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Most people have heard of the Tower of Babel story in the Bible. According to this story, long ago all people spoke the same language. Later, however, they were punished by speaking a great number of different tongues. Today, there are literally thousands of different languages (defined as mutually unintelligible tongues) around the world, though many are related to one another. Indeed, the two largest language families, the Indo-European (the language family with the largest number of speakers) and Sino-Tibetan (containing the Chinese languages, Thai, Vietnamese, and Tibetan) include hundreds of languages with over half the world's population.
大多數(shù)的人都聽過圣經(jīng)中巴別塔的故事。故事稱很久以前，人們說的是同一種語言。但是，后來人們遭受懲罰，而開始說各種不同的語言。今天，全世界真是有好幾千種不同的語言（此處指的是彼此無法相通的語言），雖然其中語言彼此都有所關(guān)聯(lián)。的確，這兩個最大的語系，印歐語系（最多人使用的語系）和漢藏語系（包括華語、泰語、越語和西藏語），涵蓋了幾百種不同的語言，使用者也超過了全世界半數(shù)的人口。
Because there are so many languages within the above two super-categories of language families, linguists have further divided these linguistically rich and geographically diverse families into sub-groups, one of which, the Germanic language group, has the second-largest number of speakers (Chinese being first). Within this group of over 500,000,000 speakers is the world's foremost international language, English, foremost in terms of its geographic spread and number of second-language users. German, spoken by just over 100,000,000 people, is one of the world's ten-largest languages in terms of population. As English and German speakers constitute the majorities in several of the world's most economically, militarily, and technologically developed countries, it is important to be familiar with this particular language grouping.
就因為有太多的語言涵蓋于上述的兩個超級語系，語言學家就進一步的把這兩種語言豐富、地理涵蓋范圍非常廣的語系再區(qū)分為幾種不同的次級語系，其中的1個就是日耳曼語系，使用這個語系的人數(shù)在所有語系中排名第二位（第一位為華語）。在這個有5億多人口使用的語系中，包括了世界最重要的國際語言，那就是英語。英語之所以稱得上是最重要的語言乃因使用的地區(qū)很廣，且把英語當作第二種語言使用的人口亦很多。有1億多人操德語，故就人口而言，德語是世界十大語言之一。由于使用英語和德語的人口在幾個經(jīng)濟、軍事和科技先進的國家中占絕大比例，因此熟悉日耳曼語系的來龍去脈是很重要的。
Linguists further divide the Germanic languages into three groups, two extant and one extinct. East Germanic languages are no longer spoken; Gothic is an example of this small and historic grouping. Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Flemish, and German are the more important languages within the West Germanic grouping. The Scandinavian languages of Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish comprise the North Germanic grouping. Though these languages cannot be easily understood among their different speakers, the similarities in vocabulary are striking.
語言學家又進一步地把日耳曼語系細分成3個支系，其中兩個支系至今仍然存在，另1個支系，也就是東日耳曼語，因無人使用而已不復存。歌德語就屬于這種使用者不多但歷史悠久的語系。南非荷蘭語、荷蘭語、英語、佛蘭芝語、及德語則屬西日耳曼語的幾個重要語言。丹麥語、冰島語、挪威語及瑞典語等北歐語系則屬北日耳曼語系。雖然這些不同語言使用者彼此不易溝通，不過詞匯的雷同處卻很明顯。
Take for example the two largest languages with this group, English and German. The word Haus in German is house in English, with nearly the same pronunciation. Some names of German family members are instantly recognizable to English listeners and readers: Mutter, Bruder, and Onkel for the English mother, brother, and uncle (all German nouns are capitalized in print). Other German family members are easily learned: Vater, Schwester, and Tante for the English father, sister, and aunt. Thus, those who know English and want to study German find their first year of learning vocabulary to be relatively easy. The same is true, of course, for those who want to learn Dutch or Danish from an English or German background; these many similarities are due to the single common parent language of all the Germanic tongues, even though this "grandfather" language no longer exists.
就拿日耳曼語系中英語及德語兩大語言來說吧，德文的 Haus 就是英文的 house，發(fā)音幾乎完全相同。一些德語家庭成員的稱呼如：Mutter, Bruder 和 Onkel，懂英語的人很快地就知道這些字指的就是 mother, brother 和 uncle（德文的名詞一律大寫）。其它有關(guān)家庭成員名稱的德語說法也很容易學：像 Vater, Schwester 和 Tante 在英文里指的就 father, sister 和 aunt。因此懂英語而想學德語的人，會發(fā)現(xiàn)初學詞匯的第一年是很容易的一件事。當然，具有英語和德語背景的人要學丹麥語和荷蘭語也同樣是件易事。這些相似處乃因所有日耳曼語系皆源自共同的母語，盡管這個“爺爺級”的語言已不復存。
Speakers and writers of the Germanic languages account for a great deal of the world's output in everything from economics to literature to military to science and technology. Hardly an aspect of modern life does not benefit from the contributions made by those using these languages, as in the Internet, Hollywood entertainment, Dutch (Phillips) and Scandinavian consumer goods design (Ericsson, maker of cellular phones, is a Swedish company, as are Volvo and Saab), and even the Nobel prizes (awarded by both Norwegian and Swedish institutes). More than one-third of the world's economic production originates in these countries, too.
全球舉凡經(jīng)濟、文學、軍事乃至科技等方面的產(chǎn)品，有很多都是使用日耳曼語系的人所生產(chǎn)的。現(xiàn)代生活幾乎各方面無不受益于這些人的貢獻，譬如互聯(lián)網(wǎng)絡(luò)，好萊塢娛樂事業(yè)，荷蘭（菲立普公司）和北歐的消費品設(shè)計（生產(chǎn)手機的愛利信公司就是瑞典的一家公司、富豪及紳寶汽車亦是瑞典的公司），甚至諾貝爾獎（由挪威及瑞典學術(shù)機構(gòu)頒發(fā)）。全世界的經(jīng)濟生產(chǎn)量有超過三分之一也是源自這些國家。
For any speaker of a language outside the Germanic language group preparing to choose a useful second language for the future, English is probably the best bet. German, too, is very useful in the fields of medicine, economics, military, and science and technology. Being able to communicate with others in this far-reaching linguistic group will offer the user immeasurable benefits.
對于那些非使用日耳曼語系的人而言，為了前途而準備要選修第二種語文時，英文很可能是最佳的選擇。在醫(yī)學、經(jīng)濟、軍事和科技方面，德語也是一樣管用。日耳曼語系影響深遠，若能使用這種語言與該語系的人溝通將會帶來莫大的好處。
