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華文講座13.華文與西文,孰優?三。 2002-05-05

    英國教授學者評英文。

        詩文若久傳,應取何種文?

        誰 要修改英文?

              為何?

        可行嗎?

華文與西文,孰優?三

圖 & 文: 王 和

© 版權所有
 

 

英人評英文

       語言不停的變遷.今天,普通英國人己經不甚理解六百年前英國 CHAUCER 的詩了(5).九百年前的英皇標準語文與現代的英文,可說是完全不相同(6).英國人還把古英皇語文當是外國文呢! 英文不停的變質,越來越嚴重. 英文需要改革. 1768BENJAMIN FRANKIN 曾提議一套新的英文拼音系統.美國大詞典家NOAH WEBSTER也提倡修改(7).但如何修正,則英國語言專家尚未找到妥當的答案.若增加或改新的注音符號以配合流行英語,則對現代學習,使用英語的人是很便利。但是,現代英語專家GAIR 教授卻認爲,如此的改革將導至英語世界大混亂(8).實際上,早在 GAIR 之前,英國詩人 JOHN DRYDEN, ED. WALLER 及科學家牛頓,已經對英語沒有信心了.甚至還驚叫:英國語文壽命,嗚呼!不長久啦!(9)

 

註 解 與 引 證

 

5. 這是英國大詩人Chaucer(c.1340-1400)的詩.普通英國人不能完全理解  

Ye knowe eek, that in forme of speche is chaunge

With-inne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho

That hadden prys,now wonder nyce and straunge

Us thinketh hem; and yet they spake hem so,

And spedde as wel in love as men now do;

Eek for winne love in sondry ages,

In sondry londes, sondry been usages.

(Great Books of the Western World, The University of Chicago, vol.22,p.22)

 

6. 這是西元1066年的古英文,莫說普通的英國人,很多高中的英文教師也不懂.

On bissum eare be he cyning waes, he

for ut mid scrip-here to eanes Willelme; and

ba hwile com Tosti eorl into Humbran mid 60

scripum. Eadwine eord com mid land-fierde and

darf hine ut: and ba butse-earlas hine forsocon.

and he for to Scotlande mid 12 snaccum, and

hine emette Harald se Norrena cyning mid 300

scipum, andTosti him tobeag. And man cyode

Harolde cyning hu hit waes baer edon and ewor-den, and

he com mid miclum here Englisera

manna and emette hine aet Staengfordes bryege

and hine of slog, and bone eorl Tosti, and eallne

bone here ehtlice ofercom.

 (M.Harris, Culture, People, Nature, Harper Collins, 1993,p.131)

 

Old English, spoken in England around the end of the first millennium, is scarcely recognizable as English. (Of course our linguistic ancestors didn't call their language Old English!) A speaker of Modern English would find the language unintelligible. There are college courses in which old English is studied in much the same way as any foreign language, like French or Swahili. 大約在西元第一世紀末期,英國使用的古英文是很難被認出是英語.(當然,我們的祖先不叫他們的語言是古英語)一個懂現代英語的人是不理解古英文的.有些書院的課程中,古英文被列爲外文,如法文或Swahili文一樣.(Swahili是東非洲的一種語文) Victoria Fromkin and  Robert Rodman, An Introduction to Language, 1974, p.191.臺灣地球出版社(Fromkin Rodman皆是洛杉機市的加州大學教授)

 

An ordinary Englishman of today can hardly go further back than three or four centuries in his own literature; the earliest periods he can only appreciate after special philological study. 現代,一個普通的英國人很難能理解他自己三四百年前的文章;還有最早時期的文章,他須要經過特別語言課程學習後才可理會.

 

To the Chinese, the literature of the millennium is open; his unrivalled love for and knowledge of the ancient culture of his country is largely due to the peculiar nature of his literature language. 但中國人可理解貫通千年文章;他無比的喜愛以及理解他的古代文化,主要原因是有關他的特別語文. Bernhard Karlgren, Sound and Symbol in Chinese, London, Oxford University Press, 1923, p.37

 

7. Throughout the centuries, reforms in the alphabet have been offered. Benjamin Franklin in 1768 proposed for English a new alphabet to fit writing to sound. The great lexicographer, Noah Webster, also advocated such reform. 數世紀以來,曾出現很多拼音文字的革新方案.1768 年,Benjamin Franklin 曾提出一套新拼音方案使書寫與發音相符合.大詞典家 Noah Webster 也提倡革新.. 1989, Collier's Encyclopedia vol. p.605.

