Chapter 1 - Many, Many Languages

第一章 - 很多，很多种语言

A hundred years ago, most human beings could speak two or more languages. At home they spoke a family language. It could be the language their parents spoke when they moved from another place. In many cases, it was a local variation of a language with different words and different pronunciations, what some people might call a dialect or patois. Most villages had such languages. People learned family languages, village languages and sometimes other languages without any problems.

100年前，大多数人都会说两种或多种语言。在家里的时候，他们说家族的语言。这有可能是他们的祖先在从另一个地方迁徙过来之前所说的语言。在许多情况下，这是一种由于地域差别而形成的，带有不同词语及不同发音的语言变体，也就是人们通常所说的方言或土话。大多数村镇都有这样的语言。那时的人们在学习家族语言，方言，以及其他语言的时候毫无困难。

A century ago, for most people the world was not very big, perhaps as big as their nation. They learned their national language and then could communicate with the rest of their world. Many nations had at least one official national language. Many people in their villages also felt a need to speak the national language, and they would learn that national language in schools.

一个世纪之前，对于大多数人来说世界并不是很大，或许对他们来说国家就是世界。他们学习了本国的语言就可以与世界上的其他人交流了。当时许多国家至少都有一种官方语言。而村镇里的大多数人都觉得有必要说官方语言，而且他们也会在学校里学习官方语言。

National languages made nation-wide communication possible. In some cases these started as one of the local dialects and were raised to the status of national languages. Or sometimes one “family” was more powerful, and required everyone to speak their way.

一个国家的官方语言使得全国的人们可以互相交流。在某些情况下，一个地方的方言被提升至官方语言的地位。或者有时某个家族的势力更加强大，于是他们要求所有的人都按他们的方式说话。

Today, the communication problem is the same. Just the scale is different. A century ago, their world was their country. Now their world is…. much more. Most people now speak a local language which is often their national language. Now they must communicate to the whole globe.

现在，沟通的问题仍然存在，只不过范围不同罢了。一个世纪之前，人们的世界就是他们的国家。而现在他们的世界变得更加广阔了。目前大多数人只说一种语言，而且常常是他们国家的官方语言。但现在他们必须和全世界的人交流。

(From English Next)

（摘自《英语走向何方》）

Only 12% of the global world has English as a mother tongue. For 88% of us, it is not our first language, our mother tongue.

世界上以英语为母语的人口只占世界总人口的12%，而对于我们这样属于其余88%的人来说，英语既不是我们的第一语言，也不是我们的母语。

We know that only 4% of international communication is between native speakers from different English-speaking nations - like Americans and Australians.

我们知道只有4%的国际交流是在不同英语国家人士之间进行的，例如美国人和澳大利亚人之间。

So 96% of the international English communication takes place with at least one non-native speaker.

所以在96%的使用英语的国际交流中，至少有一方是非英语母语人士。

There is a story about a god and a Tower of Babel, where all men could speak to each other using just one language. In the story, he stopped the building of that special Tower.

圣经中有个关于上帝和巴别塔的故事，那时所有的人类都说同一种语言。故事中，上帝阻止了人类建造通往天堂的高塔。

He said (roughly):

“Look, they are one people, and they have all one language. This is only the beginning of what they will do. Nothing that they want to do will be impossible now. Come, let us go down and mix up their languages so they will not understand each other.”

耶和华说（生气的）：

看哪，他们成为一样的人民，都是一样的言语。如今既作起这事来。以后他们所要作的事，就没有不成就的了。我们下去，在那里变乱他们的口音，使他们的言语彼此不通。

——创世记11:1-9（中文和合本）

In the past, there have been many strong languages and attempts to create a common worldwide language. Some worked well, but some not all. The Greek language was used as the “lingua franca” in the days of the Romans. Non-Romans and others read the first Christian books in Greek. Modern Romans speak Italian, but until lately Catholics celebrated Christian ceremonies in Latin, the language of the ancient Romans.

过去有很多强势语言试图成为世界通用的语言。有些成功了，有些却没有。希腊语是罗马时期的通用语言。非罗马人和其他国家的人最初读到的基督教书籍都是用希腊语书写的。现代罗马人说意大利语，但直到最近天主教在宗教仪式中仍然使用古罗马的拉丁语。

French was the language of upper class Europeans for several hundred years. It was used for international government relations until 1918. Many thought it was clearly the best language for all international communication. Tsarina Catherine of Russia and Frederick the great of Prussia used to speak and write very good French, and made a point to use it with foreigners. A friendly competition took place at the king’s court in France in 1853 to find the person who used the best French. The winner was not Emperor Napoleon the Third, or his wife Eugénie. Instead, it was the Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich.

在过去的几百年中，法语曾是欧洲上流社会的语言。1918年之前法语一直是各国政府间交流所使用的语言。很多人都曾认为法语一定会成为国际间交流最好的语言。俄国女皇凯萨琳大帝（又称叶卡捷琳娜二世）与普鲁士国王腓特烈大帝的法语会话和书写能力都很强，并且坚持在与外国交流中使用法语。1853年的一天，一场友谊竞赛在法国国王的庭院里展开，目的是为了决出谁的法语说得最好。最后胜出的人既不是皇帝拿破仑三世也不是他的皇后欧也妮，而是奥地利政治家克莱门斯•文策尔•冯•梅特涅。

About this time, in the Age of Reason, humans began to think they could do anything. They discovered drugs that would cure diseases. They could grow food in all weather. Their new steam-ships could go anywhere without wind. So then some people thought: How difficult could it be to create a new language, one that would be easy and useful for all people?

大约从理性时代开始，人类认为他们无所不能。他们发现了可以治疗疾病的药物。他们可以在各种气候条件下种植粮食。他们发明的蒸汽船可以不依靠风力到达世界上的任何地方。因此，有些人寻思：那么创造一门既简单而且所有人都可以使用的新的语言，又有什么难的呢？