In the Oct. 10 edition of American English and British English we looked at the simplification of certain spelling conventions preferred by American lexicographer and reformer Noah Webster. These included the removal of the superfluous “u” in words such as colour, favourite and neighbour (to become color, favorite and neighbor) and the changing of the ending “-ce” to a more representative “-se” in words such as defense and license.
There are other spelling conventions followed in American English after Webster’s changes that differ from those still used in British English. These include the “-er” ending to replace the “-re” ending in words such as fiber (fibre), meter (metre), center (centre) and theater (theatre), and the dropping of the redundant “a” or “o” in words such as anemia (anaemia), diarrhea (diarrhoea), encyclopedia (encyclopaedia) and archeology (archaeology).
Another difference is observed in words ending in -ogue, such as analogue and catalogue, which have the variants analog and catalog. These are essentially alternative spellings of the same word. While the use of “o” instead of the British “ou” in words like colour is now standardized, both “-og” and “ogue” are possible in American and British English, although the Americans prefer analog and catalog, the British analogue and catalogue.
(Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)
在十月十日刊出的美式&英式英文單元,我們審視了美國字典學家暨改革者諾亞‧韋伯斯特偏好的某些拼音慣例之簡化。這些包括移除在colour、favourite、neighbour等字裡多餘的字母「u」(簡化為color、favorite、neighbor),和字尾「-ce」轉變為更能代表其發音的「-se」,例如defense、license等字。
而在美式英文中還有其它的拼音慣例,經由韋伯斯特的更動,變得和仍在使用的英式英文有所不同。這些包括以字尾「-er」取代字尾「-re」,例如fiber(fibre)、meter(metre)、center(centre)、theater(theatre)這些字,及省略字裡累贅的字母「a」或「o」,例如anemia(anaemia)、diarrhea(diarrhoea)、encyclopedia(encyclopaedia)、archeology(archaeology)這些字。
另一差異則可在字尾「-ogue」的字被觀察到,像是英式拼音analogue、catalogue等字的變體為analog、catalog,它們基本上算是同樣單字的不同拼法。對於像colour這些字來說,使用「o」而非英式的「ou」現今已被視為合乎標準,不過「-og」和「-ogue」在美式和英式英文中均有可能出現,雖然美國人還是偏好使用analog、catalog,而英國人則偏好analogue、catalogue。
(台北時報張聖恩譯)
NASA decided Saturday last week it’s too risky to bring two astronauts back to Earth in Boeing’s troubled new capsule, and they’ll have to wait until next year for a ride home with SpaceX. What should have been a weeklong test flight for the pair will now last more than eight months. The seasoned pilots have been stuck at the International Space Station since the beginning of June. A cascade of vexing thruster failures and helium leaks in the new capsule marred their trip to the space station, and they ended up in a holding pattern as engineers conducted tests and
A: The Michelin Guide for this year has been revealed. B: Which restaurants have been awarded three stars this time? A: Taipei’s Le Palais and Tairroir and Taichung’s JL Studio. B: Those fancy restaurants all look expensive. A: Then you can try the more affordable Bib Gourmand. A: 今年的《米其林指南》終於公佈了。 B: 榮獲3星的有哪幾家? A: 有台北的「頤宮」、「態芮」,和台中的「JL Studio」! B: 可是他們好像都不便宜耶。 A: 那你還可以參考價格比較親民的《必比登推介》。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
With summer approaching, many people are planning some fun water activities. Standup paddle boarding (SUP), which simply involves standing on a large board and propelling yourself with a paddle, is becoming increasingly popular. The history of SUP dates back thousands of years, with early forms found as early as 3000 BC across various regions like Peru and China. However, the contemporary version of SUP originated in Hawaii in the 1940s, when local surfer John Ah Choy, unable to surf traditionally due to his age, started standing on his board and using a canoe paddle. This style eventually evolved into the SUP
新冠疫情期間,媒體曾經報導「廣州零號感染源,疑透過餐廳空調傳播」,之前媒體也常出現「零號病人」之類的報導,諸如:「義大利 0 號病人出院,遭起底竟是......」,「紐約確診人數近6萬,……零號病人出院」。 所謂「零號病人」,就是台灣平常我們說的「首例」。如:「台首例武漢肺炎病患出院」,【獨家專訪】台灣首例武漢肺炎確診個案治癒過程! 「零號病人」英文叫 patient zero 或 index case,其實就是某個國家/地區第一個列入紀錄的案例。關於 index case,Wikipedia 的定義如下: The index case (sometimes referred to as patient zero) is the first documented patient in a disease epidemic within a population, or the first documented patient included in an epidemiological study. 為何第一個案例會說成patient zero?BBC 有一則關於新冠肺炎的報導裡提到它的由來: 愛滋病流行期間意外創造了「零號病人」一詞。80年代初期,美國美國疾病管制與預防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)的研究人員調查愛滋病在洛杉磯和舊金山的傳播時,以英文字母O來指「加州以外」(outside of California) 的某個案例。其他研究人員誤將這代表外州 (outside) 的字母“O”,解讀為數字“0”,因此「零號病人」的說法就這樣誕生了。 …patient zero is a term used to describe the first human infected by a viral or bacterial disease in an outbreak…. Whilst investigating the spread of the disease…researchers…used the letter “O” to refer a case of someone “outside the state of California.” Other researchers wrongfully interpreted the letter as