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English is a Germanic language, having a grammar and core vocabulary inherited from Proto-Germanic. However, a significant portion of the English vocabulary comes from Romance and Latinate sources. Estimates of native words (derived from Old English) range from 20%–33%, with the rest made up of outside borrowings. A portion of these borrowings come directly from Latin, or through one of the Romance languages, particularly Anglo-Norman and French, but some also from Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish; or from other languages (such as Gothic, Frankish or Greek) into Latin and then into English. The influence of Latin in English, therefore, is primarily lexical in nature, being confined mainly to words derived from Latin roots. ==Word origins== A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old ''Shorter Oxford Dictionary'' (3rd ed.) was published in ''Ordered Profusion'' by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) that estimated the origin of English words as follows: * ''Langue d'oïl'', including French and Old Norman: 28.3% * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24% * Germanic languages – inherited from Old English, from Proto-Germanic, or a more recent borrowing from a Germanic language such as Old Norse; does not include Germanic words borrowed from a Romance language, i.e., coming from the Germanic element in French, Latin or other Romance languages: 25% * Greek: 5.32% * No etymology given: 4.04% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages: less than 1% A survey by Joseph M. Williams in ''Origins of the English Language'' of 10,000 words taken from several thousand business letters gave this set of statistics:〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Joseph M. Willams, Origins of the English Language at )〕 * French (langue d'oïl): 41% * "Native" English: 33% * Latin: 15% * Old Norse: 5% * Dutch: 1% * Other: 5%〔Origins〕 For editional references, see dictionary.com 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Latin influence in English」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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