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THE PROBLEM OF INTEGRATING LATIN TERMS
INTO MEDICAL ENGLISH IN TEACHING AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Sharipova Feruza Ibragimovna
Tashkent Pediatric Medical Institute, teacher
Annotation:
The article explores that Latin terms are integrated into the medical English language
system in all linguistic levels (orthography, phonology, morphology, and semantics). It is revealed
that among all types of linguistic adoptions the largest part is made up of Anatomy of human div.
The inclusion of Latin terms in the morphology of nouns, first of all in the gender, in the formation
of the plural and in the form of the object case, as well as in the pronunciation of phonemes is
considered.
Examples of the transition of words from Latin into English at the level of phonetics, morphology
and semantics are given. It is emphasized that Latin loans make an important contribution to the
enrichment of medical English.
The author concludes that in English as a foreign language classes the teacher is faced with the task
of finding the most effective and productive method of studying medical English language by
recognizing and understanding of Latin borrowings.
Key words:
Latin language, clinic vocabulary, English as foreign language, adoptions.
INTRODUCTION
In the realis of the globalization processes in the world, a knowledge and practical skills of English
language becomes an important vital necessity. The students and teachers of high schools of non-
lingual specialty must constantly monitor the development of English language for specific purposes
and look for ways to study professional English language material within the educational program
and at the same time turn the learning process into exciting and interesting one. "One of the better
understanding of the modern English language and a whole surfing in the world of
internationalization is the active use of adopted lexemes by native speakers" [2, p. 193]. There we
would like to note that the vocabulary of the English language includes many Latin adopted lexemes
in almost every sphere of everyday life of the human being. The functions of origin of Latin terms,
variability, brevity and expressiveness undoubtedly make to appear misunderstanding in learning
English for specific purposes, but also we may meet these problems in many other languages. "The
origin of the most Indo-European language, as a rule, is occurred by the borrowings of Latin
language" [3, p. 169]. The Latin terms are integrated into the English language system at different
levels. Assimilation of Latin terms is manifested to varying degrees - from partial to complete - in
spelling, phonology, morphology and semantics.
It is necessary to take into account the fact that for the most students of high medical schools, in
particularly Tashkent Pediatric Medical Institute, English as a foreign language the problem of
integrating Latin terms can cause certain difficulties. Understanding the peculiarities of perception
of Latin words allows the teacher to avoid difficulties that arise during teaching and to create
comfortable conditions for achieving higher results, taking into account the individual needs of
students.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
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The problem of integrating Latin adoptions into the English language for specific purposes (medical
English) seems to be important and relevant. It has been studied by many local and foreign scientists.
For example, Karen Korning Zethsen [4, p. 125] believes that most Latin adoptions are not
integrated into the spelling system. They generally retain their original Latin spelling, and only a
few of them correspond to English spelling. Students should be reminded of the spelling of Latin
adoptions. One of the most notable features here is that all nouns without exception have article a or
an, the: the div, a heart, an oral cavity, the brain, a human being, an eye. It often happens that
Latin adoptions has lacking articles with the, a, an are written without them, for example: atrium-
atria, spasmos-spasmus, alveolus-alvioli. Some of them have both forms: abdomen/abdominal
cavity, ligamentum/ligament, musculus/muscle, nervus/nerve. But some Latin adoptions, such as
vertebra, diagnosis, fascia, biceps are written in English without any differences, while many in
Latin
spelling are written only with specific endings, for example: temporalis/temporal,
communis/common,
region/region, facies/face,
homo/human, labium/lip,
nasus/nose,
solution/solutio, tractus/tract, valva/valve, lingua/language. In most borrowings using the one-word
combination of the Latin spelling prevails: costa-costae (rib/ribs); vertebra-vertebrae or two-word
combination – corpus vertebrae (div of vertebra); corpora vertebrarum (bodies of vertebra).
Check-in, only in some of them we may find three-word combination: ligamentum tuber cidi costae
(ligament of tubercle of rib); processus articularis superior (superior articular process).
Research shows that Latin adoptions are characterized by different ways of spelling. Usually, some
Latin adoptions in English divide a word into its syllable: periton
aeu
m, peronaeus, ligamenturn. As
for the stressing of compound words, there are no strict rules. Many medical lexis are spelles as one
word: glycyrrhyza, mandibular, costa fluctuans, vertebra thoracica, columna vertebralis, processus
articularis superior, tuberculum anterius, incisurae costales, ligamentum capitis costae, articulatio
capitis costae, spatia intercostalia, apertura thoracis superior, angulus infrasternalis, others - as two
words separated: medulla ossium (bone marrow), arcus vertebrae (vertebral arch), membrum
inferius (leg), epigastrium (part of abdomen immediately over stomach), processus transversus
(transverse process), substantia compacta (thick substance), palpebra superior (upper eyelid), corpus
maxillae (div of upper jaw), quadruplex (fourfold), facies poplitea (popliteal surface), ductus
choledochus (bile duct). A large number of Latin adoptions has two basic forms: Nominativus and
Genetivus, depending of suffixes (- ae - i - is - us – ei ): cancer, cancri; medicamentum,
medicamenti; auris, auris; abortus, abortus; articulatio, articulationis; lingua, linguae.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
It should be noted that in medical high schools the study of Latin adoptions in English classes are
subdivided
into thematic groups
(medical and academic), as a rule, fit better into English lexicology
than newer ones (cancer, medicamentum, auris, abortus, articulatio, lingua). In phonology, the
integration of Latin adoptions is determined by the degree of similarity and differences in the
phonemic system of the two languages. A few vowel combinations, called diphthongs, are read as
one letter.
