A brief history of plural word...s - John McWhorter

翻译人员: Xinrong Li 校对人员: Sherry Chen

There are a lot of ways

我们奇妙的语言，

this marvelous language of ours,

英语，

English, doesn't make sense.

有很多方面说不清。

For example, most of the time

比如，大多数时候

when we talk about more than one of something,

当我们讨论不只一个东西时，

单词要加后缀S。

we put an S on the end.

One cat, two cats.

一只猫是one cat， 两只猫就是two cats。

But then, there's that handful of words

但是，还有一些单词

where things work differently.

复数形式不同。

Alone you have a man;

你一个人是a man；

if he has company, then you've got men,

如果你和别人一起，就是men，

or probably better for him, women too.

或者更好一点，也有women。

Although if there were only one of them,

如果只有一个女人，

it would be a woman.

那就是a woman。

Or if there's more than one goose,

或者如果有多于一只鹅 (one goose)，

they're geese,

它们就是geese，

but why not lots of mooses, meese?

但为什么没有mooses，meese呢？

Or if you have two feet,

你有两只脚（two feet），

then why don't you read two beek

但是为什么你不会读two beek

instead of books.

而是two books（两本书）呢。

The fact is that if you were speaking English

事实上，如果你是在

before about a thousand years ago,

约一千年前讲英语，

beek is exactly what you would have said

你确实会这样说

for more than one book.

书的复数就是beek。

If Modern English is strange,

如果觉得现代英语奇怪，

Old English needed therapy.

但古代英语就需要治疗了。

Believe it or not,

不管你信不信，

English used to be an even harder language

英语曾经是比现在

to learn than it is today.

难的多的语言。

Twenty-five hundred years ago,

两千五百年前，

English and German were the same language.

英语和德语是同一种语言。

They drifted apart slowly,

它们逐渐疏远，

little by little becoming more and more different.

渐渐地越来越不同。

That meant that in early English,

这意味着早期的英语，

just like in German,

就像德语一样，

inanimate objects had gender.

客观事物都分性别。

A fork, gafol, was a woman;

一个叉子，gafol，是女性；

a spoon, laefel, was a man;

一个勺子，laefel，是男性；

and the table they were on, bord,

而桌子，bord，不男不女，

was neither, also called neuter.

也叫做neuter（中性）。

Go figure!

想象一下！

Being able to use words

要使用这些词的话

meant not just knowing their meaning

不仅知道它们的意义

but what gender they were, too.

还能知道它们的性别。

And while today there are only about a dozen plurals

现如今只有一些词的复数形式

that don't make sense,

比较特别，

like men

and geese,

像人（men）

鹅（geese），

in Old English, it was perfectly normal

在古代英语里，这完全正常

for countless plurals to be like that.

不可数名词的复数像这样。

You think it's odd that more than one goose is geese?

你认为多于一只鹅（one goose） 叫geese很奇怪？

Well, imagine if more than one goat

那么，想想如果不只一只山羊（one goat）

was a bunch of gat,

是一群gat，

or if more than one oak tree

或者不只一棵橡树（one oak tree）

was a field of ack.

是一片ack。

To be able to talk about any of these,

要探讨这些，

you just had to know the exact word for their plural

你需要知道这些单词确切的复数形式

rather than just adding the handy S on the end.

而不是只加个方便的后缀S。

And it wasn't always an S at the end either.

而且复数后缀也不只是S。

In merry Old English,

在丰富的古代英语里，

they could add other sounds to the end.

他们可以在后缀加其他。

Just like more than one child is children,

就像儿童（child）的复数是children，

more than one lamb was lambru,

羔羊（lamb）的复数是lambru，

you fried up your eggru,

你煎你的eggru（鸡蛋），

and people talked not about breads,

人们不说breads，

but breadru.

而是breadru（面包）。

Sometimes it was like sheep is today -

有时就像现在用的sheep（绵羊）——

where, to make a plural, you don't do anything.

单复数形式一样。

One sheep,

一只羊（one sheep）,

two sheep.

两只羊（two sheep）。

In Old English, one house,

在古代英语里，one house（一栋房子），

two house.

two house（两栋房子）。

And just like today, we have oxen instead of oxes.

就像现在，我们有oxen而不是oxes（公牛）。

Old English people had toungen instead of tongues,

古代英语里人们有toungen而不是tongues（舌头），

namen instead of names,

namen而不是names（名字），

and if things stayed the way they were,

如果一切都保持原样，

today we would have eyen instead of eyes.

我们现在就是有eyen而不是eyes（眼睛）。

So, why didn't things stay the way they were?

那么，为什么我们不像古人那样说呢？

In a word, Vikings.

简言之，维京人。

In the 8th century, Scandinavian marauders

在8世纪，斯堪的纳维亚的侵略者

started taking over much of England.

开始占领英格兰大片领土。

They didn't speak English,

他们不讲英语，

they spoke Norse.

讲斯堪的维亚语（Norse）。

Plus, they were grown-ups,

再加上，他们已经是成人，

and grown-ups aren't as good

成人不像儿童

at learning languages as children.

那么擅长学习语言。

After the age of roughly 15,

大约过了15岁后，，

it's almost impossible to learn a new language

几乎不可能学习一种新的语言

而没有口音

without an accent

and without slipping up here and there

还完全不犯错

as we all know from what language classes are like.

正如我们从语言课上所了解的一样。

The Vikings were no different,

维京人也一样，

so they had a way of smoothing away

于是他们找到一种办法

the harder parts of how English worked.

克服英语中较难的部分。

Part of that was those crazy plurals.

其中就有这些烦人的复数。

Imagine running up against a language

想象一下，突然遇到一种语言

with eggru

有eggru，

and gat

有gat，

on the one hand,

并且，

and then with other words,

还有其他词的复数，

all you have to do is add 's'

只需要加后缀“s”

and get days

就有days（天）

and stones.

stones（石头）。

Wouldn't it make things easier

那么对每个词的复数加“s”

to just use the 's' for everything?

岂不是变得容易很多？

That's how the Vikings felt too.

维京人也这么觉得。

And there were so many of them,

而且有那么多维京人，

and they married so many of the English women,

他们又娶了那么多英国女人，

that pretty soon, if you grew up in England,

很快之后，如果你在英格兰长大，

you heard streamlined English as much as the real kind.

你听到的改良式英语和纯正英语一样多。

After a while nobody remembered the real kind any more.

过段时间后没人记得纯正英语了。

Nobody remembered that once you said doora

没人记得你要说doora

instead of doors

而不是doors（门）

and handa instead of hands.

要说handa而不是hands（手）。

Plurals made a lot more sense now,

现在的复数形式比以前容易解释的多，

except for a few hold-outs like children

除了少部分词像children（儿童）

and teeth

that get used so much

teeth（牙齿）

人们已经习惯这样用

that it was hard to break the habit.

难以改变这些习惯用法。

The lesson is

这告诉我们

that English makes a lot more sense than you think.

英语比你认为的更容易理解。

Thank the ancestors of people

感谢人类的祖先

in Copenhagen and Oslo for the fact

在哥本哈根和奥斯陆的祖先

that today we don't ask for a handful of pea-night

如今我们不需要说pea-night

instead of peanuts.

而是peanuts（花生）。

Although, wouldn't it be fun,

即便如此，难道不会很有趣吗，

if for just a week or two,

哪怕只说一两周，

we could?

是吧？