莎士比亚的说话方式不像这样 也不像这样
Shakespeare didn’t sound like this and he didn’t sound like this either.
但是如果你回到1610年
But if you were back in 1610
并且抢到了几张环球剧场的前排票
and you snagged a couple front row tickets to the Globe
你会听到什么样的英语？
What kind of English would you hear?
原始语言
我必须坦白
I have a confession.
这对语言白痴来说是一件难事 诶……
A tough one for a languagenerd. Hhh..
我们开始吧
here goes.
我从未真正了解过莎士比亚
I never really got into Shakespeare.
我只记得剧院里的戏剧迷们
I remember the theatre geeks,
那个女孩举起一只手 转过头去 念着台词……
the girl with one hand raised, head turned, chanting lines to…
那是对谁说的？ 也许是对一只热爱诗歌的松鼠？
to whom exactly? Maybe a poetry-loving squirrel?
反正不是我
No wasn’t for me.
我沉迷于乐高玩具和语言
I was into legos and languages.
这是后来我能无意间解析了希腊语荷马史诗的原因
Which is how I ended up unintentionally parsing homer in Greek
在我必须面对莎士比亚之前
before I had to face Shakespeare
是的 我不得不
Yes HAD to.
那是个课堂作业 我想应该是《暴风雨》
A class assignment, I think it was the Tempest.
我略读了一下 仅确保能通过测验
I skimmed just enough to pass a quiz.
之后我肯定会将这位诗人永远搁在一边
Then I honestly would’ve shelved the bard forever,
要是没有那些零散的评论
but for that one stray remark.
当那些戏剧迷们亮出他们最好的英国口音时
As the theatre geeks donned their best British accents,
有些讨厌的人就开始冷嘲热讽
random gadfly sneered
“嘿 你知道莎士比亚真实的说话方式吗？”
” Heh, you know what Shakespeare really sounded like?”
就像我们一样
He sounded like us.
不是吧 真的吗？ 我漏掉了什么关于莎士比亚的信息了吗？
No what? Had I missed something about Shakespeare?
一些需要语言学家来解决的问题
Something that took linguistic detective work to solve
比如……他糟糕的拼写
something like… his poor spelling
在《坏四开本》里就有错误
It’s there in the”Bad Quartos”
被一些干走私的读者私下潦草誊抄
secretly scribbled by some bootleggers in the audience
这些糟糕的拼写也出现在《好四开本》和《第一对开本》
It’s therein the Good Quartos and First Folio, too.
甚至在他的墓碑上 “digg”和“frend”都看起来十分孩子气
Even on his own grave,”digg” and”frend” look almost childish.
他把’the’和’that’叠起来写以保留一个简化的德语字母’thorn’
His stacked “the” and “that” keep a simplified Germanic letter thorn.
嗯……那并不是他的拼写出错了
Hmm. This isn’t HIS spelling.
1400年 乔叟的 ‘Englissh’ 是一个脍炙人口的词
1400 Chaucer’s”Englissh” was a very readable”tonge”.
由于太过脍炙人口 75年后
So readable that, 75 years later,
卡克斯顿先生引进了一台可利用这种可读性赚钱的印刷机
Mr Caxton imported a printing press to cash in on that readability.
但是有一天一个商人来到镇上买鸡蛋
But one day a merchant came to town and ordered eggs.
一个妇女对他说 对不起 我不会讲法语
A woman said, sorry, I speke no Frenshe.
商人怒了
The merchant got mad.
他并没有讲法语啊
He wasn’t speaking French.
他只是想买些鸡蛋而已
He just wanted some eggs.
有人过来帮忙
Someone jumped in to help.
哦 他的意思是他要鸡蛋
Oh he means eyren!
卡克斯顿紧抓着那个人问：那时我们应如何拼写 egges还是eyren？
Caxton griped,” Loo what sholde a man in thyse dayes now write, egges or eyren?”
且展开一场拼写辩论吧！
Unleash the spelling debates!
如何拼写“骑士”这个来源于“夜晚”的词？
How to spellkniht when it was evolving to nite?
需要把/s/改成/c/吗？
should correct /s/ have a /c/?
那为何乔叟的元音如此迅速地崩解了呢？
And why, oh WHY, didChaucer’s vowels fall apart so fast?
到1600年 音调又大变样了 /iː/变为/əi/ /eː/变为/iː/ 而/oː/竟成了/uː/！
By 1600, the ongoing Great Vowel Shift was turning iː into əi, eː became iː and oː was uː!
欢迎探究早期现代英语 莎士比亚说话的调调
Welcome to Early Modern English, Shakespeare’stongue.
“朋友 看在上帝的份上 千万别掘此墓”
“Good Frend for Iesvs sake forbeare to digg the dvst encloased heare”.
不是hear 而是heare
Not”here”.”Heare”.
这只是许多押韵中的一个好吧 它们不再是正常的押韵了
Just one of many rhymes that, well, they aren’trhymes anymore.
Pleadeth和dreadeth押韵 her和err押韵 one和alone押韵
Pleadeth rhymed with dreadeth, her with errand one with alone.
