實(shí)戰(zhàn)口語(yǔ)情景對(duì)話：Langauge Zones 語(yǔ)言區(qū)

Todd: So, Abidemi, we've been talking about your country, Nigeria. Now, you've mentioned that there's different langauges in different regions.

托德：阿比德米，我們繼續(xù)來(lái)談你的祖國(guó)尼日利亞。你提到過(guò)尼日利亞不同地區(qū)有不同的語(yǔ)言。

Abidemi: That's correct.

阿比德米：沒(méi)錯(cuò)。

Todd: Now, are they similar or are they completely different?

托德：這些語(yǔ)言是有相似之處還是完全不同?

Abidemi: I believe they're completely different. Nigeria has over 250 languages.

阿比德米：我認(rèn)為這些語(yǔ)言完全不同。尼日利亞有超過(guò)250種語(yǔ)言。

Todd: Whoa, really, 250 for the whole country?

托德：哇哦，整個(gè)國(guó)家有250種語(yǔ)言?

Abidemi: Yes. Yes. So that's not even counting the dialects, when you start breaking them down into dialects, I believe there are over 500, maybe even thousands of dialects, because Nigeria was a British colony, so these were distinct communities and groups of people before the British came in. So that's why, one of the reasons we have so many languages. However, we have four official languages, of course English, we need that to unite everybody. And in schools people learn English. We all have Yoruba in the southwestern part of Nigeria, which is my native language. We have Igbo in the southeastern part and Hausa in the northern part of Nigeria, yes

.阿比德米：對(duì)，沒(méi)錯(cuò)。這甚至還沒(méi)有算上方言，如果按方言劃分的話，我想大概有500種以上，甚至可能有數(shù)千種方言，因?yàn)槟崛绽麃喸怯?guó)殖民地，所以這些不同的社區(qū)和不同的人群是在英國(guó)殖民統(tǒng)治以前形成的。這就是尼日利亞有如此多語(yǔ)言的原因。我們有四種官方語(yǔ)言，英語(yǔ)當(dāng)然是其中一種官方語(yǔ)言，因?yàn)槲覀円阉腥藞F(tuán)結(jié)起來(lái)。學(xué)校里也教英語(yǔ)。尼日利亞西南部地區(qū)說(shuō)約魯巴語(yǔ)，這也是我的母語(yǔ)。另外，尼日利亞?wèn)|南部地區(qū)說(shuō)伊格博語(yǔ)，北部地區(qū)說(shuō)豪薩語(yǔ)。

Todd: Wow! Can you talk a little bit about each language? Now, you said your language is Yoruba?

托德：哇哦!你每種語(yǔ)言都會(huì)嗎?你的母語(yǔ)是約魯巴語(yǔ)?

Abidemi: Yes, that's correct, Yoruba is a tonal language like Chinese or Cantonese, unlike Cantonese, we have three tones and not four, so ba, ba, ba, I don't know if you can tell the difference between those three words but they are different, three different words. Igbo, I'm not so sure, but it's a completely different language, if somebody's speaking it I would not be able to understand.

阿比德米：對(duì)，沒(méi)錯(cuò)，約魯巴語(yǔ)同漢語(yǔ)和粵語(yǔ)一樣是聲調(diào)語(yǔ)言，不過(guò)同粵語(yǔ)不同的是，我們只有3個(gè)聲調(diào)，而不是4個(gè)，我們的聲調(diào)是這樣的，我不知道你能不能聽(tīng)出這3個(gè)詞的區(qū)別，不過(guò)的確是有區(qū)別的。我不太了解伊格博語(yǔ)，那是一種完全不同的語(yǔ)言，如果有人說(shuō)伊格博語(yǔ)，我基本上聽(tīng)不懂。

Todd: And what region is that in?

托德：哪個(gè)地區(qū)使用這個(gè)語(yǔ)言?

Abidemi: It's in the southeastern part of Nigeria. And then finally Hausa, it's more ... it's closer to Arabic I believe and a lot of Hausas are Muslims, so I think there's that relationship between those two languages.

阿比德米：尼日利亞的東南部地區(qū)。我認(rèn)為豪薩語(yǔ)更接近阿拉伯語(yǔ)，許多豪薩族人是穆斯林，所以我認(rèn)為豪薩語(yǔ)和阿拉伯語(yǔ)之間存在聯(lián)系。

Todd: So they sound completely different from each other?

托德：這些語(yǔ)言聽(tīng)起來(lái)完全不同嗎?

Abidemi: Completely different, and because we have so many languages sometimes you would have a neighboring community but people can't understand each other unless they speak in English because their languages are nothing alike, yeah.

阿比德米：完全不同，因?yàn)槲覀兊恼Z(yǔ)言太多了，有時(shí)雖然生活在鄰近社區(qū)，但人們聽(tīng)不懂對(duì)方說(shuō)的話，除非他們說(shuō)英語(yǔ)，因?yàn)樗麄兊恼Z(yǔ)言完全不同。

Todd: So how common is it to find somebody who speaks all three languages, the three major languages?

