Episode 184: Spelling Says a Lot (Part 1)

这就带我们来到了另一个元音字母——字母e。

And that brings us to another vowel letter, the letter e.

正如我们所知，元音字母很棘手，因为它们代表多个发音，而且这些发音在历史上发生过多次变化。

As we know, vowel letters are tricky because they represent multiple sounds, and the sounds have a history of shifting around.

让我们先指出，字母e的原始发音可以追溯到拉丁语，是/a/音。

Let's begin by noting that the original sound of letter e going all the way back to Latin was a.

在大多数其他欧洲语言中，这个发音至今仍然常见，而且在近几个世纪从其他语言借入的单词中，我们仍然保留着这个发音。

That's still the common sound of the letter in most other European languages, and we still have it in words borrowed from other languages in recent centuries.

我们在像cafe、fiance、resume、ballet、buffet、beret、gourmet、anime等词的末尾能听到这种传统的e发音。

We hear that traditional sound of e at the end of words like cafe, fiance, resume, ballet, buffet, beret, gourmet, anime, and others.

但当然，在英语内部，我们把这个字母与其它发音联系在一起。

But, of course, within English, we associate that letter with other sounds.

就像字母a一样，字母e也代表两种常见的发音，分别被称为短音和长音。

Just like letter a, letter e also represents two common sounds that are referred to as its short and long sounds.

字母e的短音体现在pet、web、bed和mess这些词中。

The short sound of letter e is as in pet, web, bed, and mess.

字母e单独出现在辅音前时，通常发这个音，这种短音自英语在中世纪早期采用拉丁字母以来就相当稳定。

The letter e by itself before a consonant usually represents that sound, and that short sound has been pretty stable since English adopted the Latin alphabet in the early Middle Ages.

所以关于所谓的短e音，我其实没什么更多可说的了。

So I don't really have anything else to say about the so called short e sound.

但长e音就复杂一些，因为众所周知，所有的长元音都受到了大元音 Shift 的影响。

But the long e sound is a bit more complicated because, as we know, all of the long vowel sounds were affected by the great vowel shift.

如今，字母e的长音是/e/，比如bee、tree、feet、cheese、beef、weed、needle等词。

Today, the long sound of letter e is e, as in bee, tree, feet, cheese, beef, weed, needle, and so on.

记住元音字母长音的一个简单技巧是：它和字母本身的名称相同，因为我们用长音作为字母的名称。

A simple trick to remember the long sound of a vowel letter is that it's the same as the name of the letter because we use the long sound as the name of the letter.

所以字母a的长音是/a/，字母e的长音是/e/。

So the long sound of letter a is a, and the long sound of letter e is e.

正如你可能已经注意到的，今天我们通常通过双写字母e来标记这个长e音。

As you may have noticed, we usually mark that long e sound today by doubling the letter e.

过去，书写者也曾在词尾使用不发音的e来标记长音，就像我们对字母a所做的那样，但书写者和印刷商更倾向于双写e，这最终成为英语中更标准的拼写方式。

At one time, writers also used the silent e at the end of a word to mark the long sound, just like we do with letter a, but writers and printers preferred to double the e, and that became the more standard spelling in English.

正如我们前面所见，字母e的原始发音更接近a。

Now as we saw earlier, the original sound of letter e was more like a.

因此，我们今天拼写为双e的大多数单词，过去都发那个原始的a音。

So most of the words that we have today that are spelled with a double e once had that original a sound.

所以'tree'原本是'tray'，'cheese'原本是'chase'，'weed'原本是'weighed'。

So tree was originally tray, and cheese was originally chase, and weed was originally weighed.

但随后的元音大推移改变了这些词的发音方式。

But then the great vowel shift changed the way those words were pronounced.

在15世纪和16世纪，人们在发音时开始略微抬高舌头的前部。

And in the fourteen hundreds and fifteen hundreds, people started to raise the front of their tongues a bit when they pronounce those words.

在这个过程中，发音从a上移变成了e。

And in the process, the sound shifted from a up to e.

于是'tray'变成了'tree'，'chase'变成了'cheese'，以此类推。

So became tree, and became cheese, and so on.

这是一个非常简单的改变，到16世纪末时基本已经完成。

It was a very simple change, and it was mostly in place by the end of the fifteen hundreds.

所以在英语发展的整个故事中，到目前这个阶段，那个变化已经发生，这些双e单词的发音几乎和今天一样。

So at the current point in our overall story of English, that change had already occurred, and those double e words were pronounced pretty much the same as today.

在此过程中，字母e的发音被扩展为我们现在所称的长e音。

And along the way, the sound of letter e was extended to this e sound, the sound that we call the long e sound today.

我之前说过，抄写员和印刷商通常用双e来表示这个长e音，但法国抄写员使用的另一种方法是在e前或e后加上i，从而形成ei或ie的字母组合来表示这个音。

Now I said that scribes and printers usually represented that long e sound by doubling the e's, I but another technique used by French scribes was to place an I before the e or after the e, thereby producing the e I or I e letter combination for that sound.

这种拼写方式常被保留在从法语借来的单词中，有时甚至也被应用于本土英语单词。

That spelling was often retained in words that were taken from French and was sometimes even applied to native English words.

我们在grieve、chief、brief、field、receive、ceiling等词中可以看到这种替代拼写。

And we see that alternate spelling in words like grieve, chief, brief, field, receive, ceiling, and so on.

但同样，这些词的语音历史本质上和tree、bee、feet等词相同。

But again, most of those words have essentially the same phonetic history as words like tree and bee and feet.

它们经历了相同的元音变化。

They experienced the same vowel shift.

只是用稍有不同的拼写来表示相同的发音。

They just use a slightly different spelling to represent the same sound.

现在我们需要为这个带有e音的单词谜题再添加一块拼图。

Now we need to add one more piece to this puzzle of words with the e sound.

我们已经讨论了像tree和feet这样的双e单词，也讨论了像chief和receive这样的ie和ei单词。

We've covered the double e words like tree and feet, and we've covered the I e and e I words like chief and receive.

这些单词的元音历史本质上是相同的。

Again, those words have essentially the same vowel history.

它们只是用不同的拼写方式来表示同一个音。

They just employ different spellings for the same sound.

但现在我们必须加入那些拼写为ea的单词，比如please、speak、clean、heat、leap、seat等等。

But now we have to add in words spelled with e a, like please, speak, clean, heat, leap, seat, and so on.

同样，这一组单词今天发的e音与其他单词相同。

Again, this group of words have the same e sound as those other words today.

那么，ea只是同一个音的另一种拼写方式吗？

So was e a just another alternate spelling for the same sound?

不，并不是。

Well, no.

ea 这个拼写曾经用于表示不同的发音，但后来这个发音发生了变化，与之前那些单词中的 e 音合并了。

The e a spelling was once used for a different sound, but again, the sound shifted and merged with the e sound in those other words.

由于这些 ea 单词的拼写早已固定，它们在历史发展中保留了这种拼写形式。

And since the spelling of these e a words was already locked in place, they've retained that spelling over time.