Latin Diphthong
Pronunciation
ae
e (red)
au
ow (how)
ei
ey (they)
eu
eu (leucocyte)
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If over the “e” in diphthong “ae” or “oe” we may define this phenomena as puncta diaeresis –
points of separate, eg. word aër (air), we read letters separately. For ex. hemispherium, ichthyismus,
thrombus, scarlatina, angulus, olfactus.
It follows that the pronunciation of Latin adoptions may differ from the pronunciation of the English
source word. As a rule, Latin adopstions are pronounced in English according to the rules of English
phonetics, taking into account the features of the English language, that is, Latin terms are adapted
to the English language, but are pronounced as close as possible to the English language. "At
present, thanks to language contacts and interaction of languages, lexical systems are enriched with
new words and expressions through the process of borrowing" [1, p. 310]. An analysis of the
materials of the Medical Case Reports, organized by Y. V. Lysanets [5, p. 3], shows that among all
types of adotptions, nouns make up the largest share - 86.12%. Verbs and adjectives follow by a
large margin in second and third place - 5.64% and 5.49%, respectively.
As for the integration of nouns, the most important role in this is played by gender, plural formation
and the genitive case form. In Latin as in English, gender has significance from the point of
grammar. It should be emphasized that Latin borrowed word must necessarily be attributed to one of
the three genders. The gender of Latin adoptions used to designate a person of the female or male
gender usually corresponds to the natural gender of a person, for example: rabies, rabiei; sutura,
suturae; causa, causae; medicus, medici; cellula, cellulae; os, ossis, etc.
In addition, lexical analogy also sometimes affects gender, that is, the gender of Latin adoptions is
determined by the grammatical gender of their closest English lexical equivalent, one might say,
takes the gender of the "translation". For example, the noun amica, amicae is feminine by analogy
with girlfriend . Or other examples:
chole, choles – bile
systole, systoles – contraction of heart
phlegmone, phlegmones – phlegmon. There is a hidden semantic analogy in compound Latin
adoptions. In Latin language, the gender of compound nouns is determined by the last word. For ex.:
noun +
pronoun, preposition + pronoun, adverbial
constructions, noun + noun in genitive case, noun
+ participle in genitive case, and verb + adverb
But due to semantic relationships, which at first glance are not always unambiguous, a compound
word can receive thematic meanings such as physiological or anatomical descriptions. An example
of this is noun +noun in genitive case: caput Medusae os (“the radiating appearance of the
superficial epigastric veins”;
Another example is noun + adjective + adjective: musculus rectus abdominis (“abdominal rectus
muscle”).
It is interesting, in our opinion, in this context, it is necessary to remark that pluralizing compound
Latin terms can sometimes be quite a challenge. Rein K. called this phenomenon "group analogy"
[6, p. 730]. For example, all nouns haemoptoë, haemoptoës – bloody sputum; acne, acnes – acne;
syncope, syncopes – faintingare masculine, because the singular form has suffix “e”. In addition,
the number of syllables can also influence gender. Monosyllabic borrowings are almost always
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masculine. They very rarely take the feminine or neuter gender. For example, allergia, allergiae –
allergy; anaemia, anaemiae – anaemia; angina, anginae – angina etc. are masculine.
Exceptions are: gonorrhoë, gonorrhoës – gonorrhoe; diastole, diastoles – diastole are neutral.
According to Greta Franzini [8, p. 199], that successful teaching of medical English language
depends on etymology and lexis of Latin adoptions, that brings element of practicality in
enrollments of high schools. For example, the Latin derivatives such as –alis in the Muscle system:
frontalis (straight), medialis (toward midline), lateralis (along midline) means location of muscles.
The muscle size has the following derivative - sus in the muscle names: maximus (large), medius
(medium), minimus (small). The grammar rules in Latin adoptions in the English language we may
notice in the derivative -io- that reveals the Perfect Participle – action, mission, vision and etc.
The phonetics differences in the following examples is a consequence of the declension nature of
the noun, here the third one.
