2020年經濟學人 約翰遜語言專欄--關于蘇格蘭語地位的政治辯論(1)

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來源于《圖書和藝術》版塊

Johnson

約翰遜語言專欄

A cup o’ kindness

一杯善意的酒

A politically charged debate over the status of the Scots tongue

關于蘇格蘭語地位的政治辯論

As they cleared their heads after Burns Night on January 25th, having celebrated their national poet with whisky and haggis, another hangover loomed for Scots in less than a week’s time. A majority of them rejected Brexit in the referendum of 2016, whereas a majority in the United Kingdom overall supported it. Scotland is now leaving the European Union against its will—prompting a renewed call for Scotland, in turn, to leave the UK.

在1月25日的彭斯之夜，蘇格蘭人用威士忌和羊雜碎慶祝完民族詩人之后清醒了，而同時不到一周的時間內，他們又被新一輪宿醉籠罩。他們中的大多數在2016年的公投中反對脫歐，而英國的大多數人總體上支持脫歐。蘇格蘭現在違背自己的意愿離開歐盟，這促使人們再次呼吁蘇格蘭離開英國。

1.jpgNaturally, the case for independence plays up characteristics that di?erentiate Scotland from England. Among them is language, which diverges from the talk south of the border in two main ways. One is Gaelic, a Celtic language impenetrable to outsiders (it is related closely to Irish and Manx but only distantly to English), which, however, is spoken only by around 50,000 people, or about 1% of Scotland’s population. The bigger di?erence is Scots—though quite how di?erent it is remains a matter of debate.

當然，獨立的主張強調了蘇格蘭與英格蘭的不同之處。其中之一是語言，它從兩方面偏離了南部邊境的語言。其中之一是蓋爾語，這是一種外人無法理解的凱爾特語言(它與愛爾蘭語和曼克斯語關系密切，但與英語關系不大)，然而，只有大約5萬人(約占蘇格蘭人口的1%)講這種語言。更大的區別是蘇格蘭語——盡管有多大的不同仍然是一個有爭議的問題。

As soon as you cross over from England, syntax and pronunciation change sharply. While the dialects of northern England have much in common with each other, the break at the border is stark. Because of that, some observers think Scots is not a dialect of English but a distinct (if related) language. The proindependence Scottish National Party a?rms as much in its manifestos.

一旦你從英格蘭過來，語法和發音就會有很大的變化。雖然英格蘭北部的方言彼此之間有很多共同之處，但在邊界上的分歧是明顯的。正因為如此，一些觀察家認為蘇格蘭語不是英語的一種方言，而是一種獨特的(如果相關的話)語言。主張獨立的蘇格蘭民族黨在其競選宣言中也做出了同樣的聲明。