Editing Loanword (section)

===Romance languages===
A large percentage of the lexicon of [[Romance languages]], themselves descended from [[Vulgar Latin]], consists of loanwords (later [[wikt:learned borrowing|learned or scholarly borrowings]]) from Latin. These words can be distinguished by lack of typical sound changes and other transformations found in descended words, or by meanings taken directly from [[Classical Latin|Classical]] or [[Ecclesiastical Latin]] that did not evolve or change over time as expected; in addition, there are also semi-learned terms which were adapted partially to the Romance language's character. Latin borrowings can be known by several names in Romance languages: in French, for example, they are usually referred to as {{Lang|fr|mots savants}}, in Spanish as {{Lang|es|cultismos}},<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aliso.pntic.mec.es/agalle17/latin/verba/definiciones.pdf|title=Definiciones de Cultismo, Semicultismo y Palabra Patrimonial|author=Ángel Luis Gallego Real}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FtxywY_6g4UC&q=semi+cultismos&pg=PA150|title=The Romance Languages|first=Rebecca|last=Posner|date=5 September 1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9780521281393}}</ref> and in Italian as {{Lang|it|latinismi}}.

Latin is usually the most common source of loanwords in these languages, such as in Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, etc.,<ref>{{cite journal|title=On the Genealogical Structure of the Spanish Vocabulary|first=William T.|last=Patterson|date=1 January 1968|journal=Word|volume=24|issue=1–3|pages=309–339|doi=10.1080/00437956.1968.11435535|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="ulaval.ca">{{cite web|url=http://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/francophonie/HIST_FR_s92_Emprunts.htm#3._Lapport_des_langues_anciennes_au_fran%C3%A7ais_|title=Chjapitre 10: Histoire du français - Les emprunts et la langue française|website=axl.cefan.ulaval.ca}}</ref> and in some cases the total number of loans may even outnumber inherited terms<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/|title=Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales|website=cnrtl.fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/157203089/Diccionario-Critico-Etimologico-castellano-A-CA-Corominas-Joan-pdf |title=Diccionario Critico Etimologico castellano A-CA - Corominas, Joan.PDF |access-date=2 October 2018 |archive-date=29 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729050841/https://www.scribd.com/document/157203089/Diccionario-Critico-Etimologico-castellano-A-CA-Corominas-Joan-pdf }}</ref> (although the learned borrowings are less often used in common speech, with the most common vocabulary being of inherited, orally transmitted origin from Vulgar Latin). This has led to many cases of etymological [[Doublet (linguistics)|doublets]] in these languages.

For most Romance languages, these loans were initiated by scholars, clergy, or other learned people and occurred in medieval times, peaking in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance era<ref name="ulaval.ca"/>- in Italian, the 14th century had the highest number of loans.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}} In the case of Romanian, the language underwent a "re-Latinization" process later than the others (see [[Romanian lexis]], {{section link|Romanian language|French, Italian, and English loanwords}}), in the 18th and 19th centuries, partially using French and Italian words (many of these themselves being earlier borrowings from Latin) as intermediaries,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dex.ro/|title=dex.ro - Dicţionarul explicativ al limbii române|website=dex.ro}}</ref> in an effort to modernize the language, often adding concepts that did not exist until then, or replacing words of other origins. These common borrowings and features also essentially serve to raise mutual intelligibility of the Romance languages, particularly in academic/scholarly, literary, technical, and scientific domains. Many of these same words are also found in English (through its numerous borrowings from Latin and French) and other European languages.

In addition to Latin loanwords, many words of Ancient Greek origin were also borrowed into Romance languages, often in part through scholarly Latin intermediates, and these also often pertained to academic, scientific, literary, and technical topics. Furthermore, to a lesser extent, Romance languages borrowed from a variety of other languages; in particular English has become an important source in more recent times. The study of the origin of these words and their function and context within the language can illuminate some important aspects and characteristics of the language, and it can reveal insights on the phenomenon of lexical borrowing in linguistics as a method of enriching a language.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/cntmng?pid=rlr-001:1969:33::530|title=Loan-words and lexical borrowing in Romance|author=K.A. Goddard|journal=Revue de linguistique romane|year=1969}}</ref>