Influence Of Christianity on English - The Uncovered English
Answer
Introduction
When St. Augustin came to England towards the end of the 6th century (about 597 A.D.) and introduced Christianity in, the importance of Latin in England increased variously. "The adoption of Christianity by the English was not a change of faith only, it was a change in the entire way of life of an emtire nation. Besides the conversion brought the comparatively rude Islanders in contact with most materially and intellectually advanced people of Europe. Naturally Latin words to express new ideas and things introduced by the Roman Christians in England began to enter the English Language also" said A.B. Chatterjee.
In 'Beowulf' which was composed during The Pre-Christian period consist of many Latin and Greek words connected with christian faith that have been incorporated with the English Language before the advent of Christianity. Of such Latin words might be mentioned:
♦ Church (O.E. cirice from Greek Kuriakon, 'House of the Lord')
♦ Minister (O.E. Mynster) from Monasterium
♦ Devil from Greek Diavolos
♦ Angel from Latin Angelus
The great bulk of Christian terms entered into the English Language only after the Christianizing of Britain.
The post conversion Latin words can be divided into two sub-groups:
♦ Words introduced immediately after or in a century or two following the conversion and
♦ Words introduced in English after the revival of Christianity in England under the influence of Benedictine monks in the later 10th or early 11th century.
Influence After The Conversion
After the conveesion, the English readily borrowed certain Greek and Latin terms connected with their new faith. Such sort of borrowing had been in the following ways:First: Several Latin and Greek words connected with Christianity were readily adopted together with their ideas such as 'Appostle', 'Discipline', 'Psalm' etc.,.
Second: The titles of the entire ecclesiastical dignitaries were also readily introduced. Of such titles as 'Pope', 'Arch-Bishop', ''Priest', 'Monk', 'Nun', 'Provost', 'Abbot' and so on.
Third: A few terms connected with Christian institution such as 'Shrine', 'Mass', 'Cowl' (monk's hood), 'Offer', 'Rule' (monastic rule), 'Alter', 'Pall', and so on.
Fourth: The Catholic Church also exercised profound influence on the domestic life of the common people and that was evident from the adoption of many words such as the names of articles of clothing, household use and food. For example 'Cap', 'Chest', 'Crisp', 'Box', 'Spend', 'Verse', 'Talent', 'Pear', 'Circle', etc.,.
Fourth: Certain number of words connected with education and learning from Latin amd Greek under influence of church such as 'Gloss', 'School', 'Nature', 'Master", 'Verse', 'Grammatical", etc.,.
Sixth: Some words relating to the miscellaneous requirements of life were introduced such as 'Anchor', 'Legion','Phoenix', etc.,.
Influence of Benedictine Reform
The flourishing state of the church was interrupted by the Danes who began their ravages upon the country at the end of the 8th century. Lindisfarne was burnt in 793 A.D. and Jarrow, Bede's monastery was plundered in 9th century through Northumbria and Marcia churches and monasteries lay in ruins. In the later half of 10th century three great Benedictine Monks named Dunstan (Archbishop of Canterbury), Aethelwold (Bishop of Winchester) and Oswald (Archbishop of York) tried to revive the lost glory of the church and there was genuine revival of Monasticism in England with the active support of King Edgar. This resulted a mew entries of Latin words in English. They are especially frequent in words of Aeliric. As in the earlier christian borrowings, considerable number of words have to do with multiple aspects of life, a few examples are given below:-Ecclesiastical Terms
(a) Words related to religious matters:These were many words indicating the new wave of religious reform such as 'Anti-Christ', 'Demon', 'Creed', 'Prophet', etc.,.(b) Literary and learnt words:The Benedictine Reforms imparted education with common mass in view of generating mass awareness about christian religion and other doctrine teaching. Such words are 'Accent', 'Brief', 'Decline', 'History', 'Paper', 'Title', etc.,.
Plant and Animal Names
A few plants and animals names may be mentioned here to indicate the depth of the influence. These words are 'Verbena', 'Calendine', 'Cucumber', 'Ginger', 'Cender', 'Cypress', 'Fig', etc.,. There are also some medicinal terms such as 'Plaster','Paralysis' eyc.,. Some animal names are 'Camel', 'Scorpion', 'Tiger' and so on.
It would however be wrong to think that the English borrowed all their words related to new religion from Latin. They utilized their own resources too. They did it in two ways:-
Firstly,they took name of their existing words and gave a little twist to suit the new context. Instead of borrowing the Latin word Deus, they used their own word 'God' in the same sense.
Secondly,The words such as 'Hell', 'Heaven', and 'Sin' all native heathen words take up by christianity with some shift in the connotation. The word 'Easter' was originally name of pagan spring festival in honour of 'Austro', the Goddess of Spring among the Anglo Saxon. The early christian readily used it to denote one of their greatest festival.