評論
打印
Preserving rare languages
保護稀有語言
Embracing the future
擁抱未來
Modern technology can save languages as well as destroy them
現代科技如同毀滅一門語種一樣也能拯救它們
THE phrase “use it or lose it” applies to few things more forcefully than to obscure languages. A tongue that is not spoken will shrivel into extinction. If it is lucky, it may be preserved in a specialist lexicographer’s dictionary in the way that a dried specimen of a vanished butterfly lingers in a museum cabinet. If it is unlucky, it will disappear for ever into the memory hole that is unwritten history.
“不用則廢”這個詞用在稀有語種上更具有說服力。非口語性語言將瀕臨消失。如果幸運，稀有語言像滅絕的蝴蝶標本儲藏在博物館展廳一樣保留在專家詞典中。如果不幸，它消失在不成文的歷史記憶中。
This is not a fate which appeals to K. David Harrison, of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. But Dr Harrison is an optimist. He believes information technology—something seen by many people as a threat to linguistic diversity—might actually turn out to be its saviour.
在賓夕法尼亞斯州沃斯莫爾學院的戴維哈里森看來，這不是一個宿命。然而哈里森博士是個樂觀主義住，他認為被許多人看來構成了對語言多樣性威脅的信息技術事實上可能會成為稀有語言的救星。
On the face of things, there are few more powerful forces for the extermination of languages than IT. The internet, in particular, looks like a threat. It spreads imperious, widely spoken tongues like English at the expense of more modest, local ones, as an introduced species of animal or plant drives out less robust natives. Dr Harrison, however, is helping speakers of threatened languages use IT to fight back.
表面上，很少有什么比信息技術更能使一種語言走向滅絕。網絡尤其像是種威脅。以犧牲本土稀有語言為代價廣泛傳播像英語這樣的通用語言正如引進的動植物驅趕了當地生命力弱的物種一樣。但是，哈里森博士正幫助這些受到語言威脅的人們利用信息技術來抵御。
at the expense of：以什么為代價
eg ： This,however, comes at the expense of increased performance overhead.然而，這是以增加的性能開銷為代價的。
He gave details of four projects, in India, Oregon, Papua New Guinea and Siberia. In some, remaining speakers of the local language numbered in the hundreds when the project began. In one, but a single individual truly knew the tongue.
哈里森博士把印度，俄勒岡州，巴布亞新幾內亞，西伯利亞的四個項目做了詳細的描述。開始時，一些地方本地語言的使用者只有幾百人。有一個地方，僅僅只有一個人真正知道其本土語言。
The first task in each case was to create a talking dictionary that could be put onto the web, to which speakers and would-be speakers of the language then had access. This job itself illuminated the quirky way that technology spreads.
每次行動的第一步就是在該語言的使用者及其將要使用的人們能夠訪問的網站上建立能發聲字典。這項工作本身就顯示出了科技傳播的奇特方式。
The two villages in Papua New Guinea which speak Matukar Panau, for example, were linked to the country’s electricity grid only in 2011, but almost immediately people there started using the internet and the dictionary Dr Harrison had helped to create. In Oregon, meanwhile, many now text each other in Siletz Dee-ni. This was the tongue that had only one fluent speaker at the beginning of the project, but with his help and that of a few others who had partial knowledge of the language, Dr Harrison and his team have built a talking dictionary containing 14,000 words.
例如，說瀕危語言Matukar Panau的巴布亞新幾內亞兩個村莊在2011年才接通國家電網，但是這些人們立刻就使用起來哈里森博士幫助創建的網上有聲字典。同時，在美國俄勒岡州現在許多人相互間用Siletz Dee-ni語書寫文本。在這個項目計劃前，會流利的表達Siletz Dee-ni語的僅有一位，在他以及知道該語言部分知識的幫助下，哈里森博士和他的團隊成功建立了包含1.4萬單詞Siletz Dee-ni語的有聲字典。
Something similar will happen soon, they hope, in the part of north-eastern India where Koro-Aka is spoken. Here, people had mobile phones before drivable roads arrived and were thus familiar with the technology. Dr Harrison thinks that when the Koro-Aka dictionary is complete, texting in the language will take off rapidly.
