French, which happens to incorporate a bunch of Latin-based words.
- At this point you get a class division: the upper classes speaking this more flowery Norman/French/Latin language, and the lower classes speaking this relatively gruff and choppy Germanic/Anglo Saxon type language.
Over time the languages merge to form English, but the differences in texture, complexity, and class-association of certain words never go away.
What you're left with is a language in which words with Latin origins are seen as more refined, formal, sophisticated, educated:
- relinquish, benefit, commence, estimate
And words with Anglo Saxon origins are seen as more simple, plain, informal, practical:
- give up, gain, start, guess.
Bringing this back to Jane Austen
You might have recognised by now that Jane Austen uses a lot of latinate words, at least as a default for the class of characters she writes about. (She shifts register for different characters and different situations, but that's another story.)
Why does she do this? Because she is writing for and about the English upper middle-class. She uses Latinate words to communicate refinement, education, class, as well as detachment.
If you want more, and you know you do
There's so much more you could say about all this, and if you're keen there is a great site called The Latinometer that unpacks it even further, and has a great tool for analysing the Latinate/Germanic content of your own writing.
