英式英语药丸 连英国人都开始使用美式拼写了

 British English may have come first, but around the world, the American way of spelling is now far more popular.

英式英语出现的较早，但从全球看，现今美式英语的拼写方式却更受欢迎。

A recent examination of these two variants¹ of the English language show that publications now largely use the American version, swapping² words like ‘centre’ for ‘center’ after the 1880s.

近期一项对这两种拼写的研究发现，现在的出版物广泛使用的是美式写法，自从19世纪80年代后，就有把“centre”替换成了“center”等类似情况出现。

According to the data, this shift was further strengthened around the time of World War I – and as the language evolved, even the British have ditched the spelling of some words for their trans-Atlantic counterparts.

数据显示，这种替换现象在第一次世界大战时尤为明显。随着英语的发展，甚至连英国人都开始使用美式拼写了。

The charts revealed on Steemit were generated using Google Ngram Viewer, and show the usage trends of numerous words between 1800 and 2000. In the graphs, American spelling is shown in blue, and the British version is indicated in red.

社交媒体Steemit上流传的这些图表是用谷歌Ngram Viewer制作的，展示了1800年至2000年间大量词语的使用趋势。在图表中，美式拼写以蓝色线条表示，英式的则为红色。

Among many words, including ‘grey’ and ‘flavour,’ British English can be seen dwindling³ around 1880, when American English began to cross into wider use.

英式英语中许多词语，如“grey”和“flavor”等，都在1880年左右开始衰落，而那时美式英语开始盛行。

Since then, English-language publications have preferred ‘gray’ and ‘flavor,’ and despite fluctuations⁴ in use over the years, they’ve remained more popular than the preceding versions since overtaking them.

从那以后，英语出版物更偏爱使用“gray”和“flavor”等拼写方式，尽管这些年使用频率有所波动，但是这种美式英语的拼写方式在取代了英式的地位之后，一直保持着主流地位。

The American way of spelling has continued to grow in usage over the years, with ‘liter’ passing ‘litre’ around 1900, and ‘center’ becoming the more common choice over ‘centre’ in 1913.

近年来人们继续偏爱美式拼写，大约在1900年时，“