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When we talk about English, we often think of it as a single language.
当咱们提及英语，咱们常常都觉得它是一门自力的说话。
But why the dialects spoken in dozens of countries around the world have in co妹妹on with each other?
但又若何诠释全球那末多国度中利用的各类处所说话，相互之间具有共通点？
Or with writing of Chaucer, how any of them related to the strange of words in Beowulf?
亦或是都遭到了乔叟作品的说话影响，它们又是若何与史诗《贝奥武夫》中奇异的词语有接洽的？
The answer is that like most of languages, English has evolved through generation of speakers undergoing major changes overtime.
谜底就是，和大都说话同样，英语历经生生世世浩繁利用者成长而成，跟着时候流转而履历@这%U4c6L%类大扭%RL9m1%转@。
By undoing these changes, we can trace the language from the present day back to the ancient roots.
借由解析这些变革，咱们可以或许从今时本日追寻这门说话的古老根底。
While modern English shares many similar words with Latin derived Romance languages like French and Spanish, most of those words were not originally a part of it, instead, they started come into the 
language with the Norman invasion of England in 1066.
近代英语与拉丁语演变衍生的罗马语族同享不少类似的词语，像是法语和西班牙语，这些词语大多其实不是本来就有，它们反而是跟着法国诺曼底人入侵英格兰，在1066年起头流入英国。
When the French speaking Normans conquer England and became its ruling class, they brought their speech with them adding a massive amount of French and Latin vocabulary to the English language previously spoken there. Today, we called that language Old English. This is the language of Beowulf.
当说法语的诺曼底人霸占英格兰，成为其统治阶层的时辰，他们把本身的言语也一块儿带了曩昔，给那时的英语带来了大量的法语和拉丁语辞汇。现在，咱们将其称之为古英语。这就是《贝奥武夫》中利用的说话。
It probably doesn’t look very familiar but it might be more recognizable if you know some German.
它看起来或许其实不是那末认识，但若你懂领会一些德语的话，你或许会更好识别。
That’s because Old English belongs to the Germanic language family.
这是由于古英语属于日耳曼语族。
First brought to the British Isles in the 5th and 6th centuries by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes.
最初在5到6世纪，盎格鲁人、撒克逊人和朱特人将日耳曼方言带到不列颠群岛。
The Germanic dialects they spoke would become known as Anglo-Saxon.
这说话便成为咱们所知的盎格鲁-撒克逊语。
Viking invaders in 8th to 11th centuries added more borrowings from Old Norse into mix.
在8至11世纪，维京侵犯者为英语加之了更多古斯堪的那维亚元素。
It may be hard to see the roots of Modern English, underneath all the words borrowed from french, Latin or Norse and other languages.
现代英语的本源其实不是一目明了，由于暗地里交融着法语、拉丁语或斯堪的纳维亚语和其他说话。
But comparative linguistics can help is by focusing on gra妹妹atical structure patterns of sound changes and certain core vocabulary.
但从比力说话学家可以从语法的布局来帮手，钻研发音的变动和一些焦点辞汇。
For example, after 6th century, German words starting with P, systematically shifted to a PF sound, while the Old English counterparts kept the P unchanged.
比方，德语中P开首的词都体系性地变动为PF的发音，而古英语中类似词中的P稳定。
In another split, words that have SK sound in Swedish developed an SH sound in English.
另外一个语系中，瑞典语中有着SK发音的词，在英语中成长出了SH的发音。
There’s still some English words with SK like skirt and skull but they’re direct borrowings from Old Norse that come after the SK to SH shift.
如今仍有些英语辞汇有着SK，好比裙子和头盖骨，可是它们来自于古斯堪的纳维亚语，但在SK酿成SH以后才进了英语。
These examples show us that just as the various Romance language descended from Latin, English, Swedish, German, and many other languages, descended from own co妹妹on ancestor known as Proto-Germanic spoken around 500BCE.
这些例子奉告咱们，就像各类各样的罗曼语是由拉丁语而衍生出的同样，英语、瑞典语、德语和不少其他说话，都源自于它们配合的先人——古日耳曼语，其大要在公元前500年的时辰被利用。
Because this historical language was never written down, we can only reconstruct by comparing its descendants which is possible thanks to the consistency of the changes.
由于这一有@偏%4QQ52%重大汗%VSqtR%青@意义的说话从未被记录下来，咱们只能借由比力其衍生说话来重现这门说话，或许这恰是得益于这类扭转的联贯一致性。
We can use the same process to go back one step further and trace the origins of Proto-Germanic to a language called Proto-Indo-European spoken about 6000 years ago on the pontic steppe in modern day Ukraine and Russia.
咱们乃至可以或许用这类过程法子再往曩昔走一步，追溯古日耳曼语的发源到一门被称作古原始印欧语的说话，约莫六千年前在东欧大草原上利用，也就是今天的乌克兰和俄罗斯。
This is the reconstructed ancestor of the Indo-European family, that includes nearly all language historically spoken in Europe as well as large part of Southern and Western Asia and though it requires a bit more work, we can find the same systematic similarities or correspondence between related words in different Indo-European branches.
这就是重塑出来的印欧语的先祖，几近包含了所有汗青上在欧洲利用过的说话，和一大部门南亚和西亚说话。固然另有些工具未完成，在分歧的印欧语分支中，咱们可以从有着联系关系的词语中，找到一些类似点或一致的处所。
Comparing English with Latin, we see that English has T where Latin has D and F where Latin has P at the start of words.
拿英语和拉丁语来比力，咱们可以发明在英语里有T的处所，在拉丁语中便有着D。在词的开首，英语有着F的话拉丁语就有着P。
Some of English’s more distant relative include Hindi,?Persian and the Celtic languages it displaced in what it is now?British.
某些与英语有着相对于遥远接洽的说话，包含北印度语、波斯语和凯尔特语，这些说话在不列颠已被代替。
Proto-Indo-European itself, descended from a even more ancient language, this is as far as historical and archaeological evidence will allow us to go.
原始印欧语本身发源于一种加倍古老的说话，但不幸的是，这已是汗青和考古学的证据可以或许支撑咱们到得最远地步了。
Many mysteries remain just out of reach such as whether there might be a link between Indo-European and other major language family and the nature of the languages spoken in Europe, prior to its arrival.
很多谜团已无从通晓，像是印欧语和其他重要语系之间是不是存在联系关系，或是在及格说话来到欧洲以前，他们都是说着甚么说话的。
But the amazing fact remains that nearly 3 billion people around the world many of whom can not understand each other are nevertheless speaking the same words shaped by 6000 years of history.
可是奥妙的是，全球30亿人中，很多都不克不及理解对方所说的话，却一块儿说被六千年汗青所塑造出的不异词语。
