Why is English not considered a Romance language at all?

A Romance language is one that is directly descended from Latin. Romance languages developed slowly over time after the fall of the Roman empire. Due to the lack of empire-wide institutions, a decrease in trade, and the development of feudalism, particular geographic areas of the empire because more linguistically isolated. Over time, regional differences in Latin became more pronounced, eventually evolving into the entirely distinct Romance languages such as French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. To give a simple example, Latin amicus (friend) eventually became amico in Italian, amigo in Spanish, and ami in French.Modern English has its roots in the languages of the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles who settled in Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries; these groups all spoke Germanic languages. Germanic languages, such as modern German and Swedish, did not evolve from Latin and are therefore not Romance languages. (However, Germanic languages and Romance languages do all share a common 'language ancestor' as members of the bigger Indo-European family of languages. You could think of Germanic and Romance languages as cousins on a family tree.) This Anglo-Saxon language eventually developed into Old English, which is the language of Alfred the Great and the author of Beowulf.Why, then, do so many modern English words come from Latin? In 1066, William the Conqueror and his Norman troops conquered Britain to claim the throne. One major consequence of this event, known as the Norman Conquest, was the introduction of Norman French (a Romance language) into Old English. Eventually a more standardized Middle English that included both Germanic and Romance words developed, and, around 1500, modern English emerged. In addition to the Latinate words borrowed from Norman French, many new Latinate terms entered English during the Renaissance, when there was a revival of interest in classical languages. During the development of modern English, Britain was a trilingual country, with Norman French (the language of the aristocracy), Latin (the language of education), and Old/Middle English (the language of the common people) existing side by side. In some ways, this distinction between more erudite language versus common language holds true in modern English. It is often the case that when we have multiple ways of expressing an idea in modern English, the more polished or formal term is a Latin-derived word, while the less formal term is a Germanic-derived word. For instance, a person could refer to their belly (Germanic) or to their abdomen (Latinate); one could ask (Germanic) or inquire (Latinate). Most four-letter curse words in English derive from Germanic languages.https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/09/15/history-of-english-part-1/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romance-languageshttps://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/09/20/history-of-english-part-2/https://www.csun.edu/science/ref/language/german-latin-english.htmlhttps://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/English-language/109779Wheelock, Frederic M. Richard A. LaFleur, ed. Wheelock's Latin. New York: HarperCollins, 1995. pp. xxvi-xxviii.


In my understanding, English is not a Romance language because it did not originate with a Romance language. Rather, Latin influence has snuck into the English language over time, displacing some of its more Germanic words. This would be similar to finding a boat, putting it on a trailer, and calling it a wagon. It certainly can be attached to a horse or driven around, but that does not make it a wagon; it is still a boat.
An easy way to visualize this is by trying to learn a Romance language. You will find the very way a Romance language works grammatically is completely different from English. In the same way, German or Swedish will make more sense to your brain. Often, translating can be as simple as swapping English words in a sentence with their German equivalents.
In the end, the vocabulary of a language is secondary to the organization of the language.

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