Name: 【TED-Ed】爲什麽英文 doubt (懷疑) 裡頭有個「b」? Why is there a "b" in doubt? - Gina Cooke
Uploaded: 2014-05-28T16:37:16.000Z
Duration: 3 min 28 s

People often think the word "doubt" spelling is a little crazy

人們常常認為「doubt（懷疑）」 這字的拼法有點瘋狂，

轉承詞

most folks can't figure out what it's doing there.

大多數人不知道它是幹什麼用的。

But in spite of what most of us learn in school,

然而，儘管大部分的人在學校學到的是

拼寫英語單詞時 所需的最重要面向，

A word's meaning and history need to come first.

我們必須首先考慮 一個詞彙的歷史和含義。

As a noun, it means uncertainty or confusion.

作為一個名詞，它指的是 一種困惑或不確定性。

在它首次從拉丁語轉變為法語時，

where it lost both its "buh" sound and its letter "b".

它失去了字母「b」和「buh」的音，

And then it came into English in the 13th century.

接著在十三世紀時，它轉變為英語。

scribes who wrote English but also knew Latin,

started to reinsert the "b" into the word's spelling,

even though no one pronounced it that way.

為什麼有人會把 一個不發音的字母

reinsert a silent letter into a spelling?

the scribes understood that the root of "doubt" had a "b" in it.

經學家知道「懷疑」的字根有個「b」。

Over time, even as fewer literate people knew Latin,

隨著時間的推移， 即使更少的識字人懂拉丁文，

the "b" was kept because it marked important,

「b」一直存在在那兒， 因為它被認為是重要的，

meaningful connections to other related words,

它被認為是一個有意義的連接詞， 並且聯繫著其他相關的詞彙，

比如說「可疑的（dubious）」 和「不容置疑地（indubitalbly）」，

which were subsequently borrowed into English

隨後英文借用同一個拉丁字根「dubitare」。

隨後英文借用同一個拉丁字根，「dubitare」。

Understanding these historical connections

不僅幫助我們拼寫「懷疑（doubt）」，

我們可以理解在這個懷疑（doubt）之外

There are only two base words in all of English

只有兩個基本詞有「d-o-u-b」的拼寫：

和 doubloon（達布隆: 古西班牙雙金幣）。

It turns out that if we look into their history,

事實證明，如果我們回顧它們的歷史，

is reflected in a deep understanding of doubt.

我們批評、糾正自己（second guess ourselves）。

當我們遇到問題或感到困惑時，

在古英語中，這單詞是 「tweogan」，

「懷疑（tweogan）」與「兩個（two）」之間的關聯性

在拼寫上也很明白地顯示出來。

about why English spelling works the way it does,

英文的拼寫方式感到懷疑（in doubt）時，

再仔細瞧瞧第二次（take a second look），

What you find just might make you do a double-take.

也許之後你便會恍然大悟（double-take）了。

字幕列表影片播放

【TED-Ed】爲什麽英文 doubt (懷疑) 裡頭有個「b」? Why is there a "b" in doubt? - Gina Cooke

word

letter

know

important