The adjectives associated with the nouns Eng. language and Sp. lengua and lenguaje are no
other than the learned words Eng. linguistic
and Sp. lingüístico/a, which mean either ‘of or pertaining to
language or languages’ or ‘of or pertaining to the knowledge or study of languages’
(OED), as in linguistic diversity (Sp. diversidad
lingüística), linguistic heritage
(Sp. patrimonio lingüístico).[1]
English, of course, has the option of using the noun language as a modifier in a noun-noun construction (compound noun) as
an alternative to the use of this adjective, thus resulting in the synonymous
phrases language diversity and language heritage (cf. Part I, Chapter 5,
§5.8).
Spanish can only turn a noun into a modifier by resorting to a prepositional
phrase, with a linking preposition, typically de ‘of’, as in diversidad de
lenguas and patrimonio de lenguas.
The source of Eng. linguistic
and Sp. lingüístico/a is not a Classical Latin word, but rather
the New Latin adjective linguisticus,
derived from the noun linguista with the
addition of the Latin adjectival suffix ‑ic‑
(lingu‑ist‑ic‑us). Latin did have an adjective
derived from the noun lĭngua
‘language’, by means of the adjectival suffix ‑āl‑, namely linguālis, but the meaning of
this adjective was ‘of or related to the tongue’, referring to the organ, not to
the other sense of the noun lingua,
namely ‘language’ (lingu‑āl‑is). Actually,
both English and Spanish have borrowed the (rare) adjective lingual from Latin, with the meaning is
‘of or relating to the tongue’, and used mostly as a technical word, as in (in
anatomy) lingual nerve (Sp. nervio lingual), i.e. the nerve of the
tongue, and (in linguistics) lingual
sounds (Sp. sonidos linguales),
that is, sounds made with the tongue. The word lingual has been used in the past with the ‘of or relating to
language’ sense, but that use is now archaic, if not obsolete. In other words, while
looking for a Latinate adjective that meant ‘of or relating to language’, the
English, Spanish, and French have all resorted to the newly formed adjective linguistic (Sp. lingüístico/a) derived from the New Latin word linguist (Sp. lingüista).
This adjective in question first appeared in French, as linguistique, in 1826, from the New Latin
adjective linguisticus (fem. linguistica, neut. linguisticum). The French adjective linguistique [lɛ̃.ɡɥis.ˈtik] was derived from the noun
linguiste [lɛ̃.ˈɡɥist], which is first
attested in French about two hundred years earlier, around 1632, though this French
noun was very rare until the adjective linguistique
was created. The noun linguiste was created
out of the noun lingua and the Latin agentive
suffix ‑ist‑, of Greek origin. This
noun was originally used in French with the meaning ‘someone who studied ancient
languages’. It wasn’t until the 20th century that it came to mean ‘someone who studies
modern languages scientifically’, though in the 19th century it was used sometimes
as a synonym for philologist, someone
who studies languages from a comparative and historical perspective.
It is not clear when and where the words Eng. linguist or Fr. linguiste started to be used. We find Eng. linguist already in use in English in the late 16th century, decades
before it is attested in French. The early meanings linguist in English were: (1) ‘one who uses his tongue freely or knows
how to talk; a master of language’ and (2) ‘one who is skilled in the use of languages;
one who is master of other tongues besides his own’ (OED). To this day, the word
linguist in English is used with the latter
of the two original senses, as well as with the sense it acquired in more recent
times, namely ‘someone who studies language and languages scientifically’, i.e.
a practitioner of linguistics.
Although the noun linguist
may have been created in English, the adjective linguistic on the other hand, is said to have had its origin in
French, being derived from the noun linguiste,
as we said earlier, by the year 1826. Actually, the word may have been modelled
on the German word linguistisch that
meant ‘of or relating to the academic study of language’ which is first
attested in the previous century, in 1787. In the 20th century, Ger. linguistisch has also come to mean ‘of
or relating to language’ in addition to ‘of or relating to linguistics’, like
its cognate in the other European languages and as an alternative to the native
sprachlich. The German adjective linguistisch was derived from the German
word Linguistik, which was created in
1778 for the name of the study of language, which at the time meant the study
of the history of language (historical linguistics). (Curiously, in modern-day
German, the common term for ‘linguistics’ is not Linguistik but Sprachwissenschaft.
The non-Latinate adjective synonym of the ‘of or relating to linguistics’ of
Ger. linguistisch is, thus, sprachwissenschaftlich.)
The name for the academic discipline that studies language scientifically
is linguistics in English. This word is
typically said to have come about in French, as a noun identical to the adjective
linguistique that we just mentioned above.
