英式英語(yǔ)藥丸？連英國(guó)人都開始使用美式拼寫了

現(xiàn)在有消息稱，英式英語(yǔ)地位不穩(wěn)，就連英國(guó)人都開始使用美式英語(yǔ)了……

British English may have come first, but around the world, the American way of spelling is now far more popular.

英式英語(yǔ)出現(xiàn)的較早，但從全球看，現(xiàn)今美式英語(yǔ)的拼寫方式卻更受歡迎。

A recent examination of these two variants of the English language show that publications now largely use the American version, swapping words like ‘centre’ for ‘center’ after the 1880s.

近期一項(xiàng)對(duì)這兩種拼寫的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，現(xiàn)在的出版物廣泛使用的是美式寫法，自從19世紀(jì)80年代后，就有把“centre”替換成了“center”等類似情況出現(xiàn)。

According to the data, this shift was further strengthened around the time of World War I – and as the language evolved, even the British have ditched the spelling of some words for their trans-Atlantic counterparts.

數(shù)據(jù)顯示，這種替換現(xiàn)象在第一次世界大戰(zhàn)時(shí)尤為明顯。隨著英語(yǔ)的發(fā)展，甚至連英國(guó)人都開始使用美式拼寫了。

The charts revealed on Steemit were generated using Google Ngram Viewer, and show the usage trends of numerous words between 1800 and 2000. In the graphs, American spelling is shown in blue, and the British version is indicated in red.

社交媒體Steemit上流傳的這些圖表是用谷歌Ngram Viewer制作的，展示了1800年至2000年間大量詞語(yǔ)的使用趨勢(shì)。在圖表中，美式拼寫以藍(lán)色線條表示，英式的則為紅色。

Among many words, including ‘grey’ and ‘flavour,’ British English can be seen dwindling around 1880, when American English began to cross into wider use.

英式英語(yǔ)中許多詞語(yǔ)，如“grey”和“flavor”等，都在1880年左右開始衰落，而那時(shí)美式英語(yǔ)開始盛行。

Since then, English-language publications have preferred ‘gray’ and ‘flavor,’ and despite fluctuations in use over the years, they’ve remained more popular than the preceding versions since overtaking them.

從那以后，英語(yǔ)出版物更偏愛使用“gray”和“flavor”等拼寫方式，盡管這些年使用頻率有所波動(dòng)，但是這種美式英語(yǔ)的拼寫方式在取代了英式的地位之后，一直保持著主流地位。

The American way of spelling has continued to grow in usage over the years, with ‘liter’ passing ‘litre’ around 1900, and ‘center’ becoming the more common choice over ‘centre’ in 1913.

近年來(lái)人們繼續(xù)偏愛美式拼寫，大約在1900年時(shí)，“liter”代替了“litre”，1913年，“center”取代了“centre”。

‘1913 marked a turning point in the usage of the British spelling, as the American alternative became more frequently used in literature,’ the post explains, in regards to 'center.'

提到“center”一詞時(shí)，博主解釋道，隨著美式英語(yǔ)在文學(xué)作品中的頻繁出現(xiàn)，1913年成為了英式拼寫的一個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)。

‘This was just a year before the beginning of World War I, which many view as a key period in America’s rise to superpower status.’

而這一年正是第一次世界大戰(zhàn)爆發(fā)的前一年，一戰(zhàn)被視為美式拼寫取得主流地位的關(guān)鍵時(shí)期。

During World War I, the world also began to favor ‘defense’ over the British English version, ‘defence.’

第一次世界大戰(zhàn)期間，人們對(duì)“defense”一詞的喜愛也超過了英式版本的“defence”。

Though this switched again between 1920 and the late 1930s, the American spelling took over for good around 1940.

盡管在1920年至1930年末期之間，英式拼寫曾經(jīng)搶回過一次其“地位”，但是在1940年，美式拼寫永遠(yuǎn)地確立了其主導(dǎo)地位。

Around the same time, use of the spelling ‘airplane’ spiked dramatically over ‘aeroplane,’ and continued to dominate through the century.

同時(shí)，“airplane”一詞以迅雷不及掩耳之勢(shì)取代了“aeroplane”，并且一直被廣泛使用。

For many years, British English maintained its hold on ‘honour,’ grappling with the American version for years as the two flip-flopped in popularity around the world.

曾經(jīng)，英式英語(yǔ)的“honour”一詞與美式英語(yǔ)版本的流行度不相上下，由此二詞展開了長(zhǎng)期的拉鋸戰(zhàn)。

In the 1970s, however, American English gained a clear lead as ‘honor’ increasingly became the more spelling of choice.

但在20世紀(jì)70年代，美式拼寫“honor”明顯處于領(lǐng)先地位，“honor”逐漸成為更受歡迎的拼寫方式。

‘If there were ever a word that failed to make it across the Atlantic, it must be ‘gaol,’ the post says.

“如果說(shuō)曾經(jīng)有一個(gè)詞沒有跨過太平洋，被美式化的話，這個(gè)詞肯定是’gaol’”，博主稱。

‘Ever since the middle of the 19th century it has been fading into obscurity as even the British Isles slowly rejected the old spelling.’

19世紀(jì)中期以后，這個(gè)詞變得越來(lái)越少見，連英國(guó)各島都開始逐漸拒絕使用這種舊的拼寫方式。