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Latinate versus Germanic Diction. English is an unusual language in that it derives from two main language families, Latinate and Germanic. There was a later influx of Scandinavian words when the Vikings arrived, but the Scandinavian languages are also Germanic, so English remained fundamentally Germanic. Words of Germanic origin tend to be shorter, more direct, more blunt, while Latinate words tend to be polysyllabic, and are often associated with higher and scientific diction . An extensively Latinate vocabulary, on the contrary, suggests a more elevated level of diction.