如果你有架时光穿梭机
If you had a time machine,
最远回到哪个时代 你依然能听懂英语？
how far back can you go, and still understand English?
如果是18或19世纪 你可能没什么问题
In the 19th and 18th centuries, you’d probably still be ok.
这句话出自1719年的《鲁滨逊漂流记》
This is from the book Robinson Crusoe in 1719.
“我 可怜的鲁滨逊·克鲁特先生不幸流落到这个荒凉的岛上
我称之为‘绝望之岛’”
这个简单易懂 但对于一些俚语你可能不明白
That’s fairly easy to understand but you might struggle with slang like
例如Batty fang和Kickerapooì
Batty fang and kickerapoo.
如今 你的生日礼服其实就是
And now, your birthday suit actually is a suit
你在生日时穿的礼服
that you wear on your birthday.
17世纪是莎士比亚时期
The 1600s is the time of Shakespeare.
“现在就展现你的魔力 使出你的凶恶吧……
“…快快把他送上西天” 哈姆雷特 第111幕
这个更加难以理解 但不是每个人都那样表达
Harder to follow, but not everyone speaks like that.
但你可能会听到大量艰涩的词
You would hear plenty of words you didn’t understand though.
现在对你来说 发音是个更难的问题
The bigger problem for you now is the pronunciation.
元音的发音已经不一样了
The sound of the vowels has changed,
而口音也越来越难理解
and the accent is becoming much harder to understand.
例如 Tea要读成Tay
For example, ’Tea’ is pronounced ‘Tay’,
gone发音为goan
and ’gone’ is pronounced ‘goan’.
在16世纪 本质上来讲 人们说话就像读圣经一样
In the 1500s, people essentially spoke like the Bible.
“所以 上帝如是说你永世不可离开你身下那张床
否则 你绝对会死掉”
钦定本 2 列王纪 1:4
而且很多词对你来说不知所云
There are also hundreds of words that didn’t mean a thing to you.
回到15世纪之前 你听到的是中世纪英语
Before about 1400, you hear Middle English,
无论文字还是语言 都晦涩难懂
and you would hardly understand anything, written or spoken.
“当四月温柔的甘霖普降穿越干旱的三月 浸透万物的根部
把强力酒精的每一根经络浸泡”
乔叟坎特伯雷故事集 1389
如果让你穿梭回公元1000年
If you went all the way back to 1000 AD,
你听到的则是古英语
you’d hear old English.
你们应当这样祷告我们天上的父 愿人们都尊崇你的盛名
求你今天赐给我们日用的食物 饶恕我们的罪
那就祝你好运 希望你能给他们解释清楚 需要1.21千兆瓦的电量才能让你穿梭回来
Good luck explaining that you need 1.21 gigawatts to get home.