It stretches from the north of India all the way to Western Europe.

它從印度北部一直延伸到西歐。

Almost half of the global population speaks an Indo-European language and that includes you and me.

全球近一半人口講印歐語，包括你和我。

English is a Indo-European language, specifically part of the Germanic branch of the family, along with languages like German, Dutch and Swedish.

英語屬於印歐語系，特別是日耳曼語族的一部分，其他語言還有德語、荷蘭語和瑞典語。

In the early fifth century, the Romans, who had ruled over England for over 400 years, withdrew their hold over the island, filling this vacuum.

在五世紀初，統治英格蘭長達四百多年的羅馬人撤離了對這個島嶼的統治，填補了這一空白。

A number of Germanic tribes from Denmark in the north of Germany ventured onto the island and slowly replaced the Celtic and Romano-British cultures that had been dominant in the area.

來自德國北部丹麥的一些日耳曼部落冒險進入這個島嶼，逐漸取代了當地區域中主導的凱爾特和羅馬不列顛文化。

Celtic speakers became concentrated in Wales, Scotland and Cornwall.

凱爾特語言的使用者逐漸集中在威爾士、蘇格蘭和康沃爾。

While the area we now know as England became culturally Germanic.

與此同時，我們現在稱之為英格蘭的地區在文化上變得更加日耳曼。

The Germanic peoples in Britain, while from a number of separate tribes eventually developed a common cultural identity as Anglo Saxons.

在不同的日耳曼部落進入英國後，最終形成了一個共同的文化身份，即盎格魯-撒克遜人。

And with these Anglo Saxons, our story truly begins.

隨著這些盎格魯-撒克遜人，我們的故事真正開始。

The Anglo Saxons in their many kingdoms spoke a language we now call Old English.

盎格魯-撒克遜人在他們眾多的王國中講的是我們現在稱之為古英語的語言。

Old English really sounds nothing like our modern language and is largely incomprehensible to us modern speakers.

古英語聽起來與我們現代語言截然不同，對於我們現代的英文使用者來說，它在很大程度上是難以理解的。

Here's an example of the language from the epic poem, Beowulf.

這裡有一個來自史詩詩歌《貝奧武夫》的例子。

Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

So I assume you understood none of that.

所以我假設你對那一段完全不理解。

Not to worry. No modern English speaker would be able to understand.

不用擔心。沒有任何現代英語使用者能夠理解那段話。

It's so old and English has evolved so much that it may as well be a foreign language.

它太古老了，而英語已經發展得如此之多，以至於它可能就像一種外語一樣。

While not understandable today, half of our most commonly used words come from this Anglo Saxon tongue.

雖然現在難以理解，但我們現在最常用的一半單詞來自這種盎格魯-撒克遜的語言。

Words like water, child, ear, talk, and "the".

像 water、child、ear、talk 和 "the" 這樣的單字。

Basically, most short simple words come from this old English language.

基本上，大多數簡短的、簡單的單詞都來自這種古英語。

Now, Old English was not a static language; no languages ever are.

古英語並非一種靜態的語言；事實上，任何語言都不是靜態的。

But most of the major changes to the English language through its history came not from within but from without.

但英語歷史上大多數重大的語言變化都不是由內部產生的，而是來自外部。

The first major influx of change to English came with the Viking invasions in the eighth century onward.

英語第一次主要的變革來自公元八世紀維京人的入侵開始。

Norsemen from Norway and Denmark invaded the north of England and even set up a kingdom of their own called the Danelaw.

來自挪威和丹麥的北歐人入侵了英格蘭北部，甚至建立了一個稱為「丹麥法」的王國。

These Vikings spoke a language called Old Norse, which is the ancestor of the modern Scandinavian languages.

這些維京人講一種叫做古諾爾斯語的語言，它是現代斯堪地那維亞語言的祖先。

Its influence on English was mostly vocabulary with words like sky, bag, law, hit, and even "they" coming from Old Norse.

對英語的影響主要體現在詞彙上，像是 sky、bag、law、hit，甚至 "they" 這樣的單詞都來自古諾爾斯語。

In 1066, William, the bastard later known as William the Conqueror, invaded England with his Norman army and at the battle of Hastings successfully conquered it.

在1066年，威廉，後來被稱為威廉征服者的私生子，率領諾曼軍隊入侵英格蘭，在黑斯廷斯之戰中成功征服了英格蘭。

These Normans now the ruling class of England spoke a dialect of Old French.

這些諾曼人現在成為英格蘭的統治階層，講的是古法語的一個方言。

This Norman French came to be the language of the royal court.

這種諾曼法語成為了皇室法庭的語言。

While Old English continued to be the language of the peasantry.

儘管如此，古英語仍然是農民的語言。

After around 100 years of this, the two languages began to merge, creating what we call Middle English.

經過大約100年的時間，這兩種語言開始融合，形成了我們稱之為中古英語的語言。

If you've ever wondered why English, a Germanic language, has so many cognates with romance languages like Spanish or French, this is why.

如果你曾經想知道為什麼英語，一種日耳曼語言，與西班牙語或法語等羅曼語言有這麼多同源詞，這就是原因。

A whopping 30% or 10,000 English words are French in origin.

高達30%或1萬個英語單詞的起源是法語。

These words are most commonly seen in the spheres of law, religion and science.

這些詞語在法律、宗教和科學等領域中最常見。

This French connection is also why English has so many words that mean the same thing called synonyms.

這種與法語的聯繫也是為什麼英語有這麼多意思相同的詞，被稱為同義詞。

If you look at an English dictionary, it is almost always much larger than a dictionary of another language.

如果你看英語詞典，它通常比其他語言的詞典大得多。

The most famous example of these synonyms comes from the realm of food.

