你曾有这样的疑问吗?为什么英文里面，牛可以是beef，也可以是cow; 猪可以是pork，也可以是pig…
看看其他国家是怎么表达“猪”的？就拿我们中文为例吧，我们指动物的时候会说“猪”，餐桌上的“猪”也是“猪”， 当然我们会具体说是猪肉，而牛就是牛肉，羊就是羊肉…如此类推，但猪这个字是不会变的。但为什么偏偏在英文里，同一样东西会用不一样的字来表达？那是因为pig, cow, sheep……是从德语系来的，因此它们连发音也与德语也很相似；当在餐桌上表达肉食的时候，就成了pork, beef, mutto……那是因为它们的本质上是法语来的，这就是语源最有魅力的地方。我们要追溯到1066年法国诺曼底公爵发动对英格兰的入侵，史称“诺曼征服英格兰”，这是每一个英国学生一定要知道的历史。其中最具决定性的一战——黑斯廷斯之战，从此彻底改变了英格兰的走向。这次外族入侵的结果，不但改变了英格兰的文化，甚至是其语言，加深了英格兰受欧洲大陆的影响。诺曼底王朝建立后，古英语的发展进入低谷，古法语取而代之（古法语和拉丁语很相似）成为统治阶级的通用语，并逐步形成了流行于上层的盎格魯–诺曼语。当时的诺曼底公爵（威廉一世）是法兰克人国王的封臣，由于他身兼英格兰国王，在英格兰建立强大的王权统治，使他的实力远超法兰克人的国王，最终成为了英法百年战争的导火线之一，当然这都是后话。当时的法国侵略者住在城堡里，他们吃着猪肉或牛肉。而本地穷人则和畜生一起住，然后屠宰牲口给法国人享用。于是，法国人就用法语表示供在餐桌上的肉类，用英文来表示活的牲口。因为贫穷的下等英国人只配照顾畜生，而肉则是供给上流法国贵族享用的佳肴美食，这就是为什么同一种动物，会用两个不一样的字去形容了。
因此许多英文，不是从德语系来，就是从拉丁语中来，也有相当一部分是从其他国家借来的。大家猜一猜，“come in” （进来）这个单词，是德语还是法语？答案是：德语。如果你对欧洲的语言有一定的认识，你大概就能很快明白为什么了。然而表示“进来”的单词还有”enter”，但它却是法语。结论是“come in”和“enter”是同一个意思，但来自不同的语源，我们还可以举很多这样的例子，例如Food/Nutrition (食物），Get/Receive(收到），House/Domicile（住所）…..大家不妨试试翻开字典查一下这些单词的词源，你有没有发现词源和正式与非正式语言的关系。没错，词源来自拉丁语的是正式语言，所谓正式语言，就是在交际场合所使用的一种仔细的、非个人的公共说话模式（多数用于公开演讲、教科书和商业信涵等）。 反之，就是非正式语言（常用于日常口语和短信等），而来自德语的词源就是非正式语言。
下一周，我会讲述在口译过程中，如何用准确的方式去表达不同层次的正式或非正式语言。
Have you ever thought about why apparently we use beef and pork, but not cow and pig?
What does your language to express “pork”? The meat. Do you have a special words for it? It is different from the word “pig”. In other languages,is the word you use for meat significantly different? Like in Germany or China, you talk the animal is pig, and their meat is pig meat. So It the same ? answer: NO. But in English it has completely different words with these. We have pork, beef, mutton(which is old sheep), why do English have these differences? So the words like animals like pig, cow, sheep….where do you think they from? They are Germanic as they are very similar in the German words. But the words pork, beef, mutton….they are essentially French words. Do you know about The Norman Conquest? The year 1066, the French came over and invaded the island of Britain and there was a new French King (the old English Germanic speaking King was killed) so the new group of people who are French speaking took over the King and the government. That’s called the Battle of Hastings, and everybody who does history in school in England knows this, because it was the last time that the country was successfully taken over by another country which is advantage being an island. If you are French, you’ll living in the castle, you eat pork and beef. But the people who keep the animals down there they have pigs and cows, but we eat the pig and the cow, we don’t go near the animals, only peasants who are near the animals and killed animals for us, we just get the meat. So We use the French words to talk about the meat, but the English words to talk about the animals, because it was the poor English peasants who are minding the animals and the rich French noble who are eating the meat.
So lot of English words either come from Germanic words or Latin words but there are lots of words borrowed from other languages, some countries more than others. Think about the word “come in”, are they Germanic or French? It is Germanic, if you have a little understanding of European languages you probably understand a little bit of these. But another word means the same thing “enter”, but that is French, they mean the same thing. English also have lots of words that mean the same but have different origins. We can have more examples like, Food/Nutrition, Get/Receive, Go/Depart, House/domicile…..please search the etymology of the words, do you notice about the origin of formal and informal or neutral words?
Yes, the words which are of Latin origin are formal, and those words which are Germanic origin are informal.
So next topic I will explain to you how to use the correct register in English to give a level of formality or informality when you are interpreting.
