每天都在學,但你知道英語的起源嗎?

大家每天都在學英語，但你了解英語的發展歷史嗎？這個視頻向我們講解了當今的international language是如何發展來的。

I am going to start with a challenge. I want you to imagine each of these two scenes in as much detail as you can.

大家先來完成一個小任務：請儘可能詳細地勾勒出我所說的這兩個場景。

Scene number one: "They gave us a hearty welcome." Well, who are the people who are giving a hearty welcome? What are they wearing? What are they drinking? OK, scene two: "They gave us a cordial reception." How are these people standing? What expressions are on their faces? What are they wearing and drinking? Fix these pictures in your mind's eye and then jot down a sentence or two to describe them. We'll come back to them later.

場景一：「他們好客地招待了我們。」是些什麼樣的人在好客地招待客人？他們穿著什麼樣的衣服？喝的是什麼酒？場景二：「他們熱情接待了我們。」這些人的站姿如何？他們臉上都有什麼表情？穿的什麼衣服？喝的什麼酒？鎖定你腦海中出現的圖像，然後用一兩句話把它記下來，稍後我們再來討論。

Now on to our story. In the year 400 C.E. the Celts in Britain were ruled by Romans. This had one benefit for the Celts: the Romans protected them from the barbarian Saxon tribes of Northern Europe. But then the Roman Empire began to crumble, and the Romans withdrew from Britain.

現在進入正題。公元400年，不列顛島的凱爾特人正受羅馬人的統治，這對凱爾特人來說有一個好處：羅馬人可以幫他們抵擋北歐蠻族撒克遜人的侵犯。但當時羅馬帝國已開始衰落，而羅馬軍隊也最終撤出了不列顛島。

With the Romans gone, the Germanic tribes, the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians quickly sailed across the water, did away with the Celts, and formed kingdoms in the British Isles. For several centuries, these tribes lived in Britain, and their Germanic language, Anglo Saxon, became the common language, what we call Old English.

隨著羅馬人的離開，日耳曼部落的盎格魯人、撒克遜人、朱特人和弗裡斯蘭人快速地橫渡大海，徵服了凱爾特人，並在「不列顛諸島」上建立了多個王國。這些部落在不列顛島上共存了幾百年，而日耳曼語言——盎格魯撒克遜語，也變成當時的通用語，我們稱之為古英語。

Although modern English speakers may think Old English sounds like a different language, if you look and listen closely, you'll find many words that are recognizable. For example, here is what the Lord's Prayer looks like in Old English. At first glance, it may look unfamiliar,but update the spelling a bit, and you'll see many common English words.

雖然使用現代英語的人可能覺得古英語聽起來像另一種語言，但如果留心看、仔細聽，你能從中辨認出很多詞。比如，這裡有一份用古英語寫的主禱文，乍一看可能覺得很陌生，但稍微更新一下拼寫，你就能發現很多常見的英文單詞。

So the centuries passed with Britains happily speaking Old English, but in the 700's, a series of Viking invasions began, which continued until a treaty split the island in half. On one side were the Saxons. On the other side were the Danes who spoke a language called Old Norse. As Saxons fell in love with their cute Danish neighbors and marriages blurred the boundaries, Old Norse mixed with Old English, and many Old Norse words like freckle, leg, root, skin, and want are still a part of our language.

不列顛島上的人在幾百年裡都愉快地使用著古英語。公元700年，維京人發起系列入侵活動，直到達成協議把島分屬為兩部分，戰爭才結束。不列顛島一部分歸撒克遜人，另一部分歸丹麥人，丹麥人用的是古挪威語。撒克遜人愛上了他們可愛的丹麥鄰居，不斷的通婚讓邊界變得模糊，古諾斯語與古英語交匯。很多古諾斯語的詞語，比如freckle（斑點）、leg（腿）、root（根）、skin（皮膚）、want（想要）直到今天還在使用。

300 years later, in 1066, the Norman conquest brought war again to the British Isles. The Normans were Vikings who settled in France. They had abandoned the Viking language and culture in favor of a French lifestyle, but they still fought like Vikings. They placed a Norman king on the English throne and for three centuries, French was the language of the British royalty.