托德：那會(huì)說(shuō)這三種主要語(yǔ)言的人多嗎?

Abidemi: There are some people who do. There are some people who do, especially businessmen, a lot of Yorubas and Igbos are very business oriented, but traditionally men, they will travel to different parts of Nigeria and some other countries in West Africa to do trade. So for those people it was essential to learn languages, so those people can. Nowadays most people just speak two, you speak English and your native language. So maybe it's becoming rarer and rarer to find people who speak all three languages.

阿比德米：有些人三種語(yǔ)言都會(huì)?；旧仙倘硕紩?huì)，許多約魯巴族人和博格族人經(jīng)商，通常經(jīng)商的都是男性，他們?cè)谀崛绽麃喐鱾€(gè)地區(qū)和其他西非國(guó)家做生意。對(duì)這些人來(lái)說(shuō)，學(xué)習(xí)不同的語(yǔ)言非常有必要，所以他們可以說(shuō)三種語(yǔ)言?，F(xiàn)在大部分人會(huì)說(shuō)兩種語(yǔ)言，英語(yǔ)和母語(yǔ)。也許現(xiàn)在越來(lái)越難找到會(huì)說(shuō)三種語(yǔ)言的人了。

Todd: So are these languages all taught in the school system?

托德：那學(xué)校里會(huì)教這些語(yǔ)言嗎?

Abidemi: For the most part no, which I think it's very unfortunate, I think it's something we should be very proud of. But now the emphasis is on English. So a lot of parents want their children to learn English in school, the top schools are mainly English and the onus is on the families to teach their children their native languages at home or maybe if you live in a neighborhood, for example if you're Yoruba like I am, if you live in a neighborhood where there are other Igbos, of course you would have Yoruba at home and Igbo being spoken to you by your friends and you might be able to pick it up that way, but generally no. So for me, when I was growing up I went to English speaking schools so I learned English at school, I never learned my native language at school at all. But at home I tried by myself, I studied my language by myself, so that's how I learned to speak.

阿比德米：基本上不教，我認(rèn)為這非常不幸，這本來(lái)應(yīng)該是我們引以為傲的事情。但是現(xiàn)在的教學(xué)重點(diǎn)是英語(yǔ)。許多父母希望他們的孩子在學(xué)校學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)，一些頂級(jí)學(xué)校也以英語(yǔ)教學(xué)為主，家庭則承擔(dān)起在家教孩子母語(yǔ)的任務(wù)，如果你鄰近的社區(qū)……舉個(gè)例子，如果你和我一樣是約魯巴族，如果你住的社區(qū)有博格族人，你可以在家學(xué)習(xí)約魯巴語(yǔ)，和朋友們學(xué)習(xí)博格語(yǔ)，你也可以這樣來(lái)學(xué)習(xí)，不過(guò)學(xué)校上基本上不教這些語(yǔ)言。我小時(shí)候上的是英語(yǔ)教學(xué)的學(xué)校，所以我在學(xué)校學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)，我完全沒(méi)有在學(xué)校學(xué)過(guò)母語(yǔ)。不過(guò)我在家自學(xué)了母語(yǔ)，我就是這樣學(xué)會(huì)母語(yǔ)的。

Todd: So do you think you'll pass on the language to your children some day?

托德：那你將來(lái)會(huì)教你的孩子語(yǔ)言嗎?

Abidemi: I want to, most definitely, yes. I think from learning different languages myself, I speak French as well, I think it's really important, my native language is my language and as much as English is important in the world today, I think my native language, Yoruba, is part of my identity. And for my children too, I think it's important for them to learn, so yes, I would like them to speak it.

阿比德米：我當(dāng)然會(huì)。我也會(huì)說(shuō)法語(yǔ)，我學(xué)習(xí)了不同的語(yǔ)言，我的母語(yǔ)是我的本土語(yǔ)言，和世界語(yǔ)言英語(yǔ)同樣重要，我認(rèn)為我的母語(yǔ)約魯巴語(yǔ)是我身份的一部分。對(duì)我的孩子來(lái)說(shuō)也是如此，我認(rèn)為讓他們學(xué)習(xí)母語(yǔ)非常重要，所以我會(huì)教他們。

Todd: Oh, I agree, one's native language is always the most important.

托德：好，我同意你的觀點(diǎn)，一個(gè)人的母語(yǔ)是最重要的。

Abidemi: Exactly. Exactly.

阿比德米：沒(méi)錯(cuò)，沒(méi)錯(cuò)。

Todd: That's cool though, so you've got three distinct different languages, more.

托德：這真酷，你們有3種不同的語(yǔ)言，實(shí)際上你們有更多語(yǔ)言。

Abidemi: More. More.

阿比德米：對(duì)，更多。

Todd: More, but three major distinct languages.

托德：更多，不過(guò)這3種是主要的語(yǔ)言。

Abidemi: Yes, these are the three major ethnicities — ethnic groups in Nigeria, yes.

阿比德米：對(duì)，尼日利亞有三大主要的民族。

Todd: Well thanks.

托德：謝謝你。

Abidemi: Thank you.

阿比德米：謝謝。