TED-ED簡介：當我們談到英語，我們常常想到它是一種語言，但是那些遍布世界各國不同的方言呢？它們彼此間有什麼相似之處？追溯現代英語的源頭。來看今天的TEDed視頻：
動畫視頻
中英對照翻譯稿
When we talk about English, we of ten thinkof it as a single language but what do the dialects spoken in dozens of countries around the world have in common with each other, or with the writings of Chaucer?
當我們談到英語，我們常常想到它是一種語言，但是那些遍布世界各國不同的方言呢？它們彼此間有什麼相似之處？或者說和喬叟（英國詩人）筆下的詩句有什麼相似之處呢？
And how are any of them related to the strange words in Beowulf? The answer is that like most languages, English has evolved through generations of speakers, undergoing major changes over time. By undoing these changes, we can trace the language from the present day back to its ancient roots.
它們和《貝奧武夫》（一部古英語史詩）裡讓人看不懂的單詞又有什麼共同之處呢？答案就是英語和大多數語言一樣，在數代運用這門語言的人中進化。隨著時間的流逝經歷了重大的改變，如果還原這些變化，我們可以將現代英語追溯到它古老的源頭。
While modern English shares many similar words with Latin-derived romance languages, like French and Spanish, most of those words were not originally part of it. Instead, they started coming into the language with the Norman invasion of England in 1066.
雖然現代英語和源於拉丁語的羅曼斯語，比如法語和西班牙語，有很多單詞是相似的，但是這其中絕大部分的單詞起初並不屬於英語，而是在1066年諾曼入侵英格蘭時開始變為英語的。
When the French-speaking Normans conquered England and became its ruling class, they brought their speech with them, adding a massive amount of French and Latin vocabulary to the English language previously spoken there. Today, we call that language Old English. This is the language of Beowulf.
當說法語的諾曼人徵服英格蘭、成為那裡的統治階級時，他們的語言也深深影響了英格蘭，為英格蘭當地的本土英語增添了大量法語和拉丁語詞彙。現如今，我們稱那時的英語為「古英語」，《貝奧武夫》就是用這種古英語寫成的。
It probably doesn't look very familiar, but it might be more recognizable if you know some German. That's because Old English belongs to the Germanic language family, first brought to the British Isles in the 5th and 6th centuries by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The Germanic dialects they spoke would become known as Anglo-Saxon.
古英語也許讓人看起來覺得陌生，但如果你懂一些德語，就會更加容易辨認它了，這是因為古英語屬於德語的日耳曼語系，起初是在5世紀和6世紀被盎格魯人，薩克遜人和朱特人帶入不列顛群島。他們所講的日耳曼方言就是我們今天所知道的盎格魯撒克遜方言。
Viking invaders in the 8th to 11thcenturies added more borrowings from Old Norse into the mix. It may be hard to see the roots of modern English underneath all the words borrowed from French, Latin, Old Norse and other languages.
8世紀到11世紀時的維京入侵者又將更多古諾爾斯語加入到了英語之中。因為有太多從法語、拉丁語、古諾爾斯語和其他語言中借來的詞彙，所以也許很難從中找出現代英語的源頭。
But comparative linguistics can help us by focusing on grammatical structure, patterns of sound changes, and certain core vocabulary. For example, after the 6th century, German words starting with "p," systematically shifted to a "pf" sound while their Old English counterparts kept the "p" unchanged.
但比較語言學可以通過專注於語法結構、聲音變化的模式以及某些核心詞彙來幫助我們找出源頭。例如說，在6世紀之後，德語中以「p」開頭的單詞的發音全都系統地轉換成了「pf」而與之相對應的古英語卻沒有發生變化。
In another split, words that have "sk" sounds in Swedish developed an "sh" sound in English. There are still some English words with "sk," like "skirt," and "skull," but they're direct borrowings from Old Norse that came after the "sk" to "sh" shift.
在其他方面，那些具有「sk」發音的瑞典語詞彙在英語中變成了「sh」的發音。英語詞彙中還是有很多單詞具有「sk」發音，比如「裙子」（skirt）和「頭骨」（skull），但是它們是從古諾爾斯語中直接借鑑來的，這種借鑑發生的時間在從「sk」到「sh」的轉換之後。
These examples show us that just as the various Romance languages descended from Latin, English, Swedish, German, and many other languages descended from their own common ancestor known as Proto-Germanic spoken around 500 B.C.E.Because this historical language was never written down, we can only reconstruct it by comparing its descendants, which is possible thanks to the consistency of the changes.
