評論
打印
1. Most peoplehave heard of the Tower of Babel storyin the Bible. According to this story, long ago all people spoke the same language.Later, however, they were punished byspeaking a great number of different tongues. Today, thereare literally thousands of different languages (definedasmutually unintelligible tongues)around the world, though many arerelatedtoone another. Indeed,thetwo largest language families, the Indo-European (the language familywiththe largest number of speakers) and Sino-Tibetan (containingthe Chineselanguages, Thai, Vietnamese, and Tibetan)includehundreds of languageswithover half the world'spopulation.
1. 大多數的人都聽說過圣經中巴別塔的故事。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(unintelligible)語言），雖然其中語言彼此(one another)都有所關聯。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的人口。
2. Because there are so many languageswithinthe above two super-categories of language families, linguists have furtherdividedthese linguistically rich andgeographically diverse familiesintosub-groups,one ofwhich,the Germaniclanguage group, hasthesecond-largest number of speakers(Chinesebeingfirst).Withinthis group of over 500,000,000 speakers is the world's foremost international language, English,foremostin terms of itsgeographic spread and number ofsecond-languageusers. German,spokenby just over 100,000,000 people, isone of the world's ten-largest languagesin terms of population.AsEnglish and German speakers constitute the majorities in several of the world's mosteconomically, militarily, and technologicallydevelopedcountries, it is important to be familiar with this particular language grouping.
2.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(these linguistically rich and geographicallydiverse families)再區分為幾種不同的次級語系(sub-groups)，其中的一個就是日耳曼語系(one of which, the Germanic language group)，使用這個語系的人數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1億多人說德語，故就人口而言，德語是世界十大語言之一。由于（as）使用英語和德語的人口在幾個經濟、軍事和科技先進的國家中(in several of the world's most economically, militarily, andtechnologically developed ecuntries)占絕大比例，因此熟悉(be familiar with)日耳曼語系的來龍去脈是很重要的。
3. Linguists furtherdividethe Germanic languagesintothree 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 languageswithinthe WestGermanic grouping. The Scandinavian languages of Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian,and Swedish comprise the North Germanic grouping.Thoughthese languagescannot beeasilyunderstoodamongtheir different speakers, thesimilaritiesin vocabularyare striking.
3.語言學家又進一步地把日耳曼語系分成3個支系，其中兩個支系至今仍然存在（extant），另１個支系，也就是東日爾曼語，因無人使用而已不復存在(extinct)。歌德語(Gothic)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(the similarities)卻很明顯(striking)。
4.Takefor examplethe two largest languages with this group, English andGerman. The word Hausin Germanis housein English,withnearlythe same pronunciation. Somenames of German family membersareinstantlyrecognizable to Englishlisteners and readers: Mutter, Bruder, and Onkelfor the English mother, brother, and uncle(all German nounsare capitalized in print). Other German family membersare easily learned: Vater, Schwester, and Tantefor the English father, sister, and aunt.Thus, thosewhoknowEnglish and want to study Germanfind their first year of learningvocabularyto be relatively easy.The same is true, of course, for thosewhowant to learn Dutch or Danish from an English or German background;these many similaritiesare due tothe single common parent language ofall the Germanic tongues,eventhoughthis "grandfather" language no longer exists.
4.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（English listeners and readers）很快地就知道這些字指的就是mother,bother 和uncle（德文的名詞一律大寫）。其它有關家庭成員名稱的德語說法也很容易學：像Vater,Schwester 和Tante 在英文里指的就是father,sister 和aunt。因此懂英語而想學德語的人，會發現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(from an English or Germanbackground)要學丹麥語和荷蘭語也同樣是件易事。這些相似處(these many similarities)乃因所有日耳曼語系皆源自共同的母語(the single common parentlanguage of all the Germanic tongues)，盡管這個“爺爺級”的語言已不復存。
5.Speakersand writers of the Germanic languages account for a great dealof the world's output in everythingfrom economics to literature to military to science and technology.Hardlyan aspect of modern lifedoes not benefit from the contributionsmadeby thoseusingthese languages,asin the Internet, Hollywood entertainment, Dutch (Phillips) and Scandinavian consumer goodsdesign (Ericsson, makerof cellular phones, is a Swedish company,asare Volvo andSaab),and even the Nobel prizes (awardedbyboth Norwegian andSwedish institutes).Morethan one-third of the world's economic production originatesin these countries,too.
5.全球舉凡經濟、文學、軍事乃至科技等方面的產品(output)，有很多(a great deal of)都是使用日耳曼語系的人所生產的(account for)。現代生活幾乎各方面無不受益于使用這些語言的人的貢獻(the contributions made bythose using these languages)，譬如互聯網絡，好萊塢娛樂事業，荷蘭（菲利普公司）和北歐的消費品設計（生產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（the Nobel prizes）（由挪威及瑞典學術機構頒發(awarded)）。全世界的經濟生產量有超過三分之一也是源自這些國家。
6. For any speaker of a languageoutsidethe Germanic language grouppreparingto choose a usefulsecond languagefor the future, English is probably the best bet. German, too, is very usefulinthe fields of medicine, economics, military, and science and technology.Beingable tocommunicate with othersin this far-reaching linguisticgroupwill offer the user immeasurable benefits.
6.對于那些非使用日耳曼語系的人而言，為了前途(for the future)而準備要選修第二種語言時，英文很可能是最佳的選擇。在醫學、經濟、軍事和科技方面，德語也是一樣管用。日耳曼語系影響深遠(far-reaching)，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。