他們希望在印度東北部那些用Koro-Aka語的地方盡快能發生類似的事。在到達那里前當地的人就在使用移動手機，因此他們對信息技術就很熟悉。哈里森博士認為在Koro-Aka語有聲詞典建立之時就是該文本語言迅速消失之日。
The most advanced project of the four is in Tuva, in southern Siberia, where Russian is becoming the dominant language. A talking dictionary of Tuvan has existed since 2006. Apocryphally, natives of the Arctic have hundreds of words for different sorts of snow. But the Tuvans really do have dozens for the colours and patterns of goat fleeces. They also have three versions of the verb “to go”, whose correct usage depends on the direction of travel in relation to the direction of the local river’s current. All these and more are now available to Tuvan and non-Tuvan alike. Indeed, according to Dr Harrison, the worldwide nature of the web has spawned at least one long-distance relationship, between a Texan man and a Tuvan woman, conducted in her language.
四個行動計劃中在西伯利亞南部的圖瓦是最早實施的，在那里俄語成為了主流語言。2006年圖瓦語的有聲詞典就創建了。不足憑信地，北極的本地人對雪的表達方式有上百種。但是這些圖瓦人對于羊毛衫的顏色和款式的表達確實有數十種。他們對于動詞“to go”的表達也有三個版本，他們遷徙的方向是根據當地河流方向來的，而遷徙的方向不同，to go的表示方法也不一樣。所有的這些情況甚至更多在圖瓦語以及類似的其他語言中現在都是可見的。的確，據哈里森博士稱，世界性的網絡至少已建立起了一個遠距離關系，如一個德克薩斯州的男人和一位圖瓦女人正以圖瓦語建立著聯系。
What these projects have in common, and what is most likely to make them succeed, though, is not just the technology. It is that in each place there is an enthusiastic local who is wise enough to care about saving his heritage and young enough to see that this requires embracing modernity. Sometimes that has involved the enthusiast in clashes with tribal elders who want to keep the modern world at bay and preserve their cultures in aspic. But that will not work. In the words of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, for everything to stay the same, everything must change. If it does not, everything will be lost.
然而，這些項目的共性及最可能使其取得成功的不僅僅是因為科學技術。那是因為在每個地方總有一個足以明智的當地熱心青年關注于其語言遺產的保留并注到他們的語言需要擁抱現代化。有時，這將牽涉到熱心人與當地長輩們發生沖突，這些部落的長輩想保留他們的語言免受現代化外界的侵害。但那是沒用的。正如蘭佩杜薩所言，要一切保持不變，一切都必須改變。如果沒有，一切都將失去。
補充 ：正譯法和反譯法：
這兩種方法通常用于漢譯英，偶爾也用于英譯漢。所謂正譯，是指把句子按照與漢語相同的語序或表達方式譯成英語。所謂反譯則是指把句子按照與漢語相反的語序或表達方式譯成英語。正譯與反譯常常具有同義的效果，但反譯往往更符合英語的思維方式和表達習慣。因此比較地道。
如：
（1） 在美國，人人都能買到槍。
In the United States, everyone can buy a gun. (正譯)
In the United States, guns are available to everyone. (反譯)
（2） 你可以從因特網上獲得這一信息。
You can obtain this information on the Internet. （正譯）
This information is accessible/available on the Internet. （反譯）
（3） 他突然想到了一個新主意。
Suddenly he had a new idea. (正譯)
He suddenly thought out a new idea. (正譯)
A new idea suddenly occurred to/struck him. （反譯）
（4） 他仍然沒有弄懂我的意思。
He still could not understand me. (正譯)
Still he failed to understand me. (反譯)
（5） 無論如何，她算不上一位思維敏捷的學生。
She can hardly be rated as a bright student. (正譯)
She is anything but a bright student. (反譯)
（6） Please withhold the document for the time being.
請暫時扣下這份文件。（正譯）
請暫時不要發這份文件。（反譯）