Monosyllable that has same syllables in both genders, Neutral and Genetivus, for ex. animal
(Nom.), animalis (Gen.) - animal.
dosis (Nom.), dosis (Gen.) - dose
canalis (Nom.), canalis (Gen.) - canal
The Neutral gender means a Nominativus, for ex. exemplar – example. When you want to describe
an inflammation of some organ , you can use the following structure of Latin adoption:
inflammatio + name of organ in Gen.
example: inflammatio renum [inflammation of kidneys]
The differences in gender do not represent any special lexical meanings. It is known that the plural
of nouns is usually formed in English with the suffixes -s or -es. Most Latin adoptions also retain the
plural form with -a when transferred to English. Perhaps the plural was borrowed together with the
Latin word: hospitalii – hospitals; membri – extremities, remedii – drugs, cerebri – brains, labii –
lips, septi – dividing walls and etc. On the other hand, the following is interesting: if an Latin
adoption ends in - ulon, uli, the noun gets -a: ulon, uli – a gingiva or encephalon, encephali – brain
without changing the last -y to -i before -es.
An example of the formation of the plural of Latin adoptions is the zero ending: diabetes, ascitae,
allergiae, anaemiae and etc. These are, as a rule, nouns that end in -er. Some Latin adoptions form
the plural with the suffix -e, for example: morbilli, morbillorum (only in Plural) – measles or
viscera –viscera, - orum (only in Plural), etc.
It should be noted that in English there is only one case, the genitive, in which not only the article,
but also the noun of the masculine and neuter gender receives the ending -i or -ii. Consequently, one
can expect that nouns of the Latin adoptions of the masculine and neuter gender will be used in the
genitive case in the same way, for example: magister, magistri – teacher, cancer, cancri – cancer,
liber,libri – book and etc.
It should be noted that the integration of Latin adoptions is also noticeable in adjectives. According
to German grammar, adjectives borrowed from Latin have three suffixes (in Nom.Sing.), one to
each gender: celeber famous (he); celebris famous (she); (neuter): celebre famous (it).
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As a result, a large number of adjectives with a neoclassical root are formed:
acer, acris, acre [acute]
centralis, centrale [central]
desinficiens, desinficientis [disinfecting]
The Latin adoptions in the writing of medical diagnosis follow the rules of medical structure, for
example: hepatitis, morbilli that means the aetiology of the disease is hepatitis. They include Latin
adoptions in the writing of medical diagnosis with etiopathogenesis, for example: syndroma
fragilitatis ossium hereditariae (fragility of bones’ hereditary syndrome).
Thus, they conjugate according to the medical terms and lexis rules and anatomical location, for
example: syndroma arteriae cerebri arterioris (anterior cerebral artery syndrome).
Latin adoptions in the structure of medical diagnosis show a higher degree of integration of both
languages in the medical context. Most Latin terms, such as morbus, morbi (disease) or syndroma,
syndromae (syndrome) take the place in every medical case of the patient in hospital or clinic.
Interestingly, there are additional parts of medical diagnosis:
* stadium morbi (stage of disease)
* forma morbi (form of disease)
*consecutiones et complicationes morbi primarii (consequences and complications of primary
disease)
* nomina morborum synchronicorum (name of concomitant disease)
There is an example of medical diagnosis:
nomen
sedes
causa
stadium
forma
consecutio:
morbus
synchronicus
Angina
pectoris
ex
ischaemia
cordis
paroxysmalis sub
forma
anginae
nocturnae
cum
insufficientia
acuta coronaria
In English: Angina pectoris paroxysmal due to cardiac ischaemia in the form of nocturnal angina
with acute coronary failure.
When considering Latin adoptions in the semantic aspect, we note that most of them have only one
meaning corresponding to the English meaning, for example, the Latin word
angina
and the
English
angina
. In addition to unambiguous words, many Latin adoptions have several meanings in
the language of their origin, that is, they are polysemantic. Often, only part of the general meaning is
transferred to English, and the meaning of Latin adoptions is limited in comparison with the Latin
original words [9, p. 146]. For example, names of specialists with feminine suffixes are of
masculine gender, for example: oculista, oculistae [ophthalmologist] dentista, dentistae [dentist]
In addition, in some cases the meaning of a word can be narrowed. Consider, for example, the word
corpus. In English, city means "a div", while in Latin it means “ the structure or the whole" and
students my use such derivatives of this Latin adoption as corporal, corporeal, corpulent, corpuscle
or incorporate. Or another example: the Latin term “genu”, which in English means to gender. But
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in English examples general, generic, generous, generation we may use in various context of class
activities.
CONCLUSION AND AKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thus, we can conclude that Latin adoptions have merged into the English language and thus make
an important contribution to the academic orientation of the medical English language. Therefore,
the teacher of English in medical high schools is faced with the task of finding the most effective
and productive method of studying Latin adoptions in English for specific purposes, which students
encounter in classes on English as a foreign language.
The findings of this study highlight several important directions for future research. One, the use of
Latin adoptions in learning medical English, specifically teaching modules and feedback in analysis
of patient’s cards, was effective in increasing motivation of medical students. Future studies can
examine the use of this approach to teach empirically supported practices in other areas of English
language for specific purposes.
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