三百年後，在1066年，諾曼人再次在不列顛島引起戰爭。諾曼人是在法國定居的維京人，他們已不再使用維京人的語言，也撇棄了維京人的文化，而是採用了法國的生活方式，但還是像維京人那麼好戰。他們在英國的王座上安置了一個諾曼人，在接下來的三百年間，法語成為英國的皇室語言。

Society in Britain came to have two levels: French-speaking aristocracy and Old English-speaking peasants. The French also brought many Roman Catholic clergymen with them who added Latin words to the mix.

英國社會分成兩個等級：講法語的貴族階級、講古英語的農民階級。法國人還帶去很多羅馬天主教教士，這為英語注入不少拉丁詞彙。

Old English adapted and grew as thousands of words flowed in, many having to do with government, law, and aristocracy. Words like council, marriage, sovereign, govern, damage, and parliament.

古英語不斷演變和發展，吸收了成千上萬的外來詞，很多涉及政府、法律和貴族階級，比如council（委員會）、marriage（婚姻）、sovereign（君主）、govern（統治）、damage（損害）、parliament（議會）等等。

As the language expanded, English speakers quickly realized what to do if they wanted to sound sophisticated: they would use words that had come from French or Latin. Anglo Saxon words seemed so plain like the Anglo Saxon peasants who spoke them.

隨著英語的不斷發展，講英語的人很快意識到，要想讓自己聽起來深奧優雅，就要使用源自法語和拉丁語的詞彙。盎格魯撒克遜的詞彙太單調，聽起來就像那些盎格魯撒克遜農夫。

Let's go back to the two sentences you thought about earlier. When you pictured the hearty welcome, did you see an earthy scene with relatives hugging and talking loudly? Were they drinking beer? Were they wearing lumberjack shirts and jeans? And what about the cordial reception?

下面回到一開始讓你考慮的那兩個句子。當你勾勒「hearty welcome」（熱情好客）的畫面時，是否看到了親人互相擁抱、開懷暢聊的淳樸場景？他們喝的是啤酒嗎？他們穿的是伐木工格子襯衫和牛仔褲嗎？那「cordial reception」（熱情接待）又是怎樣的畫面呢？

I bet you pictured a far more classy and refined crowd. Blazers and skirts, wine and caviar. Why is this? How is it that phrases that are considered just about synonymous by the dictionary can evoke such different pictures and feelings? "Hearty" and "welcome" are both Saxon words. "Cordial" and "reception" come from French. The connotation of nobility and authority has persisted around words of French origin. And the connotation of peasantry, real people, salt of the Earth, has persisted around Saxon words.

我敢說你會想到一些時尚、優雅的人，西裝革履、曼妙裙裝，喝著紅酒，吃著魚子醬。為什麼會這樣呢？為什麼明明在字典裡是同義詞，卻能喚起如此不同的畫面和感覺？「hearty」和「welcome"都是撒克遜詞彙，「cordial」和「reception」則來自法語。源自法語的詞彙保留了最初的貴族階級和權威的涵義，而農民階級、真情實感、社會中堅等涵義則保存在撒克遜詞彙中。

Even if you never heard this history before, the memory of it persists in the feelings evoked by the words you speak. On some level, it's a story you already knew because whether we realize it consciously or only subconsciously, our history lives in the words we speak and hear.

即使之前你不了解這段歷史，但歷史的記憶從未消失，它就存在於不同詞彙所喚起的感覺裡。其實從某種角度說，你早就了解這段歷史，因為不管我們是有意識地，還是無意識地體會到，歷史就存在於我們所講所聽的詞彙裡。

END