 

    The English has changed in many ways since it beginning....(The English language) Beginning in A.D.449....The Old English period lasted from about 500 until about 1100.... The period of Modern English began about 1500. Not a war, but something called the "Great Vowel Shift" marked the beginning of this period. No one knows exactly why, but between 1500 and 1800 the sounds of English vowels changed. Actually, the sounds of English changed more during this period than at any time before or since.... English continues to change. 自從西元449年開始有英文到現在,英文已改變了很多....古英文時期,大約從西元500年到1100....新英語時期大約從1500年開始.不是因戰亂而是因甚么現象叫做 '母音大移動' 開始發生於這時期.無人知確實爲甚么,在1500年到1800年期間,英語的母音已變了.實際上,英語的聲音在此時期的變化多過前期或後期....現在英語繼續變化. 1989, Collier's Dictionary, p.1181

 

Calls for changes in English spelling first appeared in the middle of the sixteenth century. Some of the proposals of the early reformers have left permanent effects on English spelling....The majority of English words conform to regular rules of sound-spelling correspondences, but there are enough exceptions to create the impression that English spelling is chaotic.呼籲改革英語拼音法首次出現在十六世紀期中.在英語拼音方面,有些早期改革家的提案曾留下長久的影響力....大部份英文的拼寫與語音都互相符合,可是現在已經有足夠的例外文詞造成感覺英語拼音是混亂(拼寫與語音不相符合。請參考『英語的真相』的註34). Sydney Greenbaum, The Oxford English Grammar, Oxford University Press, 1996, p.565.

 

8. Such an approach ( Alphabet reform ) would bring written English to a state of total confusion.  如此的進行( 改革拼音文字)將會導至英文完全混亂的狀態. 1989, Collier's Encyclopedia, vol.1 p.605. James W. Gair.

 

9.The English language, perhaps like the mass of English society itself, was unruly and unrefined. "How barbarously we yet write and speak," exclaimed the poet Dryden, voicing a common view. The language, it was thought, should to be send to school. But how ?   可能好象英國大衆社會的本身一樣,英語曾是猖獗和不文雅的."事至今天,我們所談和所寫的,還是多麽粗野阿!" 詩人Dryden 1631-1700)感歎說出大衆的觀感.這種語言(英語 ),曾被考慮,應該送到學校(受訓).但是如何(修改)? Robert McCrum , The story of English, Faber and Faber, 1986, p.128.

 

   John Dryden, the finest English stylist of his time, admitted that he sometimes had to translate an idea into Latin to find the correct way to express it in English ! Latin was the great example of a language that has lasted, precisely because it was ordered. To write in English, on other hand, seemed to be inviting oblivion.  The poet Edmund Waller spoke for many writers when he observed :    John Dryden 在他時代,是英國最優秀獨特的作家,他曾承認,有時候,他要把一個思潮轉換成拉丁後,才能找到正規的路線來表達成英文.因爲拉丁文法有規則,所以拉丁文曾是長久準確語文的大榜樣.用英文寫作,可說,似乎是自尋湮沒.詩人Edmund Waller 在評論時,曾道出了衆多作作家的心聲:

 

PRIVATE But who can hope his line should long

誰敢希望他的詩篇可長久

Last, in a daily changing tongue ?

在這日日變遷的舌頭?

While they are new, Envy prevails ;

當新鮮,大衆欣慕;

Poets that Lasting Marble seek,

若想變成金石永不化,

Must carve in Latin or in Greek ;

務必鑄成拉丁或希臘;

We write in Sand...

我們寫在沙...

  

 

詩文若久傳,

豈能靠舌端?

日日皆有變,

欣慕一時新.

 

欲求芳百世,

必尋金石間.

拉丁希臘語,

方鑄不朽篇.

 

於今風騷賦,

卻在沙中看.

 

此篇五言,是南開大學葉玉龍教授翻譯.

 

     Robert McCrum, William Cran, Robert Macneil, The story of English, Faber and Faber, 1986, p.129.

 

    筆者觀點:小時,筆者在天主教學校讀法文,每逢參加朝拜禮,聽教士唱頌拉丁經文時,總是感到莊嚴悠揚平安神秘高深(因為不懂所唱的詞語). 現在幾乎全部天主教和基督教堂都不用拉丁文唱了(因為聽眾感到是故弄玄虛,愚弄侮辱)!普通的英人教師也不會拉丁文!倘若拉丁語文是真金,它就不會變化啦!?

 

    拉丁語文是古羅馬語文.現代,除了天主教士和一些學者可理解之外,可說它是語文.它演變成今日的意,法,葡,西,羅馬尼阿等語文.有部份英文詞語也本原于拉丁語文. 拉丁語文怎樣演變成? 恐怕西方學者無法可知了!中國語文的來原是可尋的.經歷三千年風霜,華文仍然普遍.拉丁文,安可相比!倘若西人真心想用比較長久的文字,他們老早就應該採用華文!在後是日本天皇(786-809)作的詩,雖然曾經歷一千二百年的春秋,不但中日二國古人皆可知,甚至今天兩國的中小學生還可理解大部份的字:

        三春,出獵重城外.

四望,江山勢轉雄.

        逐兔,馬蹄承落日.

追禽,鷹翮拂輕塵. 

 

(詩意 :       三月的春天時候, 我出去打獵在重城的外邊.

我四周觀望, 山河地勢顯得雄偉.

              追逐野兔到下午, 我的馬腳底還踏在太陽上.

爲了追察飛禽, 獵鷹的翅膀還拍動在輕塵能飛到的高空處.)

 

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井田汉字,独一无二的汉字结体构形理论,科学地解决数码时代汉字所面临的问题。

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