Name: 語言學家來問「英文」問題？| Tech Support | WIRED Japan (言語学者だけど「英語」について質問ある？| Tech Support | WIRED Japan)
Uploaded: 2025-11-13T18:22:56.000Z
Duration: 25 min 46 s

Hi, I'm Stephen Turton, and this is Etymology Support.

嗨，我是 Stephen Turton，這裡是 Etymology Support。

First question, Samuel M. 800-56720 asks.

第一個問題，來自 Samuel M. 800-56720。

I have a semi serious question for etymologists.

我有個半認真的問題想問詞源學家。

If feet is the plural for foot, why is beet not the plural of boot?

如果 feet 是 foot 的複數，那為什麼 beet 不是 boot 的複數？

Foot belongs to a category of words that derive from Old English in which to make the plural, you change the vowel in the word.

Foot 屬於一類源自古英語的詞，這類詞的複數變化是改變母音。

So other words in this category, tooth, teeth, and

所以同類型的其他詞，tooth, teeth，還有

goose, key, mouse, mice, book also used to be in this category in Old English, but

goose, key, mouse, mice，book 在古英語時也屬於這類，但是

later on we regularized the spelling, so it's book books.

後來我們把拼寫規則化了，所以是 book books。

If we kept the Old English pattern, it would now be one book, two beach.

如果我們沿用古英語的模式，現在就會是 one book, two beach。

The word boot, on the other hand, is not from Old English.

不過，單字 boot 的來源就不是古英語了。

It was borrowed from French into Middle English, which is why it just gets the default plural S.

它是從法語借用到中古英語，所以就用了預設的複數 S。

There are lots of different ways of pluralizing nouns in Old English, so you might form the plural by changing the vowel in the base word, or you might form the plural by adding a suffix, which could be.

古英語中有好多種不同的名詞複數變化方式，所以你可能會透過改變字根母音來形成複數，或者透過加上字尾來形成複數，那可能是。

In the Middle English period, most of these ways of forming the plural fell out of use and the s plural came to predominate.

在中古英語時期，這些形成複數的方式大多都停止使用了，s 複數就開始佔主導地位。

So it basically replaced the old plurals for a lot of English words just because it was easier.

所以它基本上取代了許多英語單字的舊複數形式，只是因為這樣比較簡單。

When and why did whoops, oops become the default sound made when making a mistake?

什麼時候以及為什麼 oops、whoops 會變成犯錯時預設的聲音？

So whoops is actually more recent than you might think.

所以 whoops 其實比你想像的還要新。

The earliest evidence we have of whoops being used in writing dates to to the 19th century.

我們找到 whoops 被寫下來的最早證據，可以追溯到 19 世紀。

It actually seems to have been derived from upsidaisi, which we have slightly earlier evidence for.

它似乎是從 upsidaisi 演變而來，我們對這個詞有稍微早一點的證據。

Upsidaisi might have been a kind of whimsical alteration of alack, a daisy, which is in turn a whimsical alteration of alack, a day, which is in turn a whimsical alteration of alack, which is a very old way of saying, oh no.

Upsidaisi 可能是一種對 alack, a daisy 的異想天開的改編，而 alack, a daisy 又是對 alack, a day 的異想天開的改編，alack, a day 又是對 alack 的異想天開的改編，alack 是一種非常古老的說「噢，不」的方式。

This is from the Finding Fen's Gold subreddit.

這是來自 Finding Fen's Gold 的 subreddit。

Origin of the word clue Clue originally meant a ball of thread.

字源：線索 (clue) 最初的意思是一團線。

Then during Middle English, it came to be associated with the Greek myth of Theseus, who used a ball of thread to find his way in and out of the Minotaur's labyrinth by unspooling it on the way in and then following it back out.

然後在中世紀英語時期，它與希臘神話忒修斯 (Theseus) 聯繫起來，忒修斯用一團線來找到進出米諾陶洛斯迷宮的路，他在進去時把線鬆開，然後跟著線出來。

From this, a clue came to mean something that helped lead you to a solution to a problem.

從此，線索 (clue) 就意味著能幫助你找到問題解決方案的東西。

And that is now the only meaning which is common in English today.

而這現在是英語中唯一常見的意思了。

RonaldBK asks, Silent letters in words don't make any sense.

RonaldBK 問，單字中的不發音字母一點道理都沒有。

How about you just don't add the letter in the word.

你們為什麼不直接不把那個字母加進單字裡呢？

So there are a couple of reasons that silent letters exist in English.

所以，不發音字母在英語中存在有幾個原因。

One is that the pronunciation of the language has changed and the spelling system just hasn't kept up with it.

