<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (October 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (October 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> English is a Germanic language, with a grammar and a core vocabulary inherited from Proto - Germanic . However, a significant portion of the English vocabulary comes from Romance and Latinate sources . 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 . </P> <P> The Germanic tribes who would later give rise to the English language (the Angles, Saxon and Jutes) traded and fought with the Latin speaking Roman Empire . Many words (some originally from Greek) for common objects therefore entered the vocabulary of these Germanic people via Latin even before the tribes reached Britain (what is known as the Continental or Zero Period): anchor, butter, camp, cheese, chest, cook, copper, devil, dish, fork, gem, inch, kitchen, mile, mill, mint (coin), noon, pillow, pound (unit of weight), punt (boat), sack, street, wall, wine . Cognates of virtually all of these English words exist in the other Germanic languages . </P>

How much latin is in the english language