同样，拼写往往能告诉我们一个单词的语音历史。

Again, spellings often tell us the phonetic history of a word.

ea 这个拼写最初是用来表示那个音的。

The e a spelling was originally used for the sound.

那就是我们在 pet 和 set 这类词中听到的音，但在这里，它的发音更长。

That's the same sound we hear in words like pet and set, but in this case, it was pronounced longer.

所以，它是一个长音，而不是短音。

So it was the long sound instead of a short sound.

对于这个较长的 e 音，抄写员们似乎觉得需要用一种不同的方式来表示它。

And for this longer e sound, scribes apparently felt the need to represent it in a different way.

于是他们将 e 和 a 组合起来，创造了 ea 这个拼写。

So they combined e and a and came up with the e a spelling.

从语音上讲，这个音的发音介于字母e和a的传统发音之间，也就是在a和ah之间。

Phonetically speaking, this sound is pronounced somewhere between the traditional sound of letter e and letter a, so somewhere between a and ah.

鉴于这是一个介于两者之间的音，用e和a组合来表示这个音是合理的。

Given that this was an in between sound, it made sense to combine e and a to represent that sound.

因此，像feast这样的词曾经发音为thest，这种发音在相关的单词festival中仍然可以听到。

So a word like feast was once pronounced as thest, a sound still heard in the related word festival.

像reed这样的词曾经发音为red，这种发音在该词的过去式中仍然存在，比如我昨天读了这本书（I read the book yesterday）。

And a word like reed was once pronounced red, a sound still heard in the past tense form of the word, as in I read the book yesterday.

而leave这个词曾经发音为lev，这种发音在它的过去式left中仍然可以听到。

And the word leave was once pronounced as lev, a sound still heard in the past tense form left.

但同样，随着时间的推移，大多数带有这个音和ea拼写的词在大元音推移中经历了元音变化。

But again, over time, most of the words with that sound and that e a spelling experienced a vowel shift under the great vowel shift.

这个音最初升高为a，后来又进一步升高为e。

The sound was initially raised to a and then later raised again to e.

因此，像feast这样的词从fest变为fest，再变为feast。

So a word like feast went from fest to fest to feast.

我应该指出，这种元音变化并没有发生在所有拼写为 e a 的单词中。

Now I should note that this vowel change did not occur in all of these words spelled with the e a.

在一些单词中，音质实际上从未真正改变过。

In some of them, the quality of the sound never really changed.

它只是变得稍微短了一些。

It just became a little shorter.

因此，我们在像 head、death、bread、sweat、spread、weather、measure、ready 等词中发现了这种古老的 e a 拼写形式。

And that's why we find that old e a spelling in words like head, death, death, bread, sweat, spread, weather, measure, ready, and so on.

这些词保留了原始的发音。

Those words retain an original pronunciation.

它们只是使用了稍微短一点的版本。

They just use a slightly shorter version of it.

而在其他单词中，随着元音的演变，有些词的发音卡在了原始音和现代 e 音之间的中间位置。

And as the sound shifted in the other words, some of them got stuck in the middle between the original sound and the modern e sound.

请记住，这个音变经历了两个独立的步骤。

Remember the sound shifted in two separate steps.

它从一个音变成了另一个音，然后再演变为 e 音。

It went from to and then from to e.

不过，有少数几个词停留在了中间阶段，这些词包括 great、steak（拼写为 s t e a k）和 break（拼写为 b r e a k）。

Well, a few of those words got stuck in the middle with the sound, and those words are great, steak, s t e a k, and break, b r e a k.

但真正卡在中间阶段的词和名字其实很少。

But there are really only a few words and names that got stuck in that in between stage.

大多数拼写为 e a 的词都演变成了今天我们使用的 e 音，比如 clean、seat、speak 等词。

Most of the words spelled with e a moved on to the e pronunciation that we use today in words like clean, seat, speak, and so on.

那么，在我们整个故事的当前阶段——也就是17世纪初，这个元音在这些词中的状态是怎样的呢？

So what was the status of this vowel in those words at the current point in our overall story in the early sixteen hundreds?

根据现存的描述来看，这个音正处于演变过程的中间阶段。

Well, from the surviving descriptions, it appears that the sound was midway through its evolution.

它已经从原来的音变成了中间音，但还没完全变成 e 音。

It had gone from to but hadn't quite reached e yet.

所以当时人们说的是 feast，而不是 feast；说的是 speck，而不是 speak。

So people were saying instead of feast and speck instead of speak.

但亚历山大·吉尔给了我们更多相关信息。

But Alexander Gill gives us a little more information.

记住，他是在我们故事的这个阶段，即1619年写作的，他说伦敦东部的人们用像我们今天一样的e音来发音这些词。

Remember that he was writing at the current point in our story in the year 1619, and he said that people who lived to the East Of London pronounced those words with an e sound like we do today.

他说，那里的人们说的是一种他称为东部方言的口音。

He said that the people there spoke what he called the eastern dialect.

根据他的描述，他们的发音非常先进，反映了语言的发展方向。

And based on his descriptions, they had a very advanced pronunciation that reflected where the language was headed.

因此，他们像我们今天一样说feast和speak，而伦敦大多数人的说法仍然是feast和spake。

So they said feast and speak like we do today, whereas most of the people in London still said feast and spake.

但关键在于，我们今天使用的ea拼写最初代表的是一种音，这个音作为大元音 Shift 的一部分发生了变化，最终与我们今天在许多其他单词中发现的e音合并了。

But the bottom line here is that the e a spelling that we use today originally represented a sound that changed as part of the great vowel shift, and it ultimately merged with the e sound that we find in so many other words.

所以关于字母e，我们就讲到这里。

So that's enough about letter e.

让我们继续下一个字母，f。

Let's move on to the next letter, f.

关于字母f，我其实没什么好说的。

I don't really have much to say about f.

自从拼写固定以来，f所代表的发音在英语中一直相当稳定，因此对今天的说话者来说并没有带来太多困难。

The sound it represents has been pretty stable in English since spellings became fixed, so it doesn't create many challenges for speakers today.

我唯一要提到的是，我们还有用ph来表示f音的替代拼写，这种拼写几乎总是出现在源自希腊语的借词中。

My only note is that we also have the alternate p h spelling for the f sound, and that spelling is almost always found in loan words from Greek.

古希腊语中有一种音，它在许多希腊词中演变成了f音，而希腊字母表中用phi这个字母来表示这个音。

Ancient Greek had a sound which evolved into the f sound in many Greek words, and the Greek alphabet had the letter phi to represent that sound.

ph这个拼写是为了在这些借词中表示希腊字母phi。

The p h spelling is an attempt to represent that Greek letter phi in those loan words.

因此，我们可以把它看作另一种词源拼写，其中拼写反映了某种早已消失或发生变化的古代发音。

So we can think of it as another type of etymology spelling where the spelling reflects some ancient sound that has long since disappeared or changed in some way.

这就带我们来到了字母g。

And that takes us to letter g.

与字母c类似，它也有所谓的硬音和软音。

Much like letter c, it also has a so called hard and soft sound.

