63m_step1

全文播放

The Dying Languages
凋零的語言

	Today, more people than ever before are speaking to each other through satellite television, cellular telephones and computers. This means that people from different parts of the world need to be able to communicate in the same language. That language happens to be English.
	現在透過衛星電視、行動電話和電腦來交談的人要比以往來得多。這表示來自世界不同角落的人必須能夠使用同一種語言來溝通。而那種語言正好是英語。

	Because of this, experts have predicted that more than half of the world's 6,000 languages may die out in the next century. Already almost all Californian Native American languages are in danger of extinction. They are being swallowed up by English and other languages. It is a pity, but that is one of the prices of modernization.
	由於這個緣故，專家們預測世界上的六千種語言當中，可能會有一半以上於下個世紀相繼消失。幾乎所有加州當地的美洲土語已有消失之虞。它們正受到英語和其它語言的吞噬。這真是令人非常遺憾，但卻是現代化所要付出的代價之一。