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“Woof” or “Wang”? 「呜呼」还是「汪汪」?

課文朗讀

課文中英文講解

繁體中文譯本

“Moo.” “Buzz-buzz.” “Quack.” Do you recognize these words? If you do, you’ll know that they are used in English to imitate the sounds made by a cow, a bee, and a duck, respectively. Words that sound like, or imitate, the thing they’re describing are known as onomatopoeia. Interestingly, those words that imitate the sounds of animals vary widely across different languages.

你认得moo、buzz-buzz、quak这些字吗?如果你认得的话，你就知道它们是英文字里分别用来模仿牛、蜜蜂、和鸭子的叫声。听起来像或用来模仿所形容东西的字就叫做拟声字。有趣的是，这些模仿动物声音的字在各个语言里差异极大。

Most people assume that the words they use for animal sounds are the same around the world. Thus, native speakers of English will claim that everyone knows a dog says “woof.” But if you ask Chinese speakers, they will tell you that a dog says “wang wang.”

大部份的人认为全世界用来形容动物声音的字都一样，因此，英文母语人士会宣称每个人都知道狗会发出woof声。但如果你问说中文的人，他们会告诉你狗的叫声是「汪汪」。

Some of the noises animals make do sound similar in every language. If you ask people around the world to imitate a cat, they will produce a sound close to the English “meow.” But the majority of words for animal sounds differ from language to language. The reason for the difference has to do with phonological rules; that is, with rules that govern what sounds and sound combinations are possible in a particular language. When people imitate sounds, the words they use conform to their language rules. Japanese words, for example, almost always end in a vowel sound. A snake in Japan, therefore, does not “hiss,” but makes the sound “nero nero.”

在每个语言里，有些动物叫声听起来的确很相似。要是你要世界上不同的人模仿猫叫，他们会发出接近英文里的meow声，但是绝大多数的动物拟声字随着语言而有不同。造成这个现象的原因和语音规则有关，也就是和每个特别的语言中决定可能的发音及可能的发音结合之规则有关。人们模仿声音时，他们所用的字和他们的语言规则一致。举例来说，日语几乎都是以元音结尾，因此在日本，蛇不会发出hiss的声音，而是nero nero。

To native speakers of English, a snake saying “nero nero” sounds completely ridiculous. But then, very likely, so does “hiss” to Japanese.

对英文母语人士来说，一条发出nero nero声的蛇听起来根本荒谬至极。但是对日语人士来说，hiss听起来很可能也极其荒谬。

－By Ben Andrews & Robert Kelly

Vocabulary

recognize [ˋrɛkəg͵naɪz] v. 认出

vary [ˋvɛrɪ] v. 使不同

assume [əˋsjum] v. 以为；假定为

majority [məˋdʒɔrətɪ] n. 多数，过半数，大多数

ridiculous [rɪˋdɪkjələs] adj. 可笑的，荒谬的

More Information

moo [mu] v. 发哞哞声

buzz [bʌz] v.（蜂等）嗡嗡叫

quack [kwæk] v.（鸭）呱呱叫

respectively [rɪˋspɛktɪvlɪ] adv. 分别地，各自地

onomatopoeia [͵ɑnə͵mætəˋpiə] n. 拟声法; 拟声词

close to 接近于; 接近

woof [wuf] v.（狗等的）低吠声

meow [mɪˋaʊ] v. 发喵喵声

phonological [͵fonəˋlɑdʒɪk!] adj. 发音学的

conform [kənˋfɔrm] v. 符合，相一致[（+to/with）]

end in 以...作为结果

vowel [ˋvaʊəl] n. 元音

hiss [hɪs] v.（蛇等或气体漏出时）发出嘶嘶声