你发现creature,reasonI eye company 押韵
You find crɛːtərs!rɛːsons！I with eye with compnαi.
should 保持了其中”u”的音 与wood不一致
Should” kept its”u” and didn’t match wood.
附加题：拼写两个发音类似society且和variety押韵的单词 哈哈
Extra credit: spell two words that sound likesəsəiətəi and rhyme with”variety”! Haha.
你可以列出:play, prey, sea
You get plɛː and prɛː, and prɛː andsɛː.
但thee的韵脚是/ɛː/
But then thee rhymes with /ɛː/
那么这些其实是发/i:/的音吗？
so it were all of these actually /iː/?
还是说thee应该念thε:？
Or maybethee was thɛː?
幸运地是 我们从meet-meat读音变化的合集中找到了证据
fortunately, we find earwitness accounts of a meet/meat merger:
ε:是存在于i:的产生过程中的音调
sea was in the process of merging with see.
值得注意的是 押韵甚至帮助我们产生了双关语
With caution, rhymes may even help us recover puns.
比如reasons(raisins) 也许bile(boiled)也是
Like probably”reasons”and maybe”bile”.
押韵很重要 像老师让我们在教室里击打节奏
And rhythm, like those iambs my teacher made us drum out in class,
让我们数数有多少音节在里面 读“enclòséd”
those count how many syllables were in, say,”enclosed”.
额 这是两个音节 除非它需要三个音节 念作eñclóasèd
Uh, two..Two syllables. Except here it demands three: encloasèd.
还要显示重读 不读house wαi’fery 读作wi’zifəri
Meter can also reveal stress:not house’wifery, but’ʔɤzɪfɹəi. Ok,
现在你明白押韵的重要了
you’re learnèd now.
读sɛː(sea)是个名词 读sɛːz(says)是个动词
You see in sɛːand sɛːz a noun and verb.
现在你听到”I don’t know the reason, lady”音调如此也不觉得怪了
It’s no longer strange to hear”uhy noe the raisin, lead-eye”.
并且你也能忍受新闻里莎士比亚被读作
And you can stomach the news that Shakespeare’s
莎士匹亚或是莎士贝亚
name may have been shɛːkspiːr or shɛːkspɛːr.
1889年 亚历山大·艾莉丝又增加了一条证明那就是现代方言
In 1889, Alexander Ellis added one more pieceof evidence: modern dialects.
从方言中能看出正派英语发音之前的语音痕迹
Dialects contain traces of a time before English had a proper accent.
那些不会混淆
People who still don’t
meet和meat,which和witch读音的人
merge miːt with meːt, whiches that aren’t witches,
读heart一词 不会丢掉r的音 而h不发音
undropped r’s, h-less hearts, and
ending是endins 听起来就是位妥妥的莎士比亚研究家啊
gerund endin’s – sounds downright Shakespearean.
现在一些方言中”thou”和”you”两种表达仍同时存在(都表示”你”)
Like some dialects still do, he used both”thou” and polite”you”: thou hast, thou’rt,
thou hast=you have,thou art=you are第三人称she hath=she has
you have, you’re. And that third-person -eth,like in”she hath”, was still competing with has.
当达塔·克朗彻缩减莎士比亚无与伦比的词汇量的传说时发现
And while data-crunchers deflate legends of his peerless vocabulary,
在语法和含义上 莎士比亚有无尽的发明才能
he was endlessly inventive with meaning and syntax.
试试看这句话想表达什么:“即使我会死去
Try outthis word order:”though I with Death and
会有赞赏 这些恐吓或鼓励着人们不去做一些事和去做一些事
with reward did threaten and encourage him not doing it and being done.
这一句话就让观众的思路不清 难以理解 那么
Playful a tangle for audiences to untie on the spot! So,
试想 听一整场话剧呢？
what about listening to a whole play?
语言学家大卫·克里斯特尔在一个最近重建的地方进行测试
Linguist David Crystal tested that in a newlyreconstructed Globe.
探究那个时代人们的
Thrown back into an era
站立 起哄 观察点 原始发音
of standing, heckling and OP, Original Pronunciation,
戏迷发现一种特殊方言
playgoers detected suspicious traces of one
的蛛丝马迹：他们自身的语调
particular dialect: their own.
对于学习发音 有一些东西是普遍的
There’s something universal about learningto pronounce.
对于莎士比亚的发音 我们都是陌生的
We all come as strangers to Shakespeare’s sounds,
无论你是个能熟记复述哈姆雷特的戏剧怪才
whether you’re a theater geek who quotes Hamlet by heart
或者你是我
or you’re me,
一个即将完成该视频动画化
who’m about to finish animating this and read it
并且第一时间观看它的人
for the very first time.
感谢你们的赞助让这个短片示众 也让我有创造的激情
I thank ye patrons for unlocking this andkeeping me creating.
最后致正在看视频的所有人
And to everyone watching:
请您为了语言停留并订阅呀
I prithee, tarry and subscribe for language.