硬音发音是/g/，这是自罗马时代以来该字母的传统发音。

The hard pronunciation is g, and that's the traditional sound of the letter going all the way back to the Romans.

当字母表传入英格兰时，盎格鲁-撒克逊人将字母g用于古英语中的相同发音。

When the alphabet was brought to England, the Anglo Saxons applied the letter g to the same sound in old English.

我们在像game（游戏）、go（去）、goose（鹅）和good（好）这样的词中听到这种原始的硬音。

We hear that original hard sound in words like game, go, goose, and good.

但随着法语在西欧从拉丁语演变而来，某些词中的发音开始发生变化。

But then as French evolved out of Latin in Western Europe, the sound started to change in some words.

当g出现在e或i之前时，发音发生了变化，产生了所谓的软音。

When a g appeared before letters e or I, the sound changed and produced the so called soft sound of the letter.

那就是/j/的发音。

That's the j sound.

这是因为e和i所代表的发音是舌尖前部抬起发出的，而g音被略微向前拉向硬腭区域，从而形成了/j/音。

That happened because the sounds represented by e and I are pronounced with the front of the tongue raised, and the g sound was sort of pulled forward to the palate region, thereby creating that j sound.

因此，当g出现在e和i之前时，它就变成了软g。

So the letter g became a soft g when it appeared before e and I.

我们在单词如germ、gentle、giant、gender等中听到这个音。

We hear that sound in words like germ, gentle, giant, gender, and so on.

正如你所知，g的软音实际上就是我们与字母j关联的同一个音。

Now as you know, the soft sound of g is actually the same sound we associate with letter j.

它们都有/j/这个音。

They both have the j sound.

那么，为什么我们要用两个不同的字母来表示这个音呢？

So why do we represent that sound with two different letters?

正如我们稍后会看到的，这个音在拉丁语中并不存在，因此拉丁语没有对应的字母。

Well, as we'll see a little bit later, that sound didn't exist in Latin, so Latin didn't have a letter for it.

这个音在古英语中也很罕见，所以古英语也没有专门的字母来表示它。

And the sound was rare in old English, so old English didn't have a specific letter for it either.

这个音实际上是在法语中从其他音演变而来的。

The sound actually evolved out of other sounds in French.

软g是法语中产生这一音的一种情况，而今天大多数使用软g的单词都是法语借词。

The soft g was one case where the sound emerged in French, and most words that use that soft g today are French loan words.

另一个这种音在法语中出现的情况与字母I有关。

The other instance where the sound emerged in French was in relation to the letter I.

我会稍后讨论这一发展过程，但这就是字母j的来源。

So I'll deal with that development a little later, but that's where the letter j came from.

因此，今天我们用两个不同的字母来表示这个音，是因为这个音是通过两种不同的语音变化产生的。

So today, we have two different letters for the sound because the sound came about as a result of two different sound changes.

而今天我们用来表示这个音的字母反映了这一历史。

And the letters we use today for that sound reflect that history.

由于软g实际上是法语发展出来的，然后传入英语，因此当我们遇到gentle或gender这类词中的软g时，通常可以推断这个词源自法语。

Since the soft g was really a French development that passed to English, when we encounter those soft g's in words like gentle or gender, we can generally assume that the word came from French.

而当我们遇到在e或i前的硬g时，通常可以推断这个词并非来自法语。

And when we encounter a hard g before e or I, we can generally assume that that word didn't come from French.

像get、gear、give和girl这样的词，都是在法语影响传入之前就已存在于英语中的词。

So words like get, gear, give, and girl are words that were already in English before the French influence arrived.

因此，它们保留了原本的硬g发音。

So they have retained their original hard g's.

像 gecko 和 geyser 这样的词是后来从其他语言借入的词汇。

And words like gecko and geyser are more recent loan words from other languages.

所以法语中的软 g 也不适用于这些词。

So the French soft g doesn't apply to those words either.

现在，法语中的软 g 发展并没有影响到每一个词。

Now the soft g development in French didn't affect every word.

即使在法语中，也有一些词在 e 或 i 前仍保留了硬 g 的发音。

Even in French, there were a few words that retained a hard g sound before e or I.

在这些情况下，法语书写者必须找到一种方法，明确表明 g 仍保留其原始发音。

And in those cases, the French scribes had to figure out a way to make it clear that the g retained its original sound.

于是他们创造了一种新的拼写方式。

So they came up with a new spelling.

他们在 g 后面加上 u，作为表示硬 g 音的另一种方式，这种 gu 拼写逐渐成为在原本不明确时标记传统发音的常见方法。

They added a u after the g as an alternate way of indicating a hard g sound, and that g u spelling became a common way to indicate that traditional sound where it might not otherwise be clear.

这就是为什么单词 guest（gu-e-s-t）要用 gu 而不是简单的 g 来拼写的原因。

That's why the word guest, g u e s t, is spelled with g u rather than a simple g.

Gest 可能会让人误以为发音是 jest，因此使用 gu 拼写是为了明确 g 是硬音。

G e s t might imply that the pronunciation was jest, So the g u spelling was used to make it clear that the g was a hard g.

我们还在 guide、guild、guitar 和 guilty 等词中，以及 disguise 这个词的中间部分，遇到这种 gu 拼写。

We also encounter that g u spelling in words like guide, guild, guitar, and guilty, as well as in the middle of the word disguise.

这种法语拼写有时也被扩展到其他 g 音出现在其他元音字母前的词中，比如 guard 和 guarantee。

That French spelling was sometimes extended to other words where the g sound appeared before the other vowel letters, like guard and guarantee.

在荷兰语中，抄写员采用了一种不同的方式来表示硬 g 音。

In Dutch, scribes had a different way of indicating the hard g sound.

他们会在 g 后面加上 h，从而形成 gh 拼写。

They would add an h after the g, and the result was a g h spelling.

这种拼写方式也通过少数几个词进入了英语，具体包括 ghost、ghastly、aghast 和 gherkin。

That spelling also made its way to English in a few words, specifically ghost, ghastly, aghast, and gherkin.

这些词使用这种荷兰拼写的原因与印刷机的历史有关。

The reason why this Dutch spelling is used in those words is because of the history of the printing press.

荷兰人比英国人更早开始使用印刷机。

The Dutch began using the printing press before the English did.

事实上，第一台英文印刷机是从荷兰引进的，一些荷兰助手和排字工人也随之一同前来。

In fact, the first English printing press was brought over from The Netherlands, and some of the Dutch assistants and typesetters came with it.

这使得一些荷兰拼写惯例得以进入英语。

And that allows some of those Dutch spelling conventions to pass into English.

意大利语也使用相同的gh字母组合来表示硬g音。

Italian also used the same g h letter combination to represent the hard g sound.

这种意大利拼写方式出现在ghetto这样的词中，以及spaghetti的中间部分。

That Italian spelling is found in words like ghetto and in the middle of spaghetti.

所以，总结来说，英语中有许多不同的方式来表示g音，而具体的拼写往往揭示了这个词的历史，包括它的来源。

So the bottom line here is that we have a lot of different ways of representing the g sound in English, and the particular spelling often tells us about the history of the word, including where it came from.

