Viewpoint: Why do some Americanisms
irritate people?
British people are used to the stream of
Americanisms entering the language. But some are worse than others, argues
Matthew Engel.
英國人已習慣在語言裡使用美式英語。但有些是比其他更糟，馬修·恩格爾說。
I have had a lengthy career in journalism.
I hope that's because editors have found me reliable. I have worked with many
talented colleagues. Sometimes I get invited to parties and meet influential
people. Overall, I've had a tremendous time.
我曾在新聞業界有過漫長的職業生涯。我希望，這是因為編輯們覺得我可靠。我曾與許多才華橫溢的同事共事。有時候，我得到邀請餐與會議並與有影響力的人見面。總之，我過得很愉快。
Lengthy. Reliable. Talented. Influential.
Tremendous.
All of these words we use without a second
thought were not normally part of the English language until the establishment
of the United States
漫長的。可靠的。人才。影響因素。巨大的。
所有的這些字直到美國建立前我們沒有第二個想法認為它是不正常的英語。
The Americans imported English wholesale,
forged it to meet their own needs, then exported their own words back across
the Atlantic to be incorporated in the way we
speak over here. Those seemingly innocuous words caused fury at the time.
美國進口批發英語，鍊造以滿足自己的需要後，然後再出口他們自己的語言橫跨大西洋以被納入變成我們在這裡說話的方式。那些看似無關痛癢的話在那時引起憤怒。
The poet Coleridge denounced
"talented" as a barbarous word in 1832, though a few years later it
was being used by William Gladstone. A letter-writer to the Times, in 1857,
described "reliable" as vile.
詩人柯爾律治在1832年譴責“天才”是野蠻的詞，但幾年後，它被用來形容威廉·格萊斯頓(William
Gladstone英首相)。寫代書人在1857年“紐約時報”，“可靠”就像”卑鄙”。
Find out more
Listen to Matthew Engel discuss
'Americanisms' on Four Thought on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday 13 July at 2045 BST
My grandfather came to London
我的祖父於第一次世界大戰爆發來到倫敦，但從未失去他的中歐洲口音。他的後代已自然融入此景。這就是移民所發生的事。同樣的詞彙也發生遷移。
The French have always hated this process
with a very Gallic passion, and their most august body L'Academie Francaise
issues regular rulings on the avoidance of imported words. English isn't like
that. It is a far more flexible language. Anarchic even.
法國人一直痛恨與高盧的激情融合過程，他們最莊嚴的L'法蘭西學院殿堂定期發布裁決避免進口語字。英語不是這樣的。這是一個遙遠但更為靈活的語言。甚至是無政府主義的。
That's part of the secret of its success.
It has triumphed where Latin, French and the artificial language of Esperanto
all ultimately failed, and become the natural medium of global communication.
This is the version of English sometimes known as "Globish".
這是其成功的秘訣。在拉丁語，法語和世界語人工語言，最終都失敗後它取得了勝利，並成為全球通信的天然媒介。這是英語版本有時被稱為“全球語” (global English)。
Apart from the occasional falling out, the US and the UK
To use it requires only a rudimentary
knowledge of grammar and, so it is said, a vocabulary of a mere 1,500 words.
除了偶爾爭吵之外，美國和英國通常是朋友
要使用它，只需要有一個基本的語法知識，也就是說，只需1500字的詞彙。
But what the world is speaking - even on
levels more sophisticated than basic Globish - is not necessarily our English.
According to the Oxford Guide to World English, "American English has a
global role at the beginning of the 21st Century comparable to that of British
English at the start of the 20th".
但世界所說的話 - 即使比基礎全球語更富有經驗的水平 – 也不一定是我們英語。根據牛津世界英語，美國英語在二十一世紀的開始扮演一個全球性的角色，與20世紀開始時佔一席之地的“英式英語”相媲美。
The alarming part is that this is starting
to show in the language we speak in Britain
令人震驚的是，在我們講英式語言開始展現。美國的慣用法不再是像單一間諜游到我們的海岸，好像“可靠”和“天才”的詞彙那般。他們如軍隊大臨。
In the 1930s, the talkies took hold and
represented the first overwhelming manifestation of American cultural power.
This was reinforced in the 1940s by the presence of large numbers of US servicemen
in Britain
在20世紀30年代，有聲電影緊握住並代表美國文化力量成為勢不可擋的的表現。在英國，美國軍人大量的存在在20世紀40年代加強標誌而20世紀50年代是西部的鼎盛時期。
There may have been a brief pushback after
that, in the era of Swinging London, as Bill Haley and Elvis faded, and the
Beatles and Stones conquered the world, along with words like "fab"
and "groovy". In the years since, however, the movement seems to have
become overwhelming, unstoppable and almost wholly one way, with the exception
of Harry Potter.
有可能在一個短暫的抵觸情緒之後，在搖擺倫敦的時代，當 Bill Haleyy和貓王褪色，披頭四和滾石征服了世界，伴隨著的字眼，例如“極好的”和“絕妙的”。然而，在之後的幾年中，此運動似乎已經成為壓倒性的，不可阻擋的，而且幾乎一面倒的方式，僅哈利·波特的例外。
The coining of the term
創造術語
J Witherspoon, writing in the Pennsylvania
Journal, 1781
The first class I call Americanisms, by
which I understand an use of phrases or terms, or a construction of sentences,
even among persons of rank and education, different from the use of the same
terms or phrases, or the construction of similar sentences, in Great Britain.