這些同義詞中最著名的例子來自飲食領域。

In English, we use two different words when referring to an animal and the meat that comes from said animal.

在英語中，我們在提到動物本身和來自該動物的肉時使用兩個不同的詞。

Words like pig, cow, and chicken are all Anglo-Saxon as the farmers who raised these animals were English speakers.

像 pig、cow 和 chicken 這樣的詞都來自盎格魯-撒克遜語，因為養這些動物的農民是英語使用者。

While pork, beef, and poultry are all Norman French because the elites who ate the fine food were French speakers.

而 pork、beef 和 poultry 這些詞都來自諾曼法語，因為享用這些美食的精英是法語使用者。

With this influx of French words as well as a simplification of the grammar rules of Old English, Middle English is one step closer to the language we know today.

隨著法語詞彙的湧入以及對古英語語法規則的簡化，中古英語距離我們今天熟知的語言更近了一步。

Still it is by and large incomprehensible to most English speakers.

儘管如此，對大多數英語使用者來說，它仍然基本上是難以理解的。

Here is an example from the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, the most famous Middle English writer.

這裡有一個來自喬叟（Chaucer）的《坎特伯雷故事集》的例子，喬叟是最著名的中古英語作家。

Whan that Aprille, with his shoures soote. The droghte of March hath perced to the roote. And bathed every veyne in swich licóu, Of which vertú engendred is the flour.

Whan that Aprille, with his shoures soote. The droghte of March hath perced to the roote. And bathed every veyne in swich licóu, Of which vertú engendred is the flour.

In the 15th century, a phenomenon known as the Great Vowel Shift started occurring which propelled English into its early modern version.

在15世紀，一種被稱為「母音大推移」的現象開始發生，這推動了英語進入其早期現代版本。

This vowel shift affected almost all English pronunciation in quite dramatic ways.

這種母音變化以相當戲劇性的方式影響了幾乎所有的英語發音。

We won't get too into the specifics because I don't want to get into complicated linguistics.

我們不會深入細節，因為我不想讓這變得過於複雜。

But basically, English long vowels like "oo" started becoming shorter dipthongs like "oh".

基本上，英語中的長母音，比如 "oo"，開始變成短的雙母音，比如 "oh"。

A dipthong, by the way, is basically a sound made of two vowels.

順帶一提，雙母音基本上是由兩個母音組成的聲音。

Also, there were many consonants that became unpronounced, which we now call silent letters.

此外，許多子音變得不發音，我們現在稱之為靜音字母。

A good example of this change is in the word "knife".

這種變化的一個很好的例子就是單詞 "knife"。

In middle English, it was pronounced /kneef/.

在中古英語中，這個單詞的發音是 /kneef/。

But after the vowel shift, the "k" became silent and the "e" turned to the diphthong "i".

但在母音變化後，"k" 變成了靜音，而 "e" 變成了雙母音 "i"。

As you can see, while the pronunciation of the word has changed, the spelling has not.

正如你所看到的，儘管單詞的發音已經改變，但拼寫並未改變。

This is one of the major reasons why English spelling is so notoriously difficult.

這是英語拼寫如此惡名昭彰地困難的主要原因之一。

So with this change over around 200 years, the English language landed in a place most of us will recognize.

因此，在約200年的演變中，英語語言變成大多數人認識的樣子。

A good example of what we call Early Modern English is the work of Shakespeare.

我們所稱之為早期現代英語的一個很好的例子是莎士比亞的作品。

Two households, both alike in dignity (In fair Verona, where we lay our scene), From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

Two households, both alike in dignity (In fair Verona, where we lay our scene), From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

That was a small part of the prologue from Romeo and Juliet.

那是《羅密歐與茱麗葉》的序幕中的一小部分。

It is understandable, but the word choice is quite different from how Modern English speakers speak, making it sometimes difficult to comprehend entirely.

內容是可以理解的，但用字遣詞與現代英語演講的方式相當不同，有時使人難以完全理解。

Beginning in the 16th century, the British started exploring and subsequently created an empire.

從16世紀開始，英國人開始進行探險，隨後建立了一個帝國。

At its height in the 19th century, the British empire covered a quarter of the earth and had control over almost a quarter of the earth's inhabitants.

在19世紀達到巔峰時，大英帝國覆蓋了地球四分之一的面積，對地球上近四分之一的居民擁有控制權。

This spread of English, as well as the later industrial revolution transformed English even farther, mostly in the realm of vocabulary.

英語的擴散以及後來的工業革命進一步改變了英語，主要是在詞彙方面。

New words from English colonies, as well as new words for new technology, ballooned the English vocabulary into what it is today.

來自英國殖民地的新詞彙，以及針對新技術的新詞彙，使英語詞彙膨脹成為今天的模樣。

Also the spread of English created many English varieties.

此外，英語的擴散產生了許多英語變體。

Most prominently in North America, where English pronunciation froze in place.

最突出的是在北美，那裡英語的發音定格在一個地方。

The standard American accent, like my accent, is actually closer to the accent of Shakespeare than most modern British accents.

標準美式口音，像我的口音，實際上比大多數現代英國口音更接近莎士比亞的口音。

American English is particularly influential because of the success of American pop culture around the world.

美式英語特別有影響力，因為美國流行文化在世界各地取得了成功。

English today is still evolving as much as it ever was with new words being added to dictionaries every year, as well as many old words falling out of use.

今天的英語仍然像從前一樣不斷演變，每年都有新詞彙被加入字典，同時許多舊詞漸漸不再使用。

English grammar is also changing.

英文文法也在改變。

And it will continue to change, so much so that in a few hundred years our language will sound just as foreign to future English speakers as Chaucer does to us.

而且它將繼續發生變化，以至於在幾百年後，我們的語言對於未來說英語的人來說將聽起來像喬叟對我們來說一樣陌生。