The OED, for example, gives that as the source of the term. Originally, in the 19th
century (after 1835 at least) it was used with the sense of comparative and historical
linguistics. By a hundred years later, as the scientific discipline of language
changed, linguistique came to be associated
with this new science, whose main exponents were Whitney and Saussure. It would
seem, however, that French calqued this word from the German Linguistik that we have mentioned is
attested in the late 18th century, a Latinate word derived from Linguist by
means of the suffix ‑ik, the German
version of the Latin adjectival suffix ‑ic,
used to name academic disciplines, such as Physik
‘physics’ or Mathematik
‘mathematics’.
The French term linguistique
was calqued into English as linguistics
[lɪŋ.ˈɡwɪ.stɪks] and into
Spanish lingüística [liŋ.ˈɡu̯is.t̪i.ka].
Notice that the English noun linguistics
looks formally like a plural, formed by analogy with the names of other academic
disciplines in English that end in ‑ics,
such as physics, mathematics, economics, athletics, physics, statistics, genetics, pediatrics, phonetics, robotics, politics, etc. These are, however, singular
nouns, as the fact that they go with singular verb forms. Thus, we say, for example,
Linguistics is a science, not *Linguistics are a science. However,
originally these names did behave as plural nouns, not as singular ones as they
do today, so in earlier times, one would say Physics are difficult,
not Phisics is difficult.
The tradition of making the names of disciplines plural
started in English in the 16th century as a revival of the Classical Greek custom
of using the neuter plural of adjectives with the meaning ‘matters relevant to’
in matters related to academic fields of study. Names of disciplines that were
common before the 16th century, however, remain in the singular, such as arithmetic and logic. However, mathematics
has always been plural, and this is probably due to the fact that originally this
field was not thought of as a single thing, but as ‘the collective name for
geometry, arithmetic, and certain physical sciences (as astronomy and optics)
involving geometrical reasoning’ (OED).
With the exception of matemáticas
‘mathematics’, the names of disciplines in Spanish are always singular, and
feminine, just like in French, derived from the same adjectival suffix ‑ic‑, resulting in the ending ‑ic‑a. Thus, the Spanish equivalent of
Eng. linguistics, is lingüística, identical to the feminine
singular form of the adjective we just mentioned. Thus, Sp. lingüística works just like the names of
other disciplines that end in ‑ica,
such as (la) física ‘physics’ and (la) estadística ‘statistics’, and (la)
genética, (la) robótica, (la) fonética, (la) política, etc., which are also singular and identical in form
to the feminine form of the related adjectives.[2]
For example, física, the name of the
discipline, is homonymous with the feminine adjective física meaning ‘physical’ (the masculine singular form of this
adjective is físico and the plural forms
would be físicas and físicos, respectively. Note that to confuse
things even further, besides being an adjective, físico can also be a noun, meaning ‘physicist’. As we said, an
exception to this singular form of academic disciplines is (las) matemáticas, which
is plural (it ends in ‑icas, not ‑ica). Note that unlike Eng. mathematics, Sp. matemáticas is a real plural, since we say, for example, Las matemáticas son difíciles, with a plural
article, a plural verb form, and a plural adjective. In North America, the name
mathematics is colloquially shortened
to math, whereas in Great Britain, can
also be reduced to maths, especially when
referring to the subject studied at school (1911).
[1] The word heritage typically
translates as Sp. patrimonio,
especially if it is the heritage of a group or nation. The word herencia, a paronym of heritage, can also be used when speaking
of the heritage of an individual. Note that the word herencia can also mean ‘inheritance’. Learned Sp. herencia comes from Lat. haerĕntĭa ‘things attached, things that cling’ or ‘belongings’, a noun derived
from the regular stem haerĕnt‑ of the present participle haerens ‘clinging, adhering’ of the verb haerēre (supine haesum)
‘to cling, adhere’. Eng. heritage
comes from Old French heritage
‘inheritance’, derived by means of the suffix ‑age from heriter ‘inherit’,
from Late Latin hereditare. Old
Spanish had the cognate heredaje and
it still has the verb heredar ‘to
inherit’ derived from the same Late Latin verb. Eng. inherit comes from Old
French enheriter ‘appoint as heir’, from
Late Latin inhereditare ‘to appoint
as heir’, a prefixed version of hereditare.
[2] Note that not all the recently created English words for discipline
names that end in ‑ics have
equivalent words in Spanish that end in ‑ica.
For example, pediatrics (1884)
translates as pediatría, a word with
the same stem but with a different Greek suffix. Likewise, gymnastics (1650s) translates into Spanish as gimnasia. The noun athletics
(1730), which is thought to have been modelled on the noun gymnastics, translates into Spanish as deportes, if it refers to active sports, a sense that is common in
North America for this word, and as atletismo,
if it refers to track and field, a sense common in British English. Another
such word is acrobatics (1859),
whichi translates as acrobacia.
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