As with Arjun’s reply, this is harder than you might think (though you got closer). In particular you only messed up the etymology once, but your translation is more lossy in meaning.
throw away the words of the high born from other lands who put on airs
This has a direct class and affectation critique of using Latinate words which wasn’t in the original, or is at most implied (a “folk from other lands” might just speak their natural tongue).
A good speaker knows their words well, and can pick the ones that work for the folk they wish to speak to
“Words that work” can imply persuasion or other reasons to select specific words, whereas the original quote was just about fluency.
And if they cannot tell, let them pick the word that is more used instead of the “older” one.
I think “older” also implies different things than the anglo vs latin distinction. It also contradicts the implicit message of your quote more (since phrases like “old saw” invokes an older/more antiquated vibe).
Separately I agree my rewrite was a bit too affected. I intentionally exaggerated it for humorous effect.
I did study middle english academically, but old english was only ever a recreational interest so my anglisc is not most meet. The reason for the implied class critique is that the initial burst of latinate loans come from historic french after the norman conquest. These basically displaced and reformed old english into middle english and were imposed by the conquerors after their victory, since the conquerors spoke french. In fact, english kings wrote declarations in french until at least 1258 https://archive.org/details/onlyenglishprocl00ellirich . This created an literal class distinction between the mostly french/latin speaking court and the mostly old/middle english speaking population etc. (I am sure you know this, just justifying my choice of phrase. See also that oft repeated factoid about cow/beef, chicken/poultry etc.). It also creates a clear chronology for when latinate versus germantic influences were dominant (old english is ofc influenced by norse and the danelaw).
Since then, latin/greek has been historically used as the international language for law, religion, science and medicine, hence even more jargon coming in or being coined as latinate words. “Use” is an interesting one, however! Still, I think you could edit mine to use the word “say” instead of “use” and it would basically still work.
[EDIT: I have since been informed that there has been a re-reestablishment of non-latinate words as proper upper class speech in the UK relatively recently. Also in general the Norman conquest was a long time ago and lots of intermixing happened, take what I say with some mixing function and noise added.]
As with Arjun’s reply, this is harder than you might think (though you got closer). In particular you only messed up the etymology once, but your translation is more lossy in meaning.
used etymology
This has a direct class and affectation critique of using Latinate words which wasn’t in the original, or is at most implied (a “folk from other lands” might just speak their natural tongue).
“Words that work” can imply persuasion or other reasons to select specific words, whereas the original quote was just about fluency.
I think “older” also implies different things than the anglo vs latin distinction. It also contradicts the implicit message of your quote more (since phrases like “old saw” invokes an older/more antiquated vibe).
Separately I agree my rewrite was a bit too affected. I intentionally exaggerated it for humorous effect.
I did study middle english academically, but old english was only ever a recreational interest so my anglisc is not most meet. The reason for the implied class critique is that the initial burst of latinate loans come from historic french after the norman conquest. These basically displaced and reformed old english into middle english and were imposed by the conquerors after their victory, since the conquerors spoke french. In fact, english kings wrote declarations in french until at least 1258 https://archive.org/details/onlyenglishprocl00ellirich . This created an literal class distinction between the mostly french/latin speaking court and the mostly old/middle english speaking population etc. (I am sure you know this, just justifying my choice of phrase. See also that oft repeated factoid about cow/beef, chicken/poultry etc.). It also creates a clear chronology for when latinate versus germantic influences were dominant (old english is ofc influenced by norse and the danelaw).
Since then, latin/greek has been historically used as the international language for law, religion, science and medicine, hence even more jargon coming in or being coined as latinate words. “Use” is an interesting one, however! Still, I think you could edit mine to use the word “say” instead of “use” and it would basically still work.
[EDIT: I have since been informed that there has been a re-reestablishment of non-latinate words as proper upper class speech in the UK relatively recently. Also in general the Norman conquest was a long time ago and lots of intermixing happened, take what I say with some mixing function and noise added.]