其中一個原因是，語言的發音變了，而拼寫系統卻沒有跟上。

For example, the gh in words like through and thought and night, the gh exists there because that sound used to be pronounced in Old English and Middle English, that was the velar figurative.

像是 through、thought 和 night 這些單字裡的 gh，之所以會出現在那裡，是因為在古英語和中古英語時期，那個發音是存在的，那就是軟顎擦音。

Eventually, because that's quite a difficult sound to pronounce, it dropped out of the language.

最後，因為那個發音實在太難發了，就從語言中消失了。

But we continue to spell words with the gh through a process of sheer inertia.

但我們仍然透過單純的慣性，繼續用 gh 來拼寫單字。

There have been calls for spelling reform in English for literally centuries.

英語的拼寫改革呼聲已經持續了好幾個世紀了。

In the 19th century, one author complained that the word fish might as well be spelled G, H, O T, I, G, H as in the f at the end of rough, o, o as in the in women, and

在十九世紀，有位作家抱怨說，單字 fish 不如拼成 G、H、O T、I、G、H，就像 rough 的結尾 f、women 的 oo，

Now, in reality, no one would actually spell fish this way because we know that there are implicit rules to where letter combinations can go in words.

實際上，沒有人會真的這樣拼 fish，因為我們知道字母組合在單字中的出現有其隱藏的規則。

So we know that gh can stand for the sound f, but

所以我們知道 gh 可以代表 f 的發音，但是

only at the end of a word, as in rough enough, tough.

只能在單字的結尾，就像 rough、enough、tough 那樣。

There was also a moment in time where a word like mention would have been pronounced men, tian, or something like that.

曾經有一段時間，像 mention 這樣的單字，發音會是 men、tian，或是類似的發音。

But the tion in English, if you say it enough times, over and over it tian, tian, tian, qian, qian, qin, shin, it just becomes a lot easier to say.

但是英文裡的 tion，如果你一直唸、一直唸，唸成 tian、tian、tian、qian、qian、qin、shin，就會變得比較好唸。

Ease of articulation is a common trigger for sound change in English and other languages.

發音的簡便性是英文和其他語言中語音變化的常見原因。

Why do question words, why, who, where, when, etc.

為什麼疑問詞，why、who、where、when 等等。

So this goes all the way back to proto Indo European, which is the earliest ancestor of the English language and many other European and Asian languages that etymologists have been able to reconstruct.

這一切都追溯到原始印歐語，這是詞源學家能夠重建的英語以及許多其他歐洲和亞洲語言的最早祖先。

Proto Indo European had an interrogative stem, an element of a word that would go into building other words that looked something like cui.

原始印歐語有一個疑問詞詞幹，也就是一個單字的一部分，用來建構其他單字，看起來有點像 cui。

And this and its variants were used to coin question words.

這個 cui 和它的變體被用來創造疑問詞。

And this cui survives into many modern languages.

而這個 cui 存留至今，出現在許多現代語言中。

So, for example, in French and Spanish as qu, as in qui que cuando quel?

所以，舉例來說，法語和西班牙語中的 qu，像是 qui、que、cuando、quel？

And the resemblance is easy to see once you know that the original spelling and pronunciation in English was hwa.

一旦你知道英語最初的拼寫和發音是 hwa，就不難看出其中的相似之處。

If you listen to older speakers today who still pronounce the h in these question words, you will hear that they put the h before the w.

如果你今天聽一些仍然發 h 音的長輩說這些疑問詞，你會聽到他們在 w 前面加上 h。

Why, when Pkmurphy asks, wonder where the word salary originated?

為什麼 Pkmurphy 會問，想知道 salary 這個詞是從哪裡來的？

So the word salary comes from Latin salarium, which ultimately comes from sal, meaning salt.

所以 salary 這個詞來自拉丁語 salarium，最終源自 sal，意思是鹽。

In ancient Rome, a salarium was a wage paid to someone somebody so that they could buy salt and other household goods.

在古羅馬，salarium 是支付給某人的工資，這樣他們就可以買鹽和其他家居用品。

The word salad ultimately derives from the same root, sal, because a salad was a cold dish that was seasoned with salt.

salad 這個詞最終也源自相同的詞根 sal，因為沙拉是一道用鹽調味的冷盤。

Why does it pluralize into children rather than child?

為什麼它的複數會變成 children，而不是 child？

Child goes all the way back to Old English, which had multiple methods of forming a plural.

child 這個字可以追溯到古英語，當時有幾種形成複數的方式。

One of the plurals for the word child in Old English was childru.

