A-Brief-History-of-English.doc

A Brief History of English
No understanding of the English language can be very satisfactory without a notion of the history of the language. But we shall have to make do with just a notion. The history of English is long and complicated, and we can only hit the higl1 spots.
不了解英语的历史很难真正掌握这门语言，然而对此我们只能做到略有所知。因为英语的历史既漫长又复杂，我们只能抓住其发展过程中的几个关键时期。
At the time of the Ro1nan Empire, the speakers of what was to become English were scattered along the northern coast of Europe. They spoke a dialect of Low German. More exactly, they spoke several different dialects, since they were several different tribes. The names given to the tribes who got to England are Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, who are referred to collectively as Anglo-Saxons4.
在罗马帝国时期，散居在欧洲北部沿海的居民说一种西部德语的方言，这就是英语的前身。更确切地说，由于隶属于不同的部落，他们说的是几种不同的方言。这些后来迁移到英格兰的部落被称为盎格鲁人、撒克逊人和朱特人，现在则被统称为盎格鲁-撒克逊人。
Not much is known about the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in England. We do know, however, that the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes were a long time securing themselves in England. Fighting went on for as long as a hundred years before the Celts in England were all killed, driven into Wales, or reduced to slavery. By 550 or so the Anglo-Saxons were firmly established. English was in England.
这些部落何时迁移到英格兰的，我们没有掌握确切信息。但是据我们所知，在很长一段时间内他们为自卫而战。与凯尔特人的战争持续了一百多年，直到英格兰境内的凯尔特人不是被杀，就是被迫流亡到威尔士或沦为奴隶。到了公元550年前后，盎格鲁-撒克逊人才定居下来。英语从此来到了英格兰。
It is customary to divide the history of the English, language into three periods: Old English, Middle English, Modern English. Old English runs from the earliest records -i. e. seventh century - to about 1100; Middle English from 1100 to 1450 or 1500; Modern English from 1500 to the present day.
我们习惯上把英语的发展分为三个时期：古英语，中世纪英语和现代英语。古英语时期从最早的历史记载即公元七世纪到1100年；中世纪英语时期从1100年到1450或1500年；现代英语时期从1500年至今。
When England came into history, it was divided into several more or less autonomous kingdoms, some of which at times exercised a certain amount of control over the others. In the sixth century the most advanced kingdom was Northurnbria. Two centuries later, Wessex, the country of the West Saxons, became the leading power. The most famous king of the West Saxons was Alfred the Great, who was famous not only as a military man and adm1n1strator but also as a champion of learning. He founded and supported schools ar1d translated or caused to be translated many books from Latin into English.
根据最早的历史记载，当时的英格兰被分裂为几个享有一定自治权利的王国。在一定时期，其中的某一个王国对其他王国实行一定的统治。公元六世纪，最强大的王国是诺森伯里亚。两个世纪之后，由西撒克逊人建立的威塞克斯王国成为了领袖，其最富盛名的国王叫阿尔弗烈德大帝，他不仅是一个卓越的军事家和管理者，还是个大学问家。他出资建校，而且亲自动笔或请人将许多拉丁语的书籍翻译成英语。
In the military sphere, Alfred's great accomplishment was his successful opposition to the Viking invasions. The linguistic result was a considerable injection of Norse into the English language. Norse was at this time not so different from English as Norwegian or Danish is now. Probably speakers of English could understand, more or less, the language of the newcomers who had moved into eastern England. At any rate, there was considerable interchange and word borrowing. Examples of Norse words in the English language are sky, give, law, egg, outlaw, leg, ugly, scant, sly, crawl, scowl, take, and thrust. There are hundreds more. We have even borrowed some pronouns from Norse - they, their, and them.
在军事领域，阿尔弗烈德大帝最大的成就是成功抵抗了北欧海盗的入侵结果造成了古挪威语大量进入英语。当时的挪威语与英语比较接近，就像今天的挪威语和丹麦语一样。以英语为母语的人或多或少能听懂来到英格兰东部定居的新邻居使用的语言。来自古挪威语的英语单词多达几百个，包括sky, give, law, egg, outlaw, leg, ugly, scant, sky, crawl, scowl, take, thrust。甚至有些代词也是来源于古挪威语的，如they, their和them。
In grammar, Old English was, much more highly inflected than modern English is. That is, there were mote case endings for nouns, more person and number endings for verbs, a more complicated pronoun system, various endings for adjectives, and so on. Old English nouns had four cases-nominative, gen1tive, dative， accusative .Adjectives had five – all these and an instrumental case besides. Present-day English has only two cases for nouns – common case and possessive case. Adjectives now have no case system at all. On the other hand, we now use a more rigid, word order and more structure words to express relationships than Old English did.
