The Extinction of Some Languages【一些语言的消失】

The Extinction of Some Languages

Languages have been coming and going for thousands of years,

语言的产生和消失已经有了数千年的历史，

but in recent times there has been less coming and a lot more going.

但是最近出现的语言越来越少，消失的却越来越多。

When the world was still populated by hunter-gatherers,

当地球上居住的人口还是采集狩猎的人时，

small, tightly knit groups developed their own patterns of speech independent of each other.

小而紧密的群体形成了各自独立的语言模式。

Some language experts believe that 10,000 years ago,

一些语言专家认为一万年前，

when the world had just five to ten million people, they spoke perhaps 12,000 languages between them.

地球上只有500万到1000万的人口时，他们之间用于交谈的语言大概有12000种。

Soon afterwards, many of those people started settling down to become farmers,

不久之后，这些人中的许多人定居下来成为了农民，

and their languages too became more settled and fewer in number.

他们的语言也固定下来，数量也变少了。

In recent centuries, trade, industrialisation, the development of the nation-state and the 

spread of universal compulsory education,

近几个世纪以来，贸易、工业化、单一民族国家的发展和义务教育的普及，

especially globalisation and better communications in the past few decades, all have

caused many languages to disappear,

特别是过去几十年来的全球化和更好的通讯技术，都导致了许多语言的消失，

and dominant languages such as English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over.

主要的语言如英语、西班牙语和汉语渐渐占了上风。

At present, the world has about 6,800 languages. The distribution of these languages is hugely uneven.

现在，全球有6800种语言。这些语言的分布极不均衡。

The general rule is that mild zones have relatively few languages, often spoken by many people,

大致的分布规律是，温带地区的语言相对较少，通常使用人数较多，

while hot, wet zones have lots, often spoken by small numbers.

而热带潮湿地区有很多语言，通常使用人数较少。

Europe has only around 200 languages; the Americas about 1,000; Africa 2,400;

欧洲大约只有200种语言；美洲有1000种；非洲有2400种；

and Asia and Pacific perhaps 3,200, of which Papua New Guinea alone accounts for

well over 800.

而亚洲和太平洋大约有3200种，其中巴布亚新几内亚就占了800多种。

The median number of speakers is mere 6,000, which means that half the world's

languages are spoken by fewer people than that.

语言的使用者的中位数只有6000，这意味着世界上一半的语言的使用者还要低于这个数字。

Already well over 400 of the total of 6,800 languages are close to extinction, with only a

few elderly speakers left.

在这6800种语言当中已经有400多种即将消失，因为说这些语言的人仅剩一些老人。

Pick, at random, Busuu in Cameroon (eight remaining speakers), Chiapaneco in Mexico(150),

随便举几个例子，喀麦隆的Busuu语（剩8位使用者），墨西哥的Chiapaneco语（150位使用者），

Lipan Apache in the United States (two or three) or Wadjigu in Australia (one, with a question-mark):

美国的Lipan Apache语（两三位使用者）或者澳大利亚的Wadjigu语（一位？）：

none of these seems to have much chance of survival.

这些语言似乎都难以留存于世。

 

文中单词

单词	释义	单词	释义
hunter-gatherers	n.采集狩猎的人	populated	adj.人口稠密的
tightly knit	紧密结合的	tightly	adv.紧紧地
speech	n.演说，讲话	patterns	n.式样；图案
afterwards	adv.后来；然后	trade	n.贸易；商业；行业
industrialisation	n.工业化	nation-state	n.单一民族国家
development	n.发展；开发区	spread	adj.广大的；大幅的
universal compulsory education 全民义务教育
universal	adj.全体的；普遍存在的	globalisation	n.全球化
communications	n.通信技术	decades	n.数十年
disappear	v.消失；失踪；灭绝	dominant	adj.主要的；优势的
increasingly	adv.日益；越来越多地	distribution	n.分布；分配
general	adj.普遍的；全面的	mild zone	气候温和地带
relatively	adv.比较地；相对地	Europe	n.欧洲
account for	(在数量上、比例上)占	extinction	n.灭绝；消失