AF Education
专属博客 Liam Carrigan
与普遍的想法相反，英语并不是世界上使用最广泛的语言。单纯从人口数字来看，中国人的普通话就已经完胜这场比赛了，得益于西班牙人过去的殖民野心，遍布美国南部和中部的西班牙人让西班牙语成为了第二名。英语则紧随其后取得第三名，排在阿拉伯语和俄语前面。
Contrary to popular belief, English is not the world’s most widely spoken language. On sheer population numbers, Chinese Putonghua is the winner of that contest by quite some margin, whereas thanks to Spain’s previous colonial ambitions, the huge number of Hispanics in South and Central America pushes Spanish into the second spot. English comes in at number 3, just ahead of Arabic and Russian.
然而，如果你问：“世界上最多样化的语言是什么？”那么大部分的数据库会告诉你英语是当之无愧的领头羊。
However, if you were to ask: “what is the world’s most diverse language?” then most of the stats have English as the comfortable leader.
对于所有的墨西哥西班牙语、阿根廷西班牙语，甚至是西班牙的各个地区都多少有一些转调、口语和发音的差异，但在最基本的沟通层面上，西班牙、墨西哥和阿根廷人仍然可以清楚地理解对方。
For all that Mexican Spanish, Argentine Spanish and even Spain’s various regions have their own little inflections, colloquialisms and pronunciation differences, at a fundamental level, Spaniards, Mexicans and Argentines can still understand each other clearly.
英语的情况就不是这样了。英语的口音差异可以很大，包括发音、语速和声调方面，然而英语的差异并不限于国家的层面，还可以小至地区层面上的差异。有时候，一个很小的范围里面，口音却惊人地多。
This is not the case with English. Accents in English have huge variances in pronunciation, speed and tone, and English is not just a language that differs by national boundaries. It varies at a regional level, and sometimes it can be startling just how small and diverse these regions are.
就拿英格兰为例。利物浦和曼彻斯特这两个城市都以他们的音乐和幽默著称，而且她们之间只有20分钟的行车距离，但两个地方的口音却截然不同。
Take England itself as an example. Liverpool and Manchester, two cities famous for their culture, music and humour, are positioned only around 20 minutes by car from each other, and yet their accents are radically different.
同样的情况在苏格兰的格拉斯哥和爱丁堡也一样，两地的车程也不到一个小时。
The same could also be said of Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland, which again are less than an hour from each other by car.
事实上格拉斯哥的情况几十年来迷惑了不少外行人，一些学者甚至认为，格拉斯哥方言跟“女王英语”（译者注：王室英语，即标准英语）的概念相距甚远，她应该被视为另一种独立的语言，而非一种口音很重的英语。
Indeed the example of Glasgow has puzzled outsiders for decades, with some academics going as far as to argue that the Glaswegian dialect of English is so different from the notion of the “Queen’s English”, that it should actually be considered a separate language in of itself, rather than just a heavily accented version of English.
这个问题以及它涉及的各种语言学、国家和部落的影响因素，实在是复杂，我们还是留待他日再论吧。
That debate and all its various linguistic, national and tribal implications, is so complex that it is probably best left to another day.
我只能说，我们今天能在世界各地听到的英语都能追溯到英国。
It can be said though, that most of the different accents we hear in English across the world today can be traced back to the UK.
澳大利亚人当然是从18世纪末第一批被强制定居到当地的英国人那里学习到了英语。他们独特的鼻音以及非正式的说法方式就证明了当地的第一批欧洲移民有点粗鲁、直接以及非正式的说话方式。
Australians of course get their form of English from the first settlers who were forcefully resettled there at the end of the 18th century. Their distinctive twang and often informal way of speaking is borne out of the fact that, in those early days, the first European settlers had a somewhat rough, direct and informal way of speaking to one another.
美国口音的起源更有点不寻常。不管你信不信，根据调查，如果置身于450年前威廉·莎士比亚时代的伦敦和英格兰南部，你会发现当地很多口音和今天的美国口音很像。英国是我们众所周知的口音和文化的大熔炉，多年来造就了我们听到的多地区的口音，而在美国，150年前大部分移民在开发“狂野西部”之前都集中生活在同一个地区，所以美国的口音还没有那么多时间和空间发展到如此多样化。
The origins of the American accent are a little more unusual. Believe it or not, according to research, if you had been around London and the south of England at the time of William Shakespeare, some 450 years ago, you would have heard several of the locals speaking in what we today would probably refer to as an American accent. With England being the proverbial melting point of accents and cultures that it is, over time the accent has evolved into the various regional accents we hear today, whereas in America, given that most of the settlers stayed in one place before moving on to the “wild west” some 150 years ago, accents in America haven’t yet had the time and space to develop that same diversity.
相反，外来文化和移民也塑造了今天英国的本土英语。
Conversely, foreign cultures and immigration have also served to shape English within the UK today too.
再者，格拉斯哥和利物浦就是最鲜明的例子。在十九世纪中后期，爱尔兰的马铃薯饥荒导致了成千上万我们今天所说的难民从爱尔兰涌入港口城市如格拉斯哥和利物浦。爱尔兰和古苏格兰方言催生了今天的格拉斯哥口音，同样地北部英语、爱尔兰语和威尔士语就给利物浦人造就了他们独特的“Scouse”口音。（译者注：即利物浦口音。）
Again, Glasgow and Liverpool are primary examples of this idea. The Irish potato famine, in the mid to late 19th century led to mass emigration from Ireland, with tens of thousands of what would today be called refugees settling in port towns like Glasgow and Liverpool. It is the blending of Irish and Old Scots dialects which gave birth to the modern Glaswegian accent, in the same way that a blend of northern English, Irish and a touch of Welsh has given the Liverpudlians their distinctive “Scouse” brogue.
所以每次当我看到BBC上某些拥有爱尔兰人姓氏的广播员用英国地方口音说“英国有太多移民”的时候都会不嗨森。我相信如果英国政府在一个世纪之前表现出了同样的态度，今天的英国也不会有这么多人口，英国本土的英语口音也不会这么丰富多彩、这么趣味横生。
It makes me somewhat irate every time I see someone on the BBC with an Irish sounding surname saying in a British regional accent that “there’s too many immigrants in the UK”. Had the UK government shown the same attitude a century or so ago, then not only would that person in all likelihood not be alive today, but the UK’s wonderfully colourful range of English accents would be decidedly less interesting.
那英语在接下来的数百年会如何演变呢？
So, how is English likely to evolve over the next few hundred years?
嗯，这真的取决于目前的全球化趋势会持续多久。
Well, that really depends on how long the current trend of globalization can continue.
与莎士比亚的时代相比，英语已经变得更简单了。而如果“中式英语”和“新加坡英语”成为国际贸易和谈判的主要语言，这个趋势就会继续保持。
The language has certainly become a bit more simplistic compared to Shakespeare’s time. This trend will continue as unofficial dialects such as “Chinglish” and “Singlish” become the primary means of international trade and negotiation.
人们常说，21世纪将被定义为“亚洲的世纪”，同样地，我相信在接下来这几十年以及数个世纪，英语也会越来越有浓重的亚洲风味。
It is often said that the 21st century will come to be defined as “Asia’s century”, by that same token; I believe that in the decades and centuries to come, English too will take on a more Asian flavour.
