British scientists uncover oldest words in English 英國科學家發現最古老的英文字彙

◎自由時報轉載

The oldest words in the English language include "I" and "who", while words like "dirty" could die out relatively quickly, British researchers said.

英國研究人員表示，英文中最古老的字彙包括「I」（我）與「who」（誰），至於像「dirty」（骯髒的）這些字彙則會很快消失。

Scientists at Reading University in southern England have used a supercomputer called ThamesBlue to model the evolution of words in English and the wider family of Indo-European languages over the last 30,000 years.

英格蘭南部瑞汀大學的科學家利用名叫ThamesBlue的超級電腦，以找出過去3萬年的英文，以及更廣泛的印歐語系字彙演化的模型。

They say that the most commonly-used words -- which also include the numbers two, three and five -- tend to be the oldest and change most slowly over time.

科學家說，最普遍被使用的字彙—包括數字2、3與5—傾向是最古老的字彙，隨時間改變的速度也最慢。

Meanwhile, adjectives like "dirty" and verbs like "squeeze" could disappear over the next eight centuries or so, the scientists say.

在此同時，科學家說，像「dirty」等的形容詞以及像「squeeze」（擠捏）等的動詞，可能會在未來8世紀左右消失。

Because there are many different ways of saying "dirty" in Indo-European languages -- currently 46 -- it is more likely to die out, the team said, along with, for example, "push", "turn", "wipe" and "stab".

該研究團隊說，這是因為在印歐語系中，還有很多不同的說「dirty」的方式—目前有46種—該字因而更有可能消失，其他也可能很快消失的字彙還有例如「push」（推）、「turn」（翻轉）、「wipe」（擦拭）與「stab」（戳刺）。

新聞辭典

uncover：動詞，揭開，移去；發現；脫帽。

die out：片語，逐漸消失，滅絕。

evolution：名詞，發展；演化。例句：Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, has been one of the most respected figures in the history of science especially in the biology field.（進化之父查爾斯．達爾文是科學史上、特別是生物領域的科學史上最受敬重的人物之一。）