因此，表示g音的方式有很多。

So that's a lot of different ways of representing the g sound.

但有时，单词中的g是完全不发音的。

But sometimes, we have a g in words that isn't pronounced at all.

特别是在gnaw和gnat这类词开头的g，这种情况尤为常见。

That's especially true for the g at the front of words like gnaw and gnat.

在这些词中，g 曾经发音为 ganao 或 gnat。

In those words, the g was once pronounced as ganao or gnat.

这些都是古英语词汇。

Those are Old English words.

古英语中有些词开头就有这个音，就像许多以 k n 开头的词（如 knife、knee 和 knot）中保留了原始发音一样。

Old English had that initial sound in some words, just like it had the original sound preserved in so many words that begin with k n, like knife and knee and knot.

在15世纪初，这种发音似乎仍在保守的受过教育的口语中残留，因此被保留在这些词的永久拼写中。

Those pronunciations were apparently still lingering in conservative educated speech in the early fifteen hundreds, enough that it was retained in the permanent spelling of those words.

但到了我们故事中的16世纪初，这些以 g n 拼写的词中的 g 音已经消失了。

But by the current point in our story in the early sixteen hundreds, the g sound in those words spelled with g n was gone.

16世纪初的拼写改革者没有提供任何证据表明这些词开头的 g 音当时仍在发音。

The spelling reformers of the early sixteen hundreds provide no evidence that the g sound at the front of those words was still being pronounced at the time.

刚才我提到了 ghost 和 ghetto 等词中的 g h 拼写，并指出当 g h 组合用于表示硬 g 音时，它代表的是从英语之外借来的拼写方式。

Now a moment ago, I mentioned the g h spelling in words like ghost and ghetto, and I noted that when the g h combination is used to represent the hard g sound, it represents a spelling that was borrowed from outside of English.

但我们也有很多词中的 g h 拼写根本不发音。

But we also have a lot of words where the g h spelling doesn't represent any sound at all.

这些词中的gh是不发音的。

The g h in those words is silent.

像light、night、high、thought、though和eight这样的词就是这种情况。

That's the case in words like light, night, high, thought, though, and ate, e I g h t.

这种不发音的gh与ghost和ghetto中的gh有着完全不同的历史。

Now this silent g h has a completely different history from the g h in ghost and ghetto.

事实上，这种不发音的gh是英语本土的。

And in fact, this silent g h is native to English.

这种特定的gh拼写在中古英语时期出现，用来表示当时英语中仍常见的发音。

This particular g h spelling emerged in Middle English to represent the sound, which was still common in English at the time.

这种发音自古英语时期甚至更早就已经存在。

It had been around since old English and really before that.

因此，night这个词原本发音更像……，though这个词原本发音更像……。

So the word night was originally pronounced more like, the word though was originally pronounced more like.

至少在15世纪，这种发音仍在一定程度上被使用，这就是为什么它至今仍保留在许多单词的标准拼写中。

That sound was still being pronounced at least to a certain extent in the fifteen hundreds, which is why it remains in the standard spelling of so many words today.

但当然，这个音在近代早期逐渐消失了，尽管在苏格兰和一些其他地方方言中仍有所保留。

But, of course, that sound gradually disappeared in the early modern era, though it survives to an extent in Scotland and a few other regional dialects.

那么问题来了，这个音是什么时候消失的？在我们整个故事的当前阶段——即17世纪初——它是否还存在？

The question then is when did that sound disappear, and was it still around at the current point in our overall story in the early sixteen hundreds?

答案是，它在一些人的口语中仍有所残留，尽管到那时大部分已经消失了。

Well, the answer is that it still lingered in some people's speech, although it was mostly gone by that point.

大多数早期的拼写改革者仍在他们的音标字母中用特定字母标记这个音。

Most of the early spelling reformers still marked the sound with a specific letter in their phonetic alphabet.

在16世纪末，拼写改革者埃德蒙·库特写道，这个音‘几乎不发音’，他还指出，有些人发这个音，有些人则不发。

At the very end of the fifteen hundreds, a spelling reformer named Edmund Coote wrote that the sound was, quote, little sounded, and he also noted that some people pronounced it and some people didn't.

即使在我们故事的当前阶段——1619年——我们也发现了相互矛盾的证据。

Even at the current point in our overall story in 1619, we find conflicting evidence.

亚历山大·吉尔在他的音标拼写中包含了这个音，但同时期的罗伯特·罗宾逊却完全未表示这个音。

Alexander Gill included the sound in his phonetic spellings, but Robert Robinson, writing around the same time, didn't represent the sound at all.

正如我们所见，吉尔在音标拼写上倾向于保守，反映的是一种更传统、更受教育的发音方式。

As we've seen, Gil tended to be a bit conservative in his phonetic spellings, reflecting a more traditional and educated form of speech.

而罗宾逊则更倾向于现代，反映了当时正在兴起并最终成为标准发音的语音。

Whereas Robinson tended to be a bit more modern, reflecting the speech that was emerging at the time and would go on to become the standard pronunciations.

吉尔实际上是最后几位仍标记该发音的作家之一。

Gill is actually one of the last writers to indicate that the sound was still being pronounced.

从那以后，如果再提及这个发音，它就会被称为旧式发音。

After that point, if it's mentioned at all, it's referred to as the old pronunciation.

所以，如果你在1619年的伦敦街头行走，你会听到大多数人像今天一样发音‘though’这个词。

So if you were walking around London in 1619, you would have heard most people saying the word though like we do today.

但偶尔，你也会听到一些年长者和受过更好教育的人仍然这样发音，他们是我们在标准英语中所知的最后一批这样发音的人。

But occasionally, you would have heard some older and some more educated speakers still saying, but they were some of the last speakers to pronounce it that way in what we would call standard English.

这就是今天拼写中‘gh’不发音的由来。

So that's the story behind the g h spelling that's silent today.

但那‘gh’拼写发/f/音的情况又如何呢？

But what about the g h spelling that's pronounced as an f sound?

之前我们看到，像‘phone’和‘philosophy’这样的词中，用‘ph’来表示这个音，这种拼写源自希腊语，通常用于希腊语借词。

Earlier, we saw that the p h spelling is used for that sound in words like phone and philosophy, and that's a spelling that came from Greek and is generally used in Greek loan words.

但像 laugh、cough 和 enough 这样以 gh 结尾的单词呢？

But what about the g h spelling at the end of words like laugh and cough and enough?

在那里，gh 的拼写代表 f 的发音。

There, the g h spelling represents the f sound.

那这里发生了什么？

So what's going on there?

嗯，这同样是中古英语中用来表示该音的 gh。

Well, again, this is the same g h that was used to represent the sound in Middle English.

但当这个音出现在词尾时，有时会变成 f 音，一种 f 音，而这一变化在17世纪初仍在进行中。

But where that sound occurred at the end of a word, it sometimes became an f sound, a f sound, and that change was still underway in the early sixteen hundreds.

