十分钟了解英语历史 诺曼人入侵

 

The History of English in Ten Minutes. Chapter Two, The Norman Conquest or Excuse My English.

十分钟了解英语历史。第二章，诺曼人入侵或原谅我的英语

1066. True to his name, William the Conqueror¹ invades England, bringing new concepts from across the channel, like the French language, the Doomsday Book and the duty-free Galois's multipack.French was "de rigueur" for all official business, with words like "judge", "jury", "evidence" and "justice" coming in and giving John Grisham's career a kick-start. Latin was still used "ad nauseam" in church, but the common man spoke² English, able to communicate only by speaking more slowly and loudly until the others understood him. Words like "cow", "sheep" and "swine" come from the English-speaking farmers. While the "a la carte" versions "beef", "mutton" and "pork" come from the French-speaking toffs, beginning a long-running trend of restaurants having completely indecipherable menus. 

1066年，名副其实的征服者William入侵英国，从海峡对岸带来了新的概念，诸如法语，末日裁判书， 伽罗瓦万用箱。法语是官方商用语言，带来外来词例如法官，陪审团，证据和正义，使得约翰-格里姆森的事业起飞。拉丁语依然令人生厌的应用于各个教堂。普通人讲英语，只能通过放慢语速和提高音量来让人听懂。有些词如公牛，羊和猪，源自说英语的农民。而菜单上的版本牛肉，羊肉和猪肉则源自说法语的有钱阶层，餐馆制定让人读不懂的菜单的风气源远流长，就是从那时候开始的。

All in all, the English absorbed about 10,000 new words from the Normans, though they still couldn't grasp the rules of cheek kissing. The "bon-ami" all ended when the English nation took their new warlike lingo³ of "armies", "navies" and "soldiers" and began the Hundred Years' War against France. It actually lasted 116 years but by that point, no one could count any higher in French and English took over as the language of power.

总的来说，英语从诺曼人那里吸收了差不多10,000个词汇，但依然无法描述自己的君主。这种亲切彻底结束于英国运用新的军事行话，如军队，海军，士兵。英法之间的百年战争开始了。其实进行了116年。但早已无人能计算出到底是英语还是法语是最有力的语言。

1 conqueror   

n.征服者，胜利者

参考例句：

• We shall never yield to a conqueror.我们永远不会向征服者低头。
• They abandoned the city to the conqueror.他们把那个城市丢弃给征服者。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 lingo   

n.语言不知所云，外国话，隐语

参考例句：

• If you live abroad it helps to know the local lingo.住在国外，学一点当地的语言自有好处。
• Don't use all that technical lingo try and explain in plain English.别尽用那种专门术语，用普通的词语解释吧。