評論
打印
He guessed that the symbols represented the name of the earlier Egyptian ruler Ptolemy, since Ptolemy was also written in Greek on the stone and was indeed a Greek name.
他猜測這些符號代表了早期埃及統治者托勒密的名字，因為石頭上也有希臘語寫的“托勒密”，且“托勒密”確實是個希臘名字。
And Yang, did actually prove that these hieroglyphs represented sounds rather than whole words.
事實上，楊也證明了這些象形文字代表的是聲音，而不是完整單詞。
Strangely though, he gave into the dominant thesis of the day that hieroglyphs were pictographs.
但很奇怪的是，他屈服于當時的主流觀點，即象形文字是圖像表意的。
He actually dismissed his own finding as an anomaly because the Ptolemy dynasty was Greek, not Egyptian.
他認為自己的發現是個反常現象，因為托勒密王朝是在古希臘，而非埃及。
In other words, he figured it was an exception to the rule.
換句話說，他認為這只是個例外。
It was phonetic because it was Greek not Egyptian.
這是注音文字，因為它是希臘語，而不是埃及語。
How else could an Egyptian depict a Greek name other than spell it out?
要不然一個埃及人怎么會把一個希臘名字描述出來，而不是直接拼出來呢？
And that brings us to the hero of our story, Jean-Franrois Champollion.
這就要提到我們的英雄人物了，讓·弗朗索瓦·商博良。
Champollion built on Yang's work, showing that different hieroglyphs spell the name of the kings or queens like Alexander or Cleopatra.
商博良基于楊的研究成果，發現不同的象形文字拼寫的是國王或王后的名字，像“亞歷山大”或“克利奧帕特拉”。
But his critics noticed that these were still not traditional Egyptian names.
但批評他的人發現，這也不是傳統的埃及名字。
He hasn't done anything more than Yang has been able to do, so he couldn't disprove the dominant theory.
他并不能比楊多做什么，他也無法推翻主流觀點。
Then, in 1822, Champollion was shown a set of hieroglyphs that contain traditional Egyptian names.
接著，在1822年，有人給商博良展示了一組象形文字，其中包含傳統埃及名字。
The first two of the symbols were unknown, but Champollion knew that the repeated hieroglyphs to the far right symbolized an 's' sound.
開頭的兩個符號意義不明，但商博良知道，一直重復至右邊盡頭的象形文字代表“s”的音。
He then drew on his linguistic knowledge to arrive at the solution to the problem.
接著他利用自己的語言學知識，找到了問題的解決辦法。
You see, unlike any of other scholars who have tried to crack the code, Champollion happened to be fluent in Coptic.
不像別的試圖破解文字的學者，商博良恰好非常精通埃及古語。
He wondered, and this was the real breakthrough, if the Coptic was the language symbolized by the hieroglyphs on Rosetta stone.
他懷疑（這是真正的突破點）羅塞塔之石上的象形文字所代表的語言是不是埃及古語。
And if so, then perhaps that first disc-shape symbol might represent the Sun.
若真如此，很可能第一個圓片形狀的符號代表太陽。
And the Coptic word for Sun is 'ra' .
埃及古語中，太陽是“ra”。
See where this was it headed?
能猜到接下來發生什么了嗎？
So if the symbol were Coptic, the first symbol would be 'ra', and then an unknown symbol followed by a double's' sound.
假如這些符號是埃及古語，第一個符號就是“ra”，接著是一個意義不明的符號，然后是兩個“s”的聲音。
Was this, Champollion wondered, the name "Ramses"?
商博良想，這是不是“拉美西斯”這個名字呢？
He was eventually able to confirm that it was.
他最后確認了，確實是。
So, he had figured it out.
他弄明白了。
Hieroglyphs were mainly phonetic, they represent sounds not pictures, and the underlying language was Coptic.
象形文字主要是注音文字，它們代表的是聲音而不是圖像，且隱含的語言是埃及古語。
A lot of work remained, but Champollion had cracked the code.
還有很多工作要做，但商博良已經成功破解了密碼。