這些例子告訴我們，正如很多羅曼斯語言來源於拉丁語，英語、瑞典語、德語以及很多其他語言都來源於它們共同的祖先「古日耳曼語」。這種語言在公元前500年被廣泛使用，由於這種歷史古老的語言從未被轉化成文字，我們只能通過比較它的衍生語言來重建它，而這可能要歸功於這些衍生語言變化的一致性。
We can even use the same process to go back one step further, and tracethe origins ofProto-Germanic to a language called Proto-Indo-European, spoken about 6000 years ago on the Pontic steppe in modern day Ukraine and Russia. This is there constructed ancestor of the Indo-European family that includes nearly all languages historically spoken in Europe, as well as large parts of Southern and Western Asia.
我們甚至可以用同樣的辦法再往前跨一步，追溯到古日耳曼語來源於古印歐語。這種古印歐語來自6000年前的東歐大草原，也就是今天的烏克蘭和俄羅斯地區，這就是重建的印歐語系的祖先，囊括了歷史上歐洲以及西南亞很大一部分地區所出現的所有語言。
And though it requires a bit more work, we can find the same systematic similarities, or correspondences, between related words in different Indo-European branches. Comparing English with Latin, we see that English has "t" where Latin has "d", and "f" where lat in has "p" at the start of words. Some of English's more distant relatives include Hindi, Persian and the Celtic languages it displaced in what is now Britain.
儘管需要多費點兒功夫，我們仍從不同的印歐語系分支裡有關聯的詞彙中找到系統的相似或者一致之處。如果將英語和拉丁語相比較，我們會發現拉丁語中以「d」開頭的單詞在英語中卻以「t」開頭，拉丁語中以「p」開頭的單詞在英語中卻變成了「f」，而有些英語的「遠親」，包括北印度語以及波斯語，則被轉換成了現在的大不列顛英語。
Proto-Indo-European itself descended from an even more ancient language, but unfortunately, this is as far back as historical and archeological evidence will allow us to go. Many mysteries remain just out of reach, such as whether there might be a link between Indo-European and other major language families, and the nature of the languages spoken in Europe prior to its arrival.
古印歐語本身源於一種深知更加古老的語言，不幸的是，這種語言實在太古老，目前還沒有歷史和考古學證據能讓我們了解它，很多謎團都還無法被解開。比如印歐語系及其他語系會不會與在先於它們出現在歐洲的語言特性有某種關聯？
But the amazing fact remains that nearly 3 billion people around the world, many of whom cannot understand each other, are nevertheless speaking the same words shaped by 6000 years of history.
但這仍然改變不了一個令人不可思議的事實，那就是全世界近30億人，儘管他們中的一些人聽不懂彼此所說的語言，但他們卻說著歷經6000年歷史淬鍊的相同的詞彙。
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什麼是「TED-Ed」
TED- Ed是TED網站專為教師和學生提供高質量課程的頻道，簡短且屢獲殊榮的動畫視頻，旨在激發各地學習者的好奇心。每個TED-Ed動畫都是專家之間的創造性合作的產物。這些專家可能包括TED演講者和TED研究員，以及教育工作者、設計師、動畫師、編劇、導演、科學作家、歷史學家、記者和編輯。這些原創動畫視頻與問題和資源相結合，構成了TED-Ed。
很多教育者將TED-Ed視為最佳的教育視頻資源之一。這些視頻每個不超過10分鐘，題材新穎、腦洞清奇。
你也許會看到一些無釐頭的話題：「如何將熟雞蛋變生」，「為什麼番茄醬這麼難擠？」；又或許會看到一些有趣搞笑的話題「動物也會詐騙嗎？」，「為什麼有些人會禿頂？」；又或是一些神秘深奧的話題：「黑洞有可能被摧毀嗎？」，「你能解開穿越時空的謎題嗎？」。這些問題都會以一種科學的講解方式用動畫展現出來，短短幾分鐘，讓你收穫的不僅僅是英語的提升，還有知識層面的擴充。