Distinct Language Discovered 发现前所未知的语言
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- 创建于 2011年2月11日
- 最后更新于 2024年5月25日
- 发布于 2013年9月25日
- 作者：Mike Lee
- 点击数：253
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A previous unknown language has been uncovered in the far reaches of northeastern India印度东北部偏远地区发现前所未知的语言
Koro, a tongue brand new to the scientific world that is spoken by just 800 to 1,200 people, could soon face extinction as younger speakers abandon it for more widely used languages such as Hindi or English.
只有八百至一千两百人使用的克洛语，对科学界来说是崭新的语言。然而随着年轻人放弃克洛语，转而选择印度语或英语等更广泛使用的语言，克洛语可能很快就会面临灭绝的命运。
What is Koro? 何谓克洛语？
Koro is unlike any language in the various branches of the Tibeto-Burman family, a collection of 400 related languages used by people across Asia, according to the two National Geographic fellows who announced the discovery.
公布这项发现的两位国家地理杂志研究人员表示，亚洲各地许多民族使用藏缅语系，相关语言分支达四百种，而克洛语却和藏缅各系属完全不同。
The researchers, linguists K. David Harrison of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and Gregory D.S. Anderson, director of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages in Oregon, said they are not sure yet how old Koro is or how it developed. But they believe it could yield a wealth of knowledge about the way humans develop and use language.
这两位研究人员，分别为宾州史瓦莫学院的语言学家K．戴维．哈理逊与奥勒冈州拯救濒危语言学院院长葛瑞格理．D．S．安德森。他们表示，尚无法确定克洛语已有多久历史，也不清楚该语言的发展。但是两人相信，克洛语对人类发展与使用语言的方式，能够提供丰富知识。
Until now, the speakers of Koro had remained invisible to outside observers because their bright red garments, the rice beer they made and other details of their lives seemed no different from the speakers of Aka, the socially dominant language in the region, Harrison said.
哈理逊表示，克洛语族群一直不为外界观察者所知的原因，是因为他们穿的大红衣饰、所制的米啤酒、以及其他生活细节，看似与亚加语族群并无二异。亚加语是该地区的社会主流语言。
“There’s a sort of cultural invisibility – they’re culturally identical in what they wear, what they eat, the houses they live in … they just happen to have a different word for everything,” Harrison said.
哈理逊指出，「这有点像是文化上的隐形，他们在食、衣、住等方面的文化相同……只是一切用语刚好都不同。」
“I expect that there are many such hidden languages around the world,” said Paul Lewis, editor of the 16th edition of Ethnologue: Language of the World. “The lesser-known languages quite often are overlooked and understudied.”
「我相信世界上有许多这类隐而未显的语言，」第十六版的《民族语：世界语言》（暂译）编辑保罗．刘易斯表示，「比较不为人所知的语言总是受到忽略、缺乏研究。」
单词发音
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linguist [ˋlɪŋgwɪst] n. 语言学者
ethnologue [ˋɛθnɔ͵lɔg] n. 民族语
understudied 研究不足的 insufficiently studied
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Researching the language 一探究竟
Anderson and Harrison, together with their Indian colleague Ganesh Murmu, came across Koro by chance in 2008. After obtaining a permit to visit the area, they rode for two days into the Himalayan foothills and then crossed a river on a bamboo raft to get to the remotest of the villages.
安德森、哈理逊和他们的印度同僚加纳．莫姆，是在二００八年间偶然发现克洛语。他们获准参访该地区后，骑马骑了两天进入喜马拉雅山麓，再搭竹筏渡河，才抵达最偏远的村落。
The researchers had been told of the so-called dialect of Aka. But when they sat down to record the words of a villager they assumed to be speaking it, they were surprised by the unfamiliarity of the words and could tell this was no mere dialect.
研究人员事先已知道所谓的亚加方言，但是当他们坐下来记录一位村民的说话时，他们原本以为村民说的会是亚加语，结果陌生的词语让他们很惊讶，而且他们听得出来这绝不是种同源语。
“We noticed it instantly,” Anderson said. “We started with a body-part word list, and there wasn’t a single word in common.” After further study, they realized that Koro was not only a language in its own right, but also one as different from Aka as English is from Russian.
「我们立刻就注意到了，」安德森说道，「我们先从人体部位用语开始，结果没有任何字相同。」进一步研究之后，他们才体认到克洛语不仅本身就是个完整的语言，而且和亚加语迥然不同，就像英语和俄语之间的差异那么大。
The linguists say there are still many mysteries they hope to unravel – such as why the speakers don’t seem to notice how vastly different their languages are, and how Koro speakers, who seem to blend in with Aka speakers in every other way, have managed to preserve their language as a distinct entity for so long.
语言学家表示，还有许多未解之谜尚待揭开，例如：为什么克洛语族群似乎并未注意到自己的语言如此不同？为什么克洛语族群在各方面似乎均与亚加语族群融合为一，长久以来却能一直保有自己语言的独特性？
The answers, said the linguists, are probably related to the community’s relative isolation from the rest of the world.
语言学家指出，答案可能与该族群相当程度的与世隔绝有关。
Threatened by change 因环境改变而备受威胁
Now globalization is ending that isolation – and it may end Koro’s existence, too. In many families, the parents will speak Koro while the children speak Hindi, the politically dominant language in India. Few Koro speakers are under age 20.
如今全球化正在终结这种与世隔绝，可能也会终结克洛语。在许多家庭中，父母说克洛语，孩子说的却是印度语，印度语是印度的政治主流语言。二十岁以下的年轻人鲜少会说克洛语。
The endangerment of languages like Koro threatens more than a loss to history, anthropology and human cognitive studies, Harrison said: Speakers in remote regions of the Earth that contain rich ecological diversity hold knowledge as yet untapped by science.
哈理逊表示，像克洛语这类语言的濒危，不仅是史学、人类学及人类认知研究上的损失而已，这些人住在地球上生态多样性丰富的偏远区域，他们所拥有的知识尚未为科学界查知。
“They’ve learned to live sustainably in harsh environments. The knowledge they have about the medicinal use of plants is uniquely encoded in a way that cannot be translated.”
「他们已经学会如何在严酷环境中永续生存，他们以无法翻译的独特编码方式，将药用植物的知识记录下来。」
－by Amina Khan
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come across 偶然碰见 to meet or find by chance
foothill [ˋfʊt͵hɪl] n. 山麓丘陵
in one's own right 凭借自身力量 by reason of one's own ability or ownership etc
anthropology [͵ænθrəˋpɑlədʒɪ] n. 人类学
untapped [ʌnˋtæpt] adj.〔资源﹑市场等〕未开发的; 未利用的
单词发音
Vocabulary Focus
tongue [tʌŋ] n. 语言；方言 a language
branch [bræntʃ] n.（语系的）分支 a part of something larger
invisible [ɪnˋvɪzəb!] adj. 微小得觉察不出的；不显眼的[（+to）] impossible to see
endangerment [ɪnˋdendʒɚmənt] n. 濒危 at risk or in danger of being harmed, damaged or destroyed
medicinal [məˋdɪsn!] adj. 药的；药用的 describing a substance used for curing illnesses
encode [ɪnˋkod] v. 改为密码 to change something into a system for sending messages secretly
Koro Ethnobotany: 11 plants and their uses in Koro culture.
Hidden Language Revealed