世界小史 第103期:太陽(yáng)
"But wait a minute!" you say. If they all spoke1 different languages, how could using the same script make any difference?
“但等一下。”你說(shuō)。如果他們?nèi)颊f(shuō)不同的語(yǔ)言，他們?cè)趺从猛环N文字區(qū)分呢？
Well, Chinese writing is special.
中國(guó)文字非常特殊。
You can read and understand it even if you don't know a single word of the spoken language.
即使說(shuō)出來(lái)的話你一句也聽不懂，你也能讀懂這種文字。
That must be magic! No, absolutely not, it is really quite simple.
這真神奇！不，一點(diǎn)兒也不，其實(shí)它非常簡(jiǎn)單。
Instead of writing words you write things. If you want to write "sun", You make a picture.
人們寫的不是言語(yǔ)，而是事物。如果你想寫"太陽(yáng)"，你可以畫一幅圖。
Then you can read it in any language: sun in English, soleil in French, or jih in Mandarin2 Chinese.
然后你在任何語(yǔ)言里都可以讀懂它：英語(yǔ)中的sun,法語(yǔ)中的soleil或像中國(guó)人那樣讀jih。
Everyone who knows the sign will know what it means.
每一個(gè)認(rèn)識(shí)這個(gè)符號(hào)的人總是都能讀懂這個(gè)意思的。
Similarly, with the sign for "tree".
相同的，有了“樹”的符號(hào)。
Again it is quite easy, just a couple of strokes.
你就又簡(jiǎn)簡(jiǎn)單單地用幾筆畫一棵樹。
In Mandarin it is pronounced 'mu', but you hardly need to know the sign to guess it is a tree.
在中國(guó)話里它的發(fā)音為"mu"，但你不必知道這個(gè)符號(hào)，便可猜出這是一棵樹。
"All right," you say, I can see that works quite well for things you can draw, but what if you want to write "white"?
“是呀。”你會(huì)說(shuō)，“我看到的東西，你就能把它們畫出來(lái)，可是如果想寫"白"呢？
Do you just paint a blob of white paint?
你會(huì)把白的顏料涂上去嗎？
And what if you want to write "East"? You can hardly draw a picture of "East"!
或者如果你想寫”東方”，那又怎么辦呢？“東方”是畫不出來(lái)的！
