西班·汤普森 | 英美英语的拼写区分

Spelling, everybody’s favourite subject. Now as I’m sure you all know, we Brits spell a lot of words very differently from you Yanks. Words such as plough, realise, fibre and so on. But why is that? Well, let’s go and find out.

拼写，所有人最喜欢的话题。我想大家肯定都知道我们英国人有很多单词的拼写异于你们美国人。例如“plough”、“realise”、“fibre”之类的。但这是为什么呢？我们来探究一下吧。

Hi, I’m Siobhan Thompson and this is Anglophenia. Now, up until about 250 years ago, nobody really cared about the proper spelling of things. They only cared about the spoken word, even names were spelt more fluidly. Documents show that during his lifetime, Shakespeare himself spelt his own name in 16 different ways. Then sometime around the late 18th century, British lexicographers such as Samuel Johnson and John Walker came along and said: “This is how a proper Englishman should spell. Blah, blah…”

嗨，我是西邦·汤普森，这里是“缺英”频道。约250年前，其实没有人在乎单词的正确拼写。他们只在乎口语用词，就连名字的拼写也很随意。资料显示，在莎士比亚的一生中用了16种不同的方式拼写自己的名字。然后到了18世纪晚期的某一时间，英国词典编纂者如萨缪尔·约翰逊和约翰·沃克说：“正统的英国人应该这么说话才对......”

At the same time, across the pond, Americans were shaking off British rule. An American named Noah Webster, yes, that Webster, spoke out and said: "In addition to having its own nation, America should have its own language.” Webster wanted American English words to be spelt closer to the way that they’re sounded. The differences that we see today in British versus American English were first solidified in his dictionary.

以此同时大西洋那边的美国正在摆脱英国的统治。一个叫诺亚·韦伯斯特（对，就是编辞典的那个）的美国人表示：“美国除了要拥有自己的国家，还应该拥有自己的语言。”韦伯斯特希望美国英语单词的拼写更接近发音。我们今天看到的英式英语和美式英语的区别最早就是在他的辞典中固定的。

THEATRE VS THEATER

Words ending in “re” in Britain such as “centre” and ”sabre” were changed so that they ended in “er（center，saber）”.

以“re”结尾的英国单词如“centre”、“sabre”被改成以“er”结尾。

CATALOGUE VS CATALOG

The words catalogue and analogue lost the silent “ue” that they had on the end（catalog）.

单词“catalogue”和“analogue”失去了词末不发音的“ue”。

HONOUR VS HONOR

Most of “our” endings lost the “u”, words such as armour, behaviour, humour and savour. This helped differentiate them from other “our” ending words that sounded less like /r/ and more like /aur/, words such as flour, hour and sour.

大部分“our”结尾的单词失去了“u”，例如：“armour”、“behaviour”、“humour”、“savour”。这有助于区分其他以“our”结尾的单词听起来不像/r/更像/aur/，例如：“flour”、“hour”、“sour”。

ORGANISE VS ORGANIZE

And the “ise” endings in words such as authorise, recognise and sympoblise were changed to an “ize”. For many of these “ise” words it wasn’t so much a change as a return to its original form. The first usage of the word realise with an “s” was in 1755, whereas realize with a “z” was seen back in 1611. Webster also wanted the word “tongue” to be spelt “T-U-N-G”. But I can understand that one didn’t quite stick.

而像“sympoblise”、“recognise”、“authorise”等词末的“ise”则被改成了“ize”。对于这些“ise”单词，与其说是改变，不如说是回归原型。带“s”的“realise”最早使用于1755年，然而带“z”的“realize”则可追溯到1611年。韦伯斯特也希望“tongue”这个单词被拼成“tung”。但我料想那个用法没有坚持下来。

Those are some generally categories of spelling differences between Britain and America. But there are plenty of words that spelt differently that don’t fit into any of these groups. There’s aluminium and aluminum, programme and program, and even kerb versus curb. Each of one of these has its own story and very well may be the topic of a whole episode of Anglophenia.

以上大概地总结了几种英美单词拼写的区别，然而有很多拼写不同的单词并不能归于上述任何一类。例如：“aluminium”和“aluminum”，“programme”和“program”，甚至是“kerb”和“curb”。这些单词都有着各自的故事，很有可能成为一整集“缺英”的主题。

So if you’re an American writing to a friend in the UK about how on your flight home. The aeroplane had to manoeuvre down on the runway because there was a problem with the tyre. Just make sure that you spelt everything correctly. Yes, that’s right. I said spelt with a “t”.

如果你是美国人要写信给英国的朋友讲述回航过程中的经历：飞机不得被调降到跑道，因为有个轮胎出了问题。请确保你把所有单词拼对。没错，我说的“spelt”是带“t”的。

Thanks for watching. Subscribe for more episodes and let us know in the comments if you’re interested in the origins and history of language and what words you want to get to the root of.

感想观看，订阅以获取更多节目，敬请评论。如果你对语言的起源和历史感兴趣，还有你想探究到底的单词，请让我们知道。