Consider a man being helped along the street by his friends. He's stumbling, often falling over, unable to keep going in a straight line. A police officer walks up and asks them what's wrong.
Scenario 1: his friends say "He's drunk off his ass."
Scenario 2: his friends say "He has imbibed intoxicating beverages to excess."
To many native English speakers, if you presented those two as skits, they'd find the second one much funnier. And the reason would be the use of "high-class" vocabulary in a decidedly low-class situation (a drunk stumbling along the street).
Now consider the English word hydrogen. And then consider the German word Wasserstoff. Native English speakers sometimes find the German word funny -- it sounds just like "water stuff"! But they don't reflect on the fact that "hydrogen" means essentially the same thing when you look at the Greek roots.
This happens because words with Germanic roots are often "low-class" in modern English, while words with obvious Greek and Latin roots are high-class. And that... is because modern English developed after the (Romance-language-speaking) Normans took over England from the (Germanic-language-speaking) Anglo-Saxons. The vocabulary of the Normans, since they were the ruling class, is prestigious in modern English, while the vocabulary of their Anglo-Saxon subjects isn't.
Consider a man being helped along the street by his friends. He's stumbling, often falling over, unable to keep going in a straight line. A police officer walks up and asks them what's wrong.
Scenario 1: his friends say "He's drunk off his ass."
Scenario 2: his friends say "He has imbibed intoxicating beverages to excess."
To many native English speakers, if you presented those two as skits, they'd find the second one much funnier. And the reason would be the use of "high-class" vocabulary in a decidedly low-class situation (a drunk stumbling along the street).
Now consider the English word hydrogen. And then consider the German word Wasserstoff. Native English speakers sometimes find the German word funny -- it sounds just like "water stuff"! But they don't reflect on the fact that "hydrogen" means essentially the same thing when you look at the Greek roots.
This happens because words with Germanic roots are often "low-class" in modern English, while words with obvious Greek and Latin roots are high-class. And that... is because modern English developed after the (Romance-language-speaking) Normans took over England from the (Germanic-language-speaking) Anglo-Saxons. The vocabulary of the Normans, since they were the ruling class, is prestigious in modern English, while the vocabulary of their Anglo-Saxon subjects isn't.
And guess what language family Icelandic is in?