所以在中古英语中，像 laugh 这样的词会被发音为 这个词，以及大多数在词尾出现 f 音的词，都带有一个双唇圆唇的元音。

So in Middle English, a word like laugh would have been pronounced This word and most other words where the f sound emerged at the end had a vowel sound that was pronounced with rounded lips.

当用圆唇发音元音时，下唇往往会更靠近上齿。

Well, when rounding the lips to make the vowel sound, it tends to bring the lower lip closer to the top teeth.

在这种环境下，它非常接近 f 音。

And in that environment, it's very close to an f sound.

当人们不再发音这个圆唇元音后的音时，有些人似乎选择用f音来替代，因为在这个环境中f音很容易发出。

And as people stopped pronouncing the sound after that rounded vowel, some people apparently chose to substitute an f sound in its place, which could be easily produced in that environment.

所以它从...演变成了...。同样，在17世纪初，有些人会发这个f音，而有些人则不会。

So it evolved from to Now, again, in the early sixteen hundreds, some people would have pronounced that f sound and some wouldn't.

来自那些拼写改革者的现存证据证实，当时f音的发音是不稳定的。

And the surviving evidence from those spelling reformers confirms that the pronunciation of the f sound was variable at the time.

大多数拼写改革者指出，单词laugh仍然按传统方式发音为...，但托马斯·史密斯爵士在1568年的著作中记录了laugh的另一种发音。

Most of the spelling reformers indicate that the word laugh was still pronounced in the traditional way as, But sir Thomas Smith, writing in 1568, recorded laugh as an alternate pronunciation.

所以我们知道，到那时这种发音已经出现了。

So we know it was around by then.

莎士比亚的诗歌和戏剧证实了词尾的f音，因为他将laugh与其他以f音结尾的词押韵。

Shakespeare's poems and plays confirm the f sound at the end because he rhymed the word laugh with other words that ended in f.

因此，他也使用了这种新兴的f音发音。

So he also had the emerging f pronunciation.

亚历山大·吉尔在我们整个故事的这个时间点——1619年——仍使用了传统的发音方式。

Alexander Gill, writing at the current point in our overall story in 1619, used the older traditional pronunciation.

但他表示，带有f音的laugh也能听到，并且他特别指出这是来自英格兰北部说话者的发音。

But he said that laugh with the f sound could also be heard, and he specifically attributed it to speakers from the North Of England.

到了1630年代，f发音似乎已成为这个词的正常发音。

By the sixteen thirties, it appears that the f pronunciation was the normal pronunciation of the word.

单词enough似乎比laugh更早获得了f音，因为吉尔和罗宾逊都在同一时期记录到，enough的结尾发音为f音。

The word enough apparently had acquired its f sound a little before laugh did, because Gil and Robinson, both writing around the same time, record that enough was pronounced with an f sound at the end.

所以，尽管吉尔没有在laugh中使用f音，但他确实在enough中使用了。

So even though Gil didn't use the f for laugh, he did use it for enough.

但他承认enough的发音存在差异。

But he acknowledged that the pronunciation of enough varied.

他说有些人仍使用旧的发音方式。

He said that some people used the older pronunciation.

再次强调，这里的主要观点是，现代发音在17世纪初已经开始出现，但尚未普及。

Again, the main point here is that the modern pronunciations were emerging in the early sixteen hundreds, but they were not universal yet.

在探讨了gh拼写之后，我想现在是时候从字母g转向字母h了，也就是字母表中的下一个字母。

So having explored the g h spelling, I suppose it's a good time to move on from letter g to letter h, the next letter in the alphabet.

字母 h 代表一种非常轻柔、发音微弱的声音。

The letter h represents a very soft and lightly pronounced sound.

它只是在另一个音之前的一丝气息或呼气。

It's little more than a slight breath or aspiration before another sound.

由于这种声音非常轻，它在历史发展中容易消失，尤其是在词首位置。

And since it is such a light sound, it's had a tendency to disappear over time, especially at the front of words.

这种音在古英语中很常见，我们至今仍保留许多以字母 h 开头的古英语单词，比如 hand（手）、hair（头发）、head（头）、house（房子）、high（高）、hot（热）和 hound（猎犬）。

The sound was common in Old English, and we still have many Old English words that begin with letter h, like hand, hair, head, house, high, hot, and hound.

如果不是诺曼征服，字母 h 在英语中的历史可能会简单而直接。

And were it not for the Norman Conquest, the history of letter h in English would probably be simple and straightforward.

但正如我们所见，征服对英语拼写造成了巨大混乱，法语的拼写和发音渗透进英语，使情况变得复杂。

But, of course, as we've seen, the conquest wreaked havoc on English spelling as French spellings and pronunciations infiltrated English and tended to complicate things.

就字母 h 而言，主要问题是，在晚期拉丁语和早期法语中，这个词首的 h 音已经变为无声。

With respect to letter h, the main problem is that the sound of the letter had become silent at the front of words in late Latin and early French.

因此，随着大量法语借词涌入英语，我们获得了许多词首 h 不发音的单词，其中一些至今仍保留这种无声 h，比如 honor（荣誉）、honest（诚实）、hour（小时）、h o u r 和 heir（继承人）、h e I r。

So as all of the French loan words poured into English, we acquired a lot of words with a silent h at the front, some of which have retained that silent h, like honor, honest, hour, h o u r, and heir, h e I r.

因此，在中古英语时期，随着大量带有无声h的法语词涌入，英语中形成了两类词：一类是本土词，其词首的h是发音的；另一类是法语词，其词首的h不发音。

So in Middle English, as all of those French words with their silent h's poured in, it left English with a group of native words where the initial h was pronounced and a group of French words where it wasn't.

当时一些抄写员在拼写这些法语词时，会直接省略h，因为h并不发音。

Now when some scribes spelled those French words, they would just omit the h since it wasn't pronounced.

但正如我们所见，中古英语晚期出现了一种趋势，即强调单词的原始拼写，以反映其词源和原始发音，甚至到了在英语中从未发音的拉丁字母也强行添加的地步。

But as we've seen, there was an effort in late Middle English to emphasize the original spelling of words to reflect their etymology and original pronunciations, even to the point of inserting letters used in Latin that were never pronounced in English.

结果，大多数这些法语词最终都恢复了原本词首的h拼写，尽管h仍然是无声的。

And as a result, most of those French words came to be spelled with their original h's at the front, even though the h was silent.

随着印刷术的推广，识字率不断提高，人们在许多词的词首都见到了h，但他们不确定是否应该发音。

As literacy spread with the printing press, people encountered those h's at the front of many words, and they weren't sure if they were supposed to pronounce them or not.

他们并不一定知道这些词的来源，因此无法判断h是否应该沉默。

They didn't necessarily know where the word came from, so they couldn't tell if the h was silent.

这造成了大量混淆：有些人会在本应无声的法语词中发音h，却在本应发音的英语本土词中省略了h。

That created a lot of confusion where some people pronounced the h in French words where it was supposed to be silent, and they didn't pronounce the h in native English words where it was supposed to be pronounced.

这基本上就是我们整个故事当前阶段——17世纪初——的情况。

That was basically the state of things at the current point in our overall story in the early sixteen hundreds.