在语法上，古英语的曲折变化远远多于现代英语。古英语的名词有四种格变化，即主格，所有格，与格和宾语；形容词有五种格变化，除了以上四种还有工具格。而现代英语中，名词只有两种格变化，即普通格和所有格；形容词不再有格的变化。而另一方面，与古英语相比，现代英语使用更为严格的语序和丰富的结构词来表示句子成分之间的关系。
In vocabulary old English is quite different from Modern English. Most of the Old English words are what we may call native English: that is, words which have not been borrowed from other languages but which have been a part of English ever since English was a part of Indo-European1. Old English did certainly contain borrowed words. We have seen that many borrowings were coming in from Norse. Rather large numbers had been borrowed from Latin: cheese, butter, bishop, kettle, angel candle, priest, martyr, radish, oyster, purple, school, spend, and so on. But the great n1ajority of Old English words were native English.Now only about 14 percent are native.
在词汇上，古英语也与现代英语有诸多不同之处。古英语中的绝大多数单词如今被称为英语本土词，即自英语作为印欧语言的一部分起就存在的，而不是从其他语言引入的词汇。虽然古英语中也有一些外来词，除了古挪威语之外，还有不少词来自于拉丁语，如cheese, butter, bishop, kettle, angel, candle, priest, martyr, radish, oyster, purple, school, spend等。但是古英语的主体是英语本土词，而这些词只占现代英语词汇的百分之十四。
Sometime between the years 1000 and 1200 various important changes took place in the structure of English, and Old English became Middle English. The political event which facilitated these changes was the Norman Conquest. In 1066, led by Duke William, the Normans crossed the Channel and made themselves masters of England. For the next several hundred years, England was ruled by kings whose first language was French.
大约在公元1000年和1200年之间，英语的结构发生了重大变化。这些变化是由一个历史上称为诺曼底征服的政治事件造成的。1066年，威廉公爵带领诺曼人渡过英吉利海峡，占领了英格兰。在此后的几个世纪中，英格兰一直处于法兰西国王的统治下。
Great numbers of Normans came to England, but they came as rulers and landlords. French became the language of the court, the language of the nobility, the language of polite society, the language of literature. But it did not replace English as the language of the people. There must always have been hundreds of towns and villages in which French was never heard except when visitors of high station passed through.
大量的诺曼人以统治者和地主的身份进入了英格兰。法语成为了宫廷语言，贵族语言，政治语言和文学语言，但是并没有取代英语成为普通民众日常使用的语言。在许多乡村小镇，除了上流社会的客人经过，法语闻所未闻。
But English, though it survived as the national language, was profoundly changed after the Norman Conquest. It is in vocabulary that the effects of the Conquest are 1nost obvious. French ceased, after a hundred years or so, to be the native language of very many people in England, but it continued - and continues still – to be a zealously cultivated second language, the mirror of elegance and civilization. When one spoke English, one introduced not only French ideas and French things but also their French names. This was not only easy but socially useful. To pepper one’s conversation with French expressions was to show that one was well-bred, elegant, au courant. The last sentence shows that the process is not yet dead. By using au courant instead of, say, abreast of things, the writer indicates that he is no dull clod who knows only English but an elegant person aware of how things are done in le haut monde.
虽然英语作为民族语言被保留了下来，诺曼底征服仍然对其产生了深远的影响，这种影响在词汇领域最为明显。虽然一百多年之后，法语不再是许多英格兰居民的母语，但是仍然有许多人热衷于学习法语，视之为高雅和修养的标志。英国人对法语的这种热情甚至延续至今。说英语时，人们表达的不仅法兰西民族的思想和事物，还有其对应的语言。这种表达不但容易而且具有社会功能。与人交谈时如果能用上一些法语词汇能体现自己是一个有教养的、优雅的、与时俱进的人。最后这句话恰恰说明了这一趋势仍在延续。作者用法语词au courant取代英语词abreast of things，表明了自己不是一个只懂英语的书呆子，而是一位对上流社会的习惯有充分了解的高雅人士。
Thus French words came into English, all sorts of the1n. There were words to do with government: parliament, majesty, treaty, alliance, tax, government; church words: parson, sermon, baptism, incense, crucifix, religion; words for foods: veal, beef, mutton, bacon, jelly, peach, lemon, cream, biscuit; household words: curtain, chair, lamp, towel, blanket, parlor; play words: dance, music, conversation; literary words: story, poet, literary; learned words: study, logic, grammar, stomach; just ordinary words of all sorts: nice, second, very, age, flower, surprise, plain
就这样大量的法语词汇进入了英语，涉及生活的方方面面。关于政府的词汇有parliament, tax, government；关于教会的词汇有parson, crucifix, religion；关于食物的词汇有veal, beef, mutton, cream, biscuit；关于家居的词汇有curtain, chair, parlor；关于娱乐的词汇有dance, music, conversation；关于文学的词汇有story, poet, literary；关于学习的词汇有study, logic, grammar, stomach；以及各种常用词如nice, second, very, age, flower, surprise, plain等。
All these and thousands more poured into English vocabulary between 1100 and 1500 until, at the end of that time, many people must have had more French words than English at their command.
