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by jaclaz 2334 days ago
Only for the fun of it (actually recreation), your sentence (phrase), slightly modified, in English and its possible translation in current Italian:

> English represents a strange Romantic-Germanic hybrid (Germanic by linguistic classification but with a tremendous/predominant vocabulary of Romantic origin). A more appropriate comparison would be with respect to a French/Italian/Spanish bibliophile.

L'Inglese rappresenta uno strano ibrido Romantico-Germanico (Germanico come classificazione linguistica ma con un vocabolario tremendamente predominante di origine Romantica). Una più appropriata comparazione sarebbe rispetto ad un bibliofilo Francese/Italiano/Spagnolo.

I have noticed that (in my experience) when you use in English the Latin-originated synonyms of more commonly used English (possibly Germanic originated) words you are perceived as having a higher level of education (and also as being a tad bit snob).

1 comments

The Romance influence in English comes from the elites after the Norman conquest, which is why Latin-rooted forms are seen as more upper class (and, often, pretensious).