第1687期:How the Romans influenced English

The Romans lived in Britain between 43AD and 410AD but their legacy is still felt today and not just in physical ruins. The Romans left us language, including some common English words.

罗马人在公元 43 年到 410 年间居住在英国，但他们的遗产今天仍然可以感受到，而不仅仅是物质上的废墟。罗马人给我们留下了语言，包括一些常用的英语单词。

During the Roman Empire, Latin, an ancient language, was spoken in many parts of Britain. While the Romans wrote in classical Latin, they conversed in vulgar Latin – colloquial, everyday language that was used between soldiers and in trade. Because of trade, words that stuck often relate to food and drink, such as ‘wine’, which came from the Latin ‘vinum’. Others relate to dwellings such as ‘kitchen’, derived from the verb ‘cook’, and ‘wall’, which originally referred to a stake or post outside a fort.↳

在罗马帝国时期，不列颠的许多地方都使用拉丁语这种古老的语言。罗马人用古典拉丁语写作时，他们用粗俗的拉丁语交谈——口语化的日常语言，在士兵之间和贸易中使用。由于贸易，卡住的词通常与食物和饮料有关，例如“葡萄酒”，它来自拉丁语“vinum”。其他与住宅有关，例如“厨房”源自动词“厨师”和“墙”，最初指的是堡垒外的木桩或柱子。

Settlements and roads in Roman times were extensive. The word ‘street’, used generally as well as being used for specific names of streets, originally came from ‘strata’ which meant paved road. On a similar note, academic research from the field of linguistics indicates many well-known place names in the UK owe their origin to Latin. For example, the Romans used ‘castrum’ to refer to a city, which developed into the common place ending -chester, -caster or -cester. Consider Manchester. It is a former Roman fort which was known as Mamuciam. Other places with Roman derivations include Lancaster and Leicester.

罗马时代的定居点和道路十分广阔。 “街道”这个词，一般使用以及用于街道的特定名称，最初来自“strata”，意思是铺砌的道路。同样，语言学领域的学术研究表明，英国许多著名的地名都起源于拉丁语。例如，罗马人用“castrum”来指代一个城市，后来发展成以-chester、-caster 或-cester 结尾的常见地方。想想曼彻斯特。它是一座前罗马堡垒，被称为 Mamuciam。其他源自罗马的地方包括兰开斯特和莱斯特。

A significant impact on English which came from the Romans is the use of the Roman alphabet. Manuscripts of Old English texts have shown a version not unalike written English today. Differences include some letters however, such as two symbols called ‘ash’ and ‘eth’. Nowadays you are more likely to see these symbols in a guide to pronunciation.

罗马人对英语的重大影响是使用罗马字母表。古英语文本的手稿显示的版本与今天的书面英语并无不同。但是，差异包括一些字母，例如称为“ash”和“eth”的两个符号。如今，您更有可能在发音指南中看到这些符号。

So, even though 1,600 years have passed, the Romans live on.

因此，即使 1600 年过去了，罗马人仍然存在。

词汇表

legacy 遗产
ruins 遗址
Empire 帝国
ancient 古老的
converse 和…交谈
vulgar 通俗的
colloquial 口语的，非正式的
trade 买卖，贸易
stuck 保留下来
wine 红酒
dwellings 房屋
stake 桩子
fort 堡垒
settlements 定居点
extensive 广阔的，覆盖范围广的
paved 铺砌的
owe their origin 起源于
former 早前的
derivations 衍生物，起源
alphabet 字母表
manuscript 手写本