在公元1100年至1500年之间，成千上万个法语词汇涌入英语。到这一时代结束时，人们使用的法语词汇甚至超过了母语词汇。
Middle English, then, was still a Germanic language, but it differed from Old English in many ways. The sound system and the grammar changed a good deal. Speakers made less use of case systems and other inflectional devices and relied more on word order and structure words to express their n1eanings. This is often said to be a simplification, but it is not really. Languages do not become si1npler; they merely exchange one kind of complexity for another.
尽管受到法语的影响，中世纪英语仍然是一门日耳曼语，但是与古英语有许多区别：语音系统和语法系统有了很大的变化。格系统和其他曲折变化的使用减少了，在表达句子成分之间的关系时对语序和结构词的依赖加强了。这些演变往往被视为一种简化，但其实并非如此。语言并没有因此而得到简化，而是用一种复杂的形式来取代另一种复杂的形式
Sometimes Modern English is further divided into Early Modern, 1500 -1700, and Late Modern, 1700 to the present.
现代英语还可以进一步细分为近代英语（1500-1700）和当代英语（1700年至今）。
The greatest writer of the Early Modern English period is of course William Shakespeare and the best-known book is the King Ja1nes Version of the Bible, wl1ich has made many features of Early Modern English perfectly familiar to many people down to the present time. For instance, the old pronouns thou and thee have dropped out of use now, but they are still familiar to us in prayer and in Biblical quotations.
近代英语时期最伟大的作家毫无疑问是莎士比亚，最闻名遐迩的著作是詹姆斯国王钦定版的《圣经》。正是由于这部著作，当代人对近代英语的许多特征仍然耳熟能详。例如，虽然原来的人称代词thou和thee已经不用了，但在祷告和圣经引文中仍广为人知。
The history of English since 1700 is filled with many movements and countermovements, one of which is the vigorous attempt made in the eighteenth century, and the rather half-hearted attempts made since, to regulate and control the English language.
自从1700年以来，英语的发展起起落落，几经变革。18世纪对英语用法的规范及确定就是一项积极的尝试，此后又有一系列这方面的尝试，但是这些尝试显得有些漫不经心。
In part a product of the wish to fix and establish the language was the development of the dictionary. The first English dictionary was published in 1603; it was a list of 2,500 words briefly defined. Many others were published with gradual improvements until Samuel Johnson24 published his English Dictionary in 1755. This, steadily revised, dominated the field in England for nearly a hundred years. The last century has seen the publication of one great dictionary: the twelve-volume Oxford English Dictionray, compiled in the course of seventy-Jive years through the labors of many scholars. We have also, of course. numerous commercial dictionaries which are as good as, the public wants them to be if not, indeed, rather better.
发展字典的原因之一就是为了确立英语这门语言并规定其用法。第一部英语字典出版于1603年，包含了2500个单词的简单定义。此后又有许多字典问世，不断取得进步。直到1755年塞缪尔·约翰逊出版了《词典》，几经修订，这部字典在此后的100年中成为了权威。上个世纪，一部伟大的字典出版了，那就是长达12卷的《牛津英语字典》，这部字典的编撰历时75年，集合无数学者的心血。此外，还编撰了许多商务字典，即使不能算尽善尽美，至少也满足了人们的实际需求。
Another product of the eighteenth century was the invention of “English grammar”. As English came to replace Latin as the language of scholarship, it was felt that one should also be able to control and dissect it, parse and analyze it, as one could Latin. What happened in practice was that the grammatical description that applied to Latin was removed and superimposed on English. This was silly, because English is an entirely different kind of language, with its own forms and signals and ways of producing meaning. Nevertheless, English grammars on the Latin model were worked out and taught in the schools. In many schools they are still being taught. This activity is not often popular with school children, but it is sometimes an interesting and instructive exercise in logic. The principal harm in it is that it has tended to keep people from being interested in English and has obscured the real features of English structure.
十八世纪的另一项成果是制定了英语语法。随着英语取代拉丁语成为学术领域的通用语言，人们感到有必要象拉丁语一样对这门语言进行限定、分析或描述。实际的做法是用分析拉丁语的语法描述法来分析英语。这种做法相当愚蠢，因为英语是一门完全不同的语言，拥有独立的形式、符号和表达意思的方式。然而，人们仍然按照拉丁语的模式制定了英语语法并且使用到教学中。许多学校现在仍然在教授这样的英语语法。虽然不受学生的欢迎，但有时候也是一项有趣且有益的逻辑练习。这种教学法最大的危害是往往会使人们失去对学习英语的兴趣，并且掩盖了英语语言结构的真实特征。
But probably the most important force on the development of English in the modern period has been the tremendous expansion of English-speaking peoples. In 1500 English was a minor language, spoken by a few people on a small island. Now it is perhaps the greatest language of the world, spoken natively by over a quarter of billion people and as a second language. by many millions more.
然而推动现代英语发展的最重要的力量是说英语人口的大量扩张。在1500年，英语只是一门小语言，是一个小岛上的一小群居民的母语。现在则成了世界第一语言，是2.5亿人的母语，更是数亿人的第二语言。