【正文】 ariety. 接著北歐海盜從斯堪的納維亞來(lái)到了這塊相對(duì)和平的土地。當(dāng)時(shí)不列顛的居民凱爾特人使用的那些語(yǔ)言流傳下來(lái)主要成了威爾士語(yǔ)。 possession (mine, yours)。 The Glorious Messiness of EnglishRobert MacNeil 1 The story of our English language is typically one of massive stealing from other languages. That is why English today has an estimated vocabulary of over one million words, while other major languages have far fewer. 英語(yǔ)中絢麗多彩的雜亂無(wú)章現(xiàn)象羅伯特法國(guó)政府試圖逐出英語(yǔ)詞匯，宣稱Walkman（隨身聽(tīng)）一詞有傷大雅，因此他們?cè)炝藗€(gè)新詞balladeur讓法國(guó)兒童用——可他們就是不用。s armies positioned to cross the English Channel: We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. 偉大的演說(shuō)家常常用古英語(yǔ)來(lái)激發(fā)我們的情感。因此有些學(xué)者認(rèn)為，他們生活在寒冷的中北歐某個(gè)地區(qū)。由于三種語(yǔ)言相互競(jìng)爭(zhēng)，有時(shí)同一事物就出現(xiàn)了不同的名稱。想想吧，孕育英語(yǔ)的文化土壤也同樣為現(xiàn)今的世界培育了偉大的自由精神及人權(quán)準(zhǔn)則。s electronic retrieval systems is stored in English. By 2010, the number of people who speak English as a second or foreign language will exceed the number of native speakers. This trend will certainly affect the language. 全世界有14億多人生活在英語(yǔ)享有官方地位的國(guó)家。 5 Three factors continue to contribute to this spread of English: English usage in science, technology and merce。英語(yǔ)沒(méi)有標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的發(fā)音。 14 A language shift, in which individuals change their language loyalties, is another possibility. These shifts are slow and difficult to predict. But within the next 50 years substantial language shifts could occur as economic development affects more countries. 改換語(yǔ)言，即人們放棄自己一向使用的語(yǔ)言改用其他語(yǔ)言，是另一種可能。相反，它可以作為其他語(yǔ)言的補(bǔ)充，或與其他語(yǔ)言并存，讓陌生人跨越語(yǔ)言障礙進(jìn)行交際。然而，英語(yǔ)在21世紀(jì)遭遇挑戰(zhàn)的可能性不是不存在。但最重要的是，它擁有龐大且覆蓋面寬廣的詞匯，其中約有80%是外來(lái)詞。德國(guó)物理學(xué)家要將新發(fā)現(xiàn)通報(bào)國(guó)際科學(xué)界時(shí)，他們首先用英語(yǔ)發(fā)表他們的研究成果。 　2 Worldwide over billion people live in countries where English has official status. One out of five of the world39。 17 That tolerance for change also represents deeply rooted ideas of freedom. Danish scholar Otto Jespersen wrote in 1905, The English language would not have been what it is if the English had not been for centuries great respecters of the liberties of each individual and if everybody had not been free to strike out new paths for himself. 這種對(duì)變化的包容態(tài)度也體現(xiàn)了根深蒂固的自由精神。其他留傳下來(lái)的這類同義詞組有：wish 和 want，craft 和 skill，hide 和 skin。系統(tǒng)的研究顯示，許多現(xiàn)代語(yǔ)言起源于一個(gè)共同的母語(yǔ)，但由于沒(méi)有文字記載，該母語(yǔ)已經(jīng)失傳。 and necessities (food, water). These words all e from Old English or AngloSaxon English, the core of our language. Usually short and direct, these are words we still use today for the things that really matter to us. 歐洲沿海一個(gè)彈丸小島的語(yǔ)言何以會(huì)成為地球上的通用語(yǔ)言，比歷史上任何一種其他語(yǔ)言都更為廣泛地被口頭和書面使用？英語(yǔ)的歷史體現(xiàn)在孩子最先學(xué)會(huì)用來(lái)表示身份（I, me, you）、所屬關(guān)系（mine, yours）、身體部位（eye, nose, mouth）、大小高矮（tall, short），以及生活必需品（food, water）的詞匯當(dāng)中。 　2 French, for example, has only about 75,000 words, and that includes English expressions like snack bar and hit parade. The French, however, do not like borrowing foreign words because they think it corrupts their language. The government tries to ban words from English and declares that Walkman is not desirable。 so they invent a word, balladeur, which French kids are supposed to say instead but they don39。這些詞都來(lái)自英語(yǔ)的核心部分古英語(yǔ)或盎格魯－薩克遜英語(yǔ)。 9 Identifying similar words, linguists have e up with what they call an IndoEuropean parent language, spoken until 3500 to 2000 . These people had mon words for snow, bee and wolf but no word for sea. So some scholars assume they lived somewhere in northcentral Europe, where it was cold. Traveling east, some established the languages of India and Pakistan, and others drifted west toward the gentler climates of Europe. Some who made the earliest move westward became known as the Celts, whom Caesar39。每一個(gè)類似的詞的增添都使英語(yǔ)更加豐富，更加多樣化。丹麥學(xué)者奧托s population speaks some English. And at present one in five over one billion people are learning English. Over 70% of the world39。日本經(jīng)理與斯