By Melvyn Bragg

翻译：T Boy

英语多元化进行时

By Melvyn Bragg

翻译：T Boy

English Continues to1)Embrace Variety and Change

Pure English? It never existed. 还记得前面的这句话吗？借助全球化的东风和互联网的飞速发展，英语不仅无处不在，而且演绎出无数版本，Franglais、Chinglish、Singlish只不过是其中的几种。你爱也好，恨也罢，它还将一如既往地朝着大融合的方向往前冲！

美式发音 适合精听

语速：160词/分钟

In Germany, a movement has been started to hold back words for which there’s already a German2)equivalent, though, when it’s a choice between “3)pesticide” and unkrautvernichtungsmittel, the smart money is on the import.

But this opposition is nothing compared to France, where the tide of4)franglais was seen as a national threat.

Just as we took in thousands of French words in the Middle Ages, French speakers and writers today are taking on thousands of English and American expressions. So many English words made their way to France that it became clear that something had to be done, and in 1994, the French government passed a law5)prohibiting the use of English words where good French equivalents existed, on pain of a6)hefty fine.

But the most recent edition of the Académie française dictionary注did admit about 6,000 new words to the French language, including, for the first time, a number of franglais words and expressions. But most of them are from the 1950s, such as le cover girl, le bestseller, and le blue jeans. Most of those in everyday use, from le weekend to le zoom, were7)excluded.

It’s not just the old English-French8)rivalry. Norway and Brazil have recently adopted similar9)measures to keep English out.

As English spreads around the globe, it has developed rich,10)vernacular varieties.

English has been spoken in Singapore since the early 19th century, but after independence from Britain in 1958, Singapore went a step further and English was made the official language of business and government. Besides its ability to unite an11)ethnically diverse population of Chinese, Malays, and Indians, the economic potential of English was12)paramount. At school, children learn their own first language, but they must all learn English. An13)elite minority language has become the14)property of the whole population.

But the day-to-day English that the people of Singapore actually speak is a15)far cry from the official English that the government wants them to learn. It’s a16)vibrant, expressive dialect17)nicknamed“Singlish,” full of vocabulary, grammar,and18)inflections borrowed from the Singaporeans’ native languages.

And this may be the19)irony of the global spread of English. The more widely it’s spoken, the more it may fracture into local dialects, which will become increasingly20)mutually21)unintelligible. People will make English their own and, in doing so, will make it something else.

This has happened before to Latin, which broke into French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian. But English has always embraced variety and change, and it still does.

1) embrace [ɪm'breɪs] v. 拥抱，接受

2) equivalent [ɪ'kwɪvələnt] n. 同等物

3) pesticide ['pestɪsaɪd] n. 杀虫剂

4) franglais ['frɑgleɪ] n. <法>英语式法语，法语中的英语外来词

5) prohibit [prə'hɪbɪt] v. 禁止，不准

6) hefty ['heftɪ] adj. 重的

7) exclude [ɪk'skluːd] v. 拒绝，排斥

8) rivalry ['raɪvəlrɪ] n. 对抗，竞争

9) measure ['meʒə(r)] n. 措施，办法

10) vernacular [və'nækjʊlə(r)] adj. 本国的，本地的

11) ethnically ['eθnɪkəlɪ] adv. 种族上

12) paramount ['pærəmaʊnt] adj. 最重要的，至上的

13) elite [eɪ'liːt] adj. 精英的

14) property ['prɒpətɪ] n. 财产，财富

针对这些不可避免的自然因素对档案的影响，就要建立起以预防为主，修缮为辅的档案保护模式，应建立起专门的档案库房馆并使用相关的合理设备。该馆的温度、湿度等都要符合档案的保存条件，而且该馆在建造时，应采用节能、环保的材料，要重点注意库房的防火、防水，防空气污染、防有害生物等情况，从而建立一个良好的档案保存环境。对电子档案来说，要以预防信息泄露和保障信息安全为主，建立起覆盖各层次的网络环境。同时，要对毁坏性的档案进行修补，包括档案去污和对档案馆进行驱虫灭菌等，合理的档案预防和修补技术能有效保护档案的安全。

15) far cry 天壤之别，大相径庭

16) vibrant ['vaɪbrənt] adj. 生气勃勃的

17) nickname ['nɪkneɪm] v. 起……绰号

18) infection [ɪn'flekʃ(ə)n] n. 音调，音调变化

19) irony ['aɪərənɪ] n. 讽刺

20) mutually ['mjuːtʃʊəlɪ] adv. 互相地

21) unintelligible [ʌnɪn'telɪdʒɪb(ə)l] adj. 不可理解的，难以理解的

CY百科

◆ Académie française 法兰西学术院：成立于1635年，由四十名院士组成，是一个历史悠久的法语权威机构。作为法兰西学会下属的五个学术院之一，其主要任务是规范法国语言，保护各种艺术。