在古英語中，child 的複數之一是 childru。

During Middle English, this became childre.

在中古英語時期，這變成了 childre。

However, at a later moment in time, for some reason, people decided that this didn't look like a plural, so they added a second plural ending en, as in ox oxen, to create the word children.

不過，後來不知道為什麼，大家覺得這樣不像複數，所以就加上了第二個複數結尾 en，就像 ox 變成 oxen 一樣，創造了 children 這個字。

So it actually has two plural endings stacked on top of each other.

所以它其實疊加了兩個複數結尾。

Delarosajl24 asks, why do we call it deadline for when something is due?

Delarosajl24 問，為什麼我們稱某個東西到期日為 deadline？

What does death have to do with finishing projects on time?

死亡跟準時完成專案有什麼關係？

所以這其實是一個有點血腥的故事。

During the American Civil War, a deadline was a literal boundary around a prison that prisoners were not allowed to cross without being in danger of being shot.

在美國內戰期間，deadline 是一個監獄周圍的實際界線，囚犯不得越過，否則有被槍擊的危險。

From that, a deadline came to be used metaphorically to mean a point of no return.

從那裡開始，deadline 就被用來比喻一個無法回頭的點。

And that's where we get the sense of a date on which something is viewed.

這就是我們得到某件事被看待的日期的意思。

Jbird3570 asks, why are there multiple words that mean the same thing?

Jbird3570 問，為什麼有很多字的意思都一樣？

There are actually very few true synonyms in English or in other languages.

事實上，英語或其他語言中真正的同義詞非常少。

You know, words that have exactly the same meaning in all contexts.

你知道，在所有情況下意思都完全相同的詞。

Even if two words appear to have exactly the same meaning, they will tend to be used in somewhat different contexts.

即使兩個詞看起來意思完全相同，它們也傾向於在略有不同的語境中使用。

You could say that you have big ideas, you're a big spender, but

你可以說你有 big ideas，你是個 big spender，但是

However, no one would say that they have large ideas, they're a large spender, or they end up in large trouble.

不過，沒有人會說他們有 large ideas，是 large spender，或是會惹上 large trouble。

And that's because we're very comfortable using the word big in literal and figurative contexts.

這是因為我們很習慣在字面和比喻的語境中都使用 big 這個詞。

But we prefer to use the word large only with its literal meaning.

但我們傾向於只在字面意思上使用 large 這個詞。

Sometimes multiple synonyms exist because of language borrowing.

有時候，因為語言借用，會出現多個同義詞。

For example, in English, we have the words kingly, royal, and regal.

例如，在英語中，我們有 kingly、royal 和 regal 這幾個詞。

But kingly comes from English king royal comes from French roi, meaning king, and

但是 kingly 來自英語的 king，royal 來自法語的 roi，意思是國王，而

regal comes from Latin rex, also meaning king.

regal 來自拉丁語的 rex，意思也是國王。

Dworkphone asks, is there any reason for the Alphabet being in the order it's in?

Dworkphone 問，字母表之所以是現在這個順序，有什麼原因嗎？

The word Alphabet comes from alpha, beta, which are the first two letters of the Greek Alphabet, and

Alphabet 這個字來自 alpha、beta，也就是希臘字母表的前兩個字母，

它們分別對應拉丁字母的 A 和 B。

Exactly how the letters ended up in this order, A B, C or alpha, beta, gamma or B K or B K is not known.

字母之所以會變成 A B C 或 alpha、beta、gamma，或是 B K 的順序，確切原因我們不知道。

It might have been random to an extent, but

it's also worth noting that a lot of these sounds are the first sounds that human babies make when they first start babbling.

值得一提的是，很多這些發音是人類嬰兒剛開始咿呀學語時發出的第一個聲音。

The Latin Alphabet ultimately derives from the Greek Alphabet, which in turn ultimately derives from the Phoenician Alphabet.

拉丁字母最終源自希臘字母，而希臘字母又最終源自腓尼基字母。

And in all of these alphabets, the letter order starts out in the same way, although the sounds attached to those letters aren't exactly the same.

在這些字母表中，字母的順序開頭都一樣，雖然跟這些字母相關的發音不完全相同。

When the Latin Alphabet spread to other languages in Europe and beyond, they tended to keep the same order of letters.

當拉丁字母傳播到歐洲及其他地區的其他語言時，它們傾向於保持相同的字母順序。

字幕列表影片播放

語言學家來問「英文」問題？| Tech Support | WIRED Japan (言語学者だけど「英語」について質問ある？| Tech Support | WIRED Japan)

literally

ultimately

eventually

pronunciation