所以有些人会说 'house'，有些人则会说 'ouse'。

So some people would have said house, and some people would have said house.

有些人会说 'honor'，有些人则会说 'onor'。

Some people would have said honor, and some people would have said honor.

有些人会说 'herb'，有些人则会说 'erb'。

And some people would have said herb, and some people would have said herb.

几十年前，约翰·哈特在大多数情况下将 'honor' 一词拼写为不带 h 的形式，反映了该词源自法语、h 不发音的传统读法。

Several decades earlier, John Hart had transcribed the word honor without an h on most occasions, reflecting the traditional French pronunciation of the word with a silent h.

但有几次，他不小心加上了 h。

But on a couple of occasions, he slipped and included the h.

由此可见，即使是他也难免出现不一致的情况。

So apparently, even he was prone to variation.

在我们故事的这个时间点，即1619年，亚历山大·吉尔强烈反对将 'honor' 和 'honest' 这类词拼写为带 h 的形式，因为 h 从来都不发音。

At the current point in our story in 1619, Alexander Gill wrote that he strongly objected to writing words like honor and honest with an h because the h was never pronounced.

有趣的是，在同一段文字中，他不仅举了 'honor' 和 'honest' 的例子。

Interestingly, in that same passage, he didn't just give the examples of honor and honest.

他还提到了单词 'over'，说它根本不应该拼写成带 h 的形式。

He also included the word over, which he said shouldn't ever be spelled with an h either.

这看起来可能有点奇怪，因为这是一个地道的英语单词，而我们今天并不用 h 来拼写它。

Now that may seem like an odd inclusion because it's a native English word, and we don't spell it with an h today.

但在当时，有些人确实会用 h 来拼写它，因为他们认为它属于那些法语词，h 已经从拼写中被省略了。

But at the time, some people did spell it with an h because they thought it was one of those French words where the h had been dropped from the spelling.

由于作家们偶尔会用 h 来拼写它，一些人就开始把它读作 'hover'。

Since writers occasionally spelled it with an h, some people started pronouncing it as hover.

语言学家称之为过度矫正，即人们过度纠正，改变了本来不该改变的东西。

Linguists call that a hyper correction, where people basically overcorrect and change something that shouldn't have been changed.

所以在17世纪初，存在一种复杂的混合状态：h 有时发音，有时不发音。

So in the early sixteen hundreds, there was a complicated mix where the h was sometimes pronounced and sometimes it wasn't.

有时甚至会给原本没有 h 的单词加上 h。

And sometimes an h was even added to words that never had one.

但随着时间推移，拼写开始引导发音。

But as time passed, the spellings started to guide the pronunciation.

由于作家和印刷商在大多数这些法语借词中加入了h，人们在看到这些词的书写形式时总是遇到带h的拼写。

Since writers and printers had inserted the h in most of those French loan words, people always encountered those words with an h when they saw them written down.

因此，在大多数情况下，人们认为正确的发音应该包含h音。

So in most cases, people assumed that the correct pronunciation was with the h.

于是，几个世纪以来，人们越来越普遍地在拼写中有h的单词开头发出h音。

So it became increasingly common over the centuries for people to pronounce the h at the front of words that were spelled with an h.

像habit、host、hotel、hospital、history、hero和horrible这样的法语词，都因为拼写中有h而获得了开头的h音，尽管在法语中这些h原本是不发音的。

French words like habit, host, hotel, hospital, history, hero, and horrible, all acquired an h sound at the front because that's the way they were spelled, even though the h's had been silent in French.

实际上只有少数几个例外，比如honor、honest、hour（拼写为h-o-u-r）、air（拼写为h-e-i-r），以及美式英语中的herb。

There were really only a handful of exceptions, honor, honest, hour, h o u r, and air, h e I r, and herb in American English.

但在英式英语中，herb这个词和其他大多数法语词一样，也增加了开头的h音，从而变成了herb。

But in British English, the word herb followed along with most of those other French words and also picked up an initial h sound, thereby becoming herb.

我应该指出，15世纪和16世纪的一些人倾向于从不发任何单词开头的h音，无论这些词源自何处。

I should note that some people in the fifteen hundreds and sixteen hundreds had a tendency to never pronounce the h sound at the front of words, regardless of where they came from.

他们只是假设所有开头的h都是不发音的，即使是像house这样的本族词，也变成了ouse，hello变成了ello。

They just assumed that all initial h's were silent, even in native words like house, which became house, and hello, which became ello.

这种发音尤其与伦敦工人阶级和下层阶级的说话者相关，最终变得高度污名化。

That type of pronunciation was especially associated with working class and lower class speakers in London, and it eventually became highly stigmatized.

当然，英国比北美更加注重阶级差异，因此在英国这种发音带有阶级含义，而在北美则没有。

Of course, England was much more class conscious than North America, so it had class connotations in England that it didn't have in North America.

因此，在18世纪和19世纪的英国，人们大力推动人们重新发h音。

As a result, there was a concerted effort in England in the eighteen hundreds and nineteen hundreds to get people to pronounce their h's again.

我们将在未来的节目中探讨这一努力，但当然，这些不发h音的方言在英国部分地区仍然存在。

We'll look at that effort in a future episode, but, of course, those h list dialects still persist in parts of England.

现在，让我们通过快速回顾字母I和J来结束本集，因为它们实际上是相互关联的。

Now let's wrap up this episode by taking a quick look at letters I and j because they are actually related to each other.

当然，字母I是另一个元音字母，和我们之前考察过的其他元音字母一样，它也有所谓的短音和长音。

Of course, the letter I is another vowel letter, and like the other vowel letters we've examined, it has so called short and long sounds.

短音是I，出现在bit、hid、slip和digit等词中。

The short sound is I, the sound heard in words like bit, hid, slip, and digit.

这是字母的传统短音，在英语历史中几乎没有发生太大变化。

That's the traditional short sound of the letter, and it hasn't really changed much over the history of English.

现在，I的长音随着时间发生了变化，因为所有的长元音都随着大元音 Shift 发生了变化。

Now the long sound of I has changed over time because, like all of the long vowel sounds, it was changed as part of the great vowel shift.

如今，这个长音是 I，比如在 ice、fine、wide、dime 等词中。

Today, that long sound is I, as in ice, fine, wide, dime, and so on.

同样，这是在大元音 Shift 期间出现的音。

Again, that's the sound that emerged during the great vowel shift.

但字母 I 原来的长音实际上是 e。

But the original long sound of letter I was actually e.

在大多数其他欧洲语言中，这仍然是字母的发音。

That's still the sound of the letter in most other European languages.

当然，在大元音 Shift 之后的几个世纪里，许多从其他语言借来的词中保留了这种发音。

And of course, we have that pronunciation in a lot of words that have been borrowed from other languages in recent centuries after the great vowel shift.

这些较新的外来词包括 elite、police、piano、pizza 等。

Some of those newer loan words include elite, police, piano, pizza, and so on.

同样，这是字母 I 原来的发音。

Again, that's the original sound of letter I.