1781年，J Witherspoon (Ĵ威瑟斯彭)，在賓夕法尼亞州雜誌the
Pennsylvania Journal寫作。
在大英帝國我稱之為美式英語第一級，使用我理解的詞組或術語，或者一個句子，即使在人的級別和教育，不同於所使用相同的術語或短語，或相似的句子的結構。
The word Americanism, which I have coined
for the purpose, is exactly similar in its formation and signification to the
word Scotticism.
美式英語這個詞，這是我杜撰的目的，與Scotticism(蘇格蘭語法) 的形成和意義的幾乎完全相同。
American culture is ubiquitous in Britain
在英國電視和網絡，美國的文化是無處不在的。當我們的電腦機告訴我們在美國，我持續同意用一個S拼寫許可證。我受邀請去彩色打印東西沒有 “u”。我被告知：“你有郵件”。當然，這總是指電子郵件
–不再是用我們的而是更自然的使用，E-張貼。
As an ex-American resident, I remain a big
fan of baseball. But I sit over here and listen to people who know nothing of
the games talk about ideas coming out of "left field". They speak
about "three strikes and you're out" or "stepping up to the
plate" without the foggiest idea what these phrases mean. I think the
country has started to lose its own sense of itself.
作為一名前美國居民，我仍然是一個棒球迷。但我坐在這裡，聽人們對這種遊戲的術語“左外野”(局外的地位, 外界)一無所知。他們談論的是“三振出局”或“輪到打擊強棒”，不知道這些短語是什麼意思。我認為該國已開始失去自我覺知。
In many respects, English and American are
not coming together. When it comes to new technology, we often go our separate
ways. They have cellphones - we have mobiles. We go to cash points or cash
machines - they use ATMs. We have still never linked hands on motoring
terminology - petrol, the boot, the bonnet, known in the US
在許多方面，英國和美國並非真的在一起。當涉及到新技術，我們經常各奔東西。他們稱 cellphones手機 - 我們有mobiles 手機。我們去現金積分或現金機器 - 他們使用自動櫃員機。在監測技術我們仍然沒有共同術語 - 汽油，啟動，發動機罩，同樣的名稱在美國則稱為氣體，後備箱，引擎蓋上。
Britain is a very distinct country from the US
Yet in the course of my own lifetime,
countless routine British usages have either been superseded or are being
challenged by their American equivalents. We no longer watch a film, we go to
the movies. We increasingly have trucks not lorries.
A hike is now a wage or price rise not a walk in the country.
Ugly and pointless new usages appear in the
media and drift into everyday conversation:
Faze, as in "it doesn't faze me"
然而，在我自己的一生的過程中，無數的英國的常規用法受到美國同等價物的挑戰或被取代。我們看電影不再使用watch a film，而是使用go to the movies。我們逐漸用 trucks(貨車)而不是lorries貨車。hike 現在意思是工資或物價上漲而不是在鄉間遠足。
醜陋的和毫無意義的新用途出現在媒體和漂移到日常的談話：
煩擾，在於“不煩擾我”
Hospitalize, which really is a vile word
Wrench for spanner
Elevator for lift
Rookies for newcomers, who seem to
have flown here via the sports pages.
Guy, less and less the centrepiece of the
ancient British festival of 5 November - or, as it will soon be known, 11/5.
Now someone of either gender.
住院治療，真的是一個討厭的字眼
扳手Wrench 與扳手 spanner
電梯Elevator 與升降機 lift
新秀的新人，似乎藉由報紙的體育版已經飛到這裡。
And, starting to creep in, such horrors
as ouster, the process of firing someone, and outage, meaning a power
cut. I always read that as outrage. And it is just that.
I am all for a living, breathing language
that evolves with the times. I accept that estate agents prefer to
sell apartments rather than flats - they sound more enticing. I
accept that we now have freight trainsrather than goods trains - that's
more accurate.
然而，這種不知不覺地行進，如同解僱某個人般的，罷黜某人的中斷的過程，意味著權力被解除。我讀來總像被中斷。但這就是這樣。
我就傾集我所有的生活，感受語言參予這個時代。我比較接受 房地經紀人賣apartments 公寓 勝於 flat-這聽來更加誘人。我也接受我們現在有貨物列車 freight trainsrather 的說法比貨運列車goods trains -是更準確的。
Many British people step up to the plate
and have ideas out of left field
I accept that sometimes American phrases
have a vigour and vivacity. A relative of mine told me recently he went to a
business meeting chaired by a Californian woman who wanted everyone to speak
frankly. It was "open kimono". How's that for a vivid expression?
許多英國人準備出擊，卻對成為左外野毫無覺醒。
我承認，有時美國的短語充滿活力和活潑。我的一位親戚告訴我，最近他去參加一個由加州的女人主持的商務會議，希望每個人都能坦白地說。這是“分享開放信息”。怎麼樣才能生動體現？
But what I hate is the sloppy loss of our
own distinctive phraseology through sheer idleness, lack of self-awareness and
our attitude of cultural cringe. We encourage the diversity offered by Welsh
and Gaelic - even Cornish is making a comeback. But we are letting British
English wither.
但是，我所恨惡是因為純然的懶散而草率的損失我們自己獨特的用語，缺乏自我意識和文化畏縮的態度。我們鼓勵威爾士語和蓋爾語所提供的多樣性- 即使康沃爾又捲土重來了。但是，我們讓大英國英語枯萎。
英國和美國還是有區別的國家。並沒有更好，也不是更壞，只是不同。住的愈久愈了解差異。這意味著微妙保持自己的光榮廉，含蓄，柔順版本- - 英文的原始版本完整性。
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