NEED: An International Language
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George J. Hecht
1 History tells us that in ancient Babylon, the cradle of our civilization, the people tried to build a tower that would reach to heaven. But the tower became the tower of Babel, according to the Old Testament, when the people were suddenly caud to speak different languages. (1) In modern New York City, a new tower, that of the United Nations Building, thrusts its shining mass skyward. But the realization of the UN’s aspirations ---- and with it the hopes of the peoples of the world ---- is threatened by our contemporary Babel: about three thousand different languages are spoken throughout the world today, without counting the various dialects that confound communication between peoples of the same land.
2 In China, for example, hundreds of different dialects are spoken; people of some villages have trouble passing the time of day with the inhabitants of the next town. In India more than one hundred languages are spoken, of which only fourteen are recognized as official. To add to the confusion, as the old established empires are broken up and new stat
es are formed, new official tongues spring up at an increasing rate.
3 In a world made smaller by jet travel, man is still isolated from many of his neighbors by the Babel barrier of multiplying languages. Communications is blocked daily in scores of ways. Travelers find it difficult to know the peoples of other nations. Scientists are often unable to read and benefit from the work being carried on by men of science in other countries. The aims of international trade, of world accord, of meetings between nations, are blocked at every turn; the work of scholars, technologists, and humanists is handicapped. Even in the shining new tower of the United Nations in New York, speeches and discussions have to be translated and printed in the five official UN languages ---- English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Chine.
需要：一种国际语言
乔治·J·赫希特
1 历史告诉我们，在古老的巴比伦，我们的文化起源地，人们试图建造一座可以直达天堂
的塔。 但是根据旧约，塔楼成为巴别塔，当时人们突然被要求说不同的语言。 (1)在现代纽约市，联合国大楼的新塔楼将其璀璨的星空推向了天空。 但是实现联合国的愿望-以及随之而来的世界各国人民的希望-受到了我们当代的通天塔的威胁：当今世界上约有三千种不同的语言，不计各种方言 混淆了同一地区人民之间的交流。
2 例如，在中国，人们讲着成成百上千种不同的方言；一些村庄的人们难以与下一个城镇的居民打交道。在印度，人们讲着超过一千多种语言，其中仅仅只有14种语言被认为是官方语言。更令人困惑的是，当旧的帝国瓦解，新的大洲国家建立，新的官方语言以一个不断增长的速度涌现。
3 在一个因为喷射式飞机旅行方式变得更小的世界中，人们仍然因为多种语言的通天塔阻碍与许多邻居隔绝。每天通信都会以多种方式被阻断。旅行者发现很难认识其他国家的人民。 科学家通常无法阅读和受益于其他国家的科学界人士正在进行的工作。国际贸易，世界协议，国家间会议的宗旨轻易会受到阻碍。 学者，技术人员和人文主义者的工作受到限制。甚至在纽约联合国闪耀的新塔楼中，演讲者和讨论着不得不被翻译，并打印五个官方语言——英语，法语，西班牙语，俄语和汉语。
4 The chances for world unity are lesned if we do not speak the same language. We stand in dire need of a common tongue, a language that would cross national barriers, one simple enough to be universally learned by travelers, businessmen, government reprentatives, scholars, and even by children in school.
communistparty5 (2) One of the木瓜是什么意思 main barriers to the adoption of a common language is the fact that there is Babel even among the possible languages we can choo. A number of different simplified languages vie for the spot of the language, and hold uptheir respective advocates defend and attack with the fervor of political campaigners. Basic English, for example, with which virtually anything can be expresd, has many advocates. But the Soviet Union and many nations of Asia and South America object to it. Why English? They ask. Why not Basic Russian, Basic Spanish, even Basic Latin?
6 In addition to the trigger warning意思“basics” of languages now in u, there is another type ---- the so-called “constructed language,” of which some six hundred have made their appearance si
nce the end of the nineteenth century, most of them almost immediate failures. The two best-known survivors among them are, of cour, Esperanto and Interlingua.
7 Esperanto was published in 1887 by a Russian-Polish physician named Zamenhof, who had worked on it for ten years. He gave it to the world not under his own name but under the pudonym Doktoro Esperanto, meaning “Doctor Hopeful.” Esperanto is bad on regularity and ea of grammar, with a vocabulary from Roman Germanic roots. By the end of the century Esperanto had taken hold in Westernalimi Europe.
8 Interlingua made its appearance much later ---- in 1951. A group of linguists from many nations took nearly thirty years to perfect it. Esntially, Interlingua is Latin stripped of its difficulties. 圣诞节英文怎么写Its introducer, Dr. Alexander Gode, refers to it as “a kind of twentieth century kitchen Latin.” Indeed, Interlingua can be read by most college-trained people almost at sight.
4 如果我们没有讲相同的语言，世界团结的机会就会减少。 我们迫切需要一种通用的语言，一种可以跨越国界的语言，一种简单的语言可以被旅行者，商人，政府代表，学者甚
至在校儿童普遍学习。
5 （2）采用通用语言的主要障碍之一是，即使在我们可以选择的所有可能的语言中也存在巴别塔的事实。许多不同的简化语言争夺该语言地盘，他们各自的拥护者在政治运动家的狂热下进行捍卫和攻击。例如，基本英语，几乎可以表达任何东西，有很多倡导者。但是苏联以及亚洲和南美洲的许多国家对此表示反对。 为什么要英语？ 他们问。为什么不用基本俄语，基本西班牙语，甚至是基本拉丁语？
6 除了现在在使用的基本语言之外，还有另一种类型-所谓的“构造语言”，自19世纪末以来，已有大约600种语言出现，它们之中的大部分几乎立即失败。他们之中两个最著名的幸存语言当然是世界语和国际语。
7 世界语于1887年被一个叫做柴门霍夫的俄罗斯波兰医师发表，他从事该研究10年。不是以自己的名字而是以化名“有希望的医生”将这个东西献给了全世界。 世界语的基础是语法的规律性和易用性，词汇源于罗马日耳曼语系。 到本世纪末，世界语已在西欧占据了上风。
8 国际语的出现要晚得多——在1951年。来自许多国家的一组语言学家花了将近30年的时间对其进行完善。 本质上，国际语摆脱了困境。 它的介绍人亚历山大·古德博士将其称为“一种二十世纪的拉丁厨房”。 的确，大多数受过大学训练的人几乎都能阅读国际语。
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9 I do not by any means consider mylf an authority on the relative merits of 颀长the various propod common languages, but Dr. Mario Pei, of Columbia University in New York City, has written a fine book on the subject called One Language for the World. I税务会计师n this book Dr. Pei says he believes that it makes little difference which language or what kind of language becomes the international language, as long as agreement can be reached among the people of the world on any one.