在英语中，这个音从e转变为I，但中间经历了一个类似于a的阶段。

Within English, this sound shifted from e to I, but there was an intermediate stage where it was something like a.

所以它经历了从e到a再到I的变化。

So it went from e to a to I.

对于像'time'这样的词，其演变过程可能是：team → time → time。

For a word like time, the evolution would have been team, time, time.

在我们故事当前的时间点——17世纪初，这个元音很可能正处于a这个中间阶段。

At the current point in our overall story in the early sixteen hundreds, the vowel sound was probably at that middle stage as a.

因此，如果你当时走在伦敦街头，可能会听到大多数人把'time'、'ice'、'wine'读成那样。

So if you were walking around London, you would have probably heard most people say time, ice, wine.

但你或许也会听到少数人使用现代的发音，如'time'、'ice'和'wine'。

But you might have heard a few people using the modern pronunciations as time, ice, and wine.

在当时，这种发音被视为非标准，但到了17和18世纪，它逐渐成为主流。

That would have been considered nonstandard at the time, but it gradually became the norm over the course of the sixteen hundreds and seventeen hundreds.

这样一来，我们就谈到了字母j。

So that leaves us with the letter j.

正如我刚才提到的，它与字母I密切相关。

And as I noted a moment ago, it's closely related to letter I.

事实上，它其实就是字母I的一种变体。

In fact, it's really just a variation of letter I.

它基本上就是I，只是在底部加了一点装饰或小尾巴。

It's basically I with a little flourish or a little tail at the bottom.

但在我们讲述的英语发展当前阶段，它还不存在。

And at the current point in our overall story of English, it didn't exist yet.

在1619年，作为独立字母表示/j/音的字母J还不存在，但它即将首次作为独立字母出现。

Letter j as a distinct letter for the j sound didn't exist in 1619, but it was about to make its first appearance as its own letter.

在亚历山大·吉尔撰写关于拼写改革和英语发音的著作大约十年后，字母J开始被用作独立字母，我将在后续节目中详细讨论这一发展。

About a decade after Alexander Gill wrote his book on spelling reform and English pronunciation, the letter j started to be used as a distinct letter, and I'll deal with that development in an upcoming episode.

但如果字母J还不存在，人们当时是如何拼写/j/音的呢？

But if letter j didn't exist yet, how did people spell the j sound?

实际上有三种不同的拼写方式，因为这个音在英语中有三个不同的来源，每个来源都由不同的拼写形式表示。

Well, there were actually three different ways because the sound has three different sources in English, and each source is represented by a different spelling.

首先，这个音在拉丁语中并不存在。

First of all, the sound didn't exist in Latin.

这就是为什么拉丁字母表没有专门表示这个音的字母。

That's why the Latin alphabet didn't have a specific letter for the sound.

这个音在古英语中也很罕见，但有时会出现在词尾，比如‘edge’和‘bridge’这样的词。

The sound was also rare in Old English, but it did sometimes appear at the end of a word, like the words edge and bridge.

由于拉丁语中没有表示这个音的字母，古英语的抄写员不得不发明一种方式来表示这个音。

Since there was no Latin letter for the sound, old English scribes had to invent a way to represent the sound.

他们通常使用字母g的某种形式，有时是双g，有时是c和g的组合，有时还会创造其他变体。

They usually used some form of letter g, sometimes a double g, sometimes a c g letter combination, and sometimes they came up with other variations.

这种不确定性在中古英语中演变为dg的拼写，成为我们现代英语中如edge、bridge、ledge等词里dg e拼写的前身。

That uncertainty evolved into a d g spelling in Middle English, which was the precursor of our modern d g e spelling in words like edge, bridge, ledge, and so on.

所有这些演变都源于试图为少数英语单词的词尾找到一种表示该音的方法。

Again, all of that evolved out of an attempt to find a way to represent that sound at the end of a handful of English words.

但请记住，在古英语中，这个音几乎只出现在这种语境中。

But remember that the sound didn't really appear outside of that context in old English.

当时这种音很少见。

It was rare at the time.

但诺曼征服之后，法语词汇开始大量涌入英语，其中不少词确实含有这个音，因为这个音在早期法语中已经出现。

But after the Norman conquest, French words started to pour into English, and quite a few of those words did have that sound because that sound had emerged in early French.

它通过两种独立且无关的语音变化而出现。

And it emerged through two separate and unrelated sound changes.

我们已经讨论过其中一种，就是像gentle和giant这样的词中软化的g音。

We've already looked at one of those, which is the soft g sound in words like gentle and giant.

正如我们所见，法语中的硬g音在某些词中软化成了j音。

As we saw, the hard g sound was softened in French and became a j sound in certain words.

因此，在这些词中，字母g被用来表示这个j音，这种拼写方式也传入了英语。

So in those words, the letter g was used to represent that j sound and that spelling passed into English.

但这并不是早期法语中这个音出现的唯一情况。

But that wasn't the only time that the sound emerged in early French.

显然，早期的法语使用者非常喜欢这个音，因为它还在另一组词中出现了。

Apparently, those early French speakers really liked that sound because it also emerged in another set of words.

这就让我们回到了字母 I，因为正是这个字母的发音产生了另一种 j 音，而我们的字母 j 正是源于此。

And that brings us back to letter I because it was the sound of that letter that produced this other j sound, and that's really where our letter j comes from.

正如我在之前的节目中提到的，在拉丁语中，字母 I 的元音在出现在另一个元音前时往往会有所变化。

As I've noted in prior episodes, in Latin, the vowel sound of letter I tended to change a bit when it appeared before another vowel.

具体来说，它往往会变成 y 音，也就是 y。

Specifically, it tended to become a y sound, y.

这种变化是自然发生的，今天我们英语中在像 Olivia 或 Lydia 这样的名字末尾也会这样做，有时会读作 Olivia 或 Lydia。

This happens naturally, and we do the same thing today in English at the end of a name like Olivia or Lydia, which is sometimes pronounced as Olivia or Lydia.

同样，这个小小的 y 音会在字母 I 和另一个元音之间自然融合，这在晚期拉丁语和早期法语的许多单词中都发生了。

Again, that little y sound naturally merges between letter I and another vowel, and that's what happened in a lot of words in late Latin and early French.

但随后，在某些单词中，这个音继续演变。

But then the sound continued to evolve in some words.

事实上，这个音在西欧各地演变成了不同的发音。

In fact, the sound evolved into different sounds throughout Western Europe.

但在法语中，它逐渐在许多单词中变成了 j 音。

But in French, it gradually became a j sound in many words.

在之前的节目中，我谈到了尤利乌斯这个名字，比如尤利乌斯·凯撒。

In prior episodes, I talked about the name Julius, as in Julius Caesar.

你可能注意到，这个名字在拉丁语中常写作 I u l I u s，这是因为这是该名字的原始拼写，反映了其原本的发音 Iulius。

You may have noticed that the name is often written with an I in Latin as I u l I u s, and that's because that was the original spelling of the name, which reflects its original pronunciation as Iulius.

但后来它演变为带有 y 音的 Julius，而在法语中，它进一步演变为带有 j 音的 Julius。

But then it became Julius with a y sound, and then in French, it continued to evolve into Julius with the j sound.

这种变化发生在许多进入英语的单词中，比如 Jupiter、January、jelly、joke、juggle、just、justice、jury 等等。

And that happened in a lot of words that passed into English, like Jupiter, January, jelly, joke, juggle, just, justice, jury, and so on.

但在中古英语时期，直到我们故事当前时间点——17世纪初，这些单词仍然一直用 I 拼写。

But those words were still spelled with an I throughout the Middle English period and all the way up to the current point in our story in the early sixteen hundreds.

但正如我之前提到的，字母 I 对中世纪抄写员来说是个问题，因为在当时使用的方正字体中，它在单词中间容易被忽略。

But as I've noted before, the letter I was a problem for medieval scribes because in the blocky script that was used at the time, it tended to get lost in the middle of a word.

因此，抄写员们寻找各种方法让这个字母更醒目。

So scribes look for ways to make it stand out.

有时，他们会在这个字母上方加一个小点，这种做法最终成为小写字母 i 的通用规范。

Sometimes, they would put a little dot above it, a technique which eventually became common for the lowercase version of the letter.

有时，他们会给字母加一个小小的装饰或底部的尾笔，使其在基线以下更加突出。

And sometimes, they would give the letter a little flourish or tail at the bottom to make it stand out below the line.

在14世纪和15世纪，西欧部分地区的一些抄写员开始使用带小装饰或尾笔的I来区分字母的两种不同发音。

Well, in the fourteen hundreds and fifteen hundreds, scribes in parts of Western Europe started using the I with the little flourish or tail to distinguish the two different sounds of the letter.

元音发音使用传统的直线型字母，而辅音发音则使用带底部小装饰的版本。

The vowel sound was represented with the traditional straight version of the letter, and the consonant sound was represented with the version with the little flourish at the bottom.

这种技巧显然最早出现在14世纪的西班牙。

This technique was apparently first used in Spain in the fourteen hundreds.

在西班牙，这个音演变成了h音或类似h的音。

In Spain, that sound had evolved into an h sound or a sound.

这就是为什么英文中看起来像Jesus的名字，在西班牙语中实际发音为Jesus，但拼写却用了j，尽管发音不同。

That's why the name that looks like Jesus in English is actually pronounced as Jesus in Spanish, but it's also spelled with a j despite the difference in pronunciation.

与此同时，在欧洲的日耳曼地区，同样的带小装饰的I被用于表示最初由字母I演变而来的y音。

Meanwhile, in the Germanic parts of Europe, the same I with the little flourish was applied to the y sound that initially merged from letter I.

这就是为什么英文中看起来像Jan的名字，在那些地区发音为Jan，但拼写却用了j。

That's why the name that looks like Jan in English is pronounced as Jan in those regions and is also spelled with a j.

法国抄写员也采用了这种用花体I来表示法语中由字母I演变出的音的方法。

French scribes also picked up the idea of using that fancy version of letter I to represent the sound that had emerged from the letter in French.

到了16世纪末，英语拼写改革者约翰·哈特建议英语也采用同样的做法。

And by the late fifteen hundreds, the English spelling reformer John Hart was recommending that English take the same approach.

但当时没有任何证据表明有人采纳了他的建议。

But there's no evidence that anyone took him up on the suggestion at the time.

正如我在讲述1619年英语整体发展历程时所指出的，当时英格兰的作家和印刷商仍在用字母I来表示所有这些法语借词中的/j/音。

As I noted at the current point in our overall story of English in 1619, writers and printers in England were still using letter I to represent the j sound in all of those French loan words.

然而，再过十年左右，这种带小尾饰的花体I开始在英语中专门用于这些词中的/j/音。

However, in another decade or so, the fancy I with the little flourish started to be applied exclusively to that sound in those words in English.

这种花体I逐渐被认定为一个独立且独特的字母。

And that fancy I gradually came to be recognized as a separate and distinct letter.

但这花费了很长时间。

However, it took a long time.

直到18世纪后期，像just、jury和judicial这样的词，在许多英语词典中仍被列在字母I下，即使它们如今是用我们称为J的字母拼写的。

Well into the seventeen hundreds, words like just and jury and judicial were still being listed under letter I in many English dictionaries, even when they were spelled with that letter we call j today.

看着列在I下面的单词，发现有些以I开头，有些以j开头，却全都混在一起，这看起来很奇怪。

It's strange to look at the words listed under I and see that some of them begin with an I and some of them begin with a j, all listed together.

但同样地，人们仍然认为它们只是同一个字母的两种不同写法。

But again, people still thought of them as two different ways of writing the same letter.

到了十九世纪，将那些用花体I拼写的、发j音的单词分离开来才变得普遍。

In the eighteen hundreds, it finally became common to separate the words with the j sound that were spelled with the fancy I.

这些单词开始被单独列在使用传统直体I的单词之后。

They started to be placed separately after the words that used the traditional straight form of letter I.

正是在这些单词被从词典和拼写指南中分离开来的时候，人们才接受了j作为一个独立的字母，j最终进入了字母表。

And it was really at that point when those words were separated in the dictionaries and spelling guides that people accepted the letter j as a distinct letter, and j finally made its way into the alphabet.

因此，总结来说，这些发展让我们有了三种不同的方式来表示英语中的j音。

So in summary, those developments left us with three different ways to represent the j sound in English.

一种是在单词末尾使用dg e，比如edge、ledge和bridge。

There is d g e at the end of words, like edge, ledge, and bridge.

还有一种是软g，主要用于表示源自法语借词中的这个音。

And there's the soft g used to represent the sound mainly found in French loan words.

最后，还有字母 j，它本质上只是一个在底部带有个装饰的花体 I，主要用于法语借词中，表示在法语某些情况下由字母 I 演变而来的音。

And finally, there's letter j, which is ultimately just a fancy I with a flourish at the bottom, and is mainly used in French loan words to represent a sound that evolved out of letter I in certain situations in French.

当然，我们也会在来自其他语言的借词中使用字母 j，比如西班牙语和德语，以反映这些地区演变出的特定发音，或字母在这些地区所对应的音。

And, of course, we also use letter j in loan words from other languages, like Spanish and German to reflect the specific sound that evolved in those regions or the sound that the letter was applied to in those regions.

所以我希望以上内容都能讲清楚了，我觉得这一集就说到这里吧。

So I hope all that makes sense, and I think that's enough for this episode.

下次，我们将继续探讨字母表以及它如何反映英语中较古老的发音。

Next time, we'll continue our look at the alphabet and the way it reflects older pronunciations in English.

我们还会继续追踪英语在17世纪初传播到世界各地时的发音变化。

We'll also continue to keep track of the sound of English in the early sixteen hundreds as it was spreading around the world.

由于这是本系列的第二部分，下一期的发布日期应该会在未来一个月内，而不是像最近那样要等两个月。

And since it will be the second part of this series, the release date for that episode should be within the next month rather than the two month wait, which has been the case recently.

那么在那之前，感谢收听《英语史》播客。

So until then, thanks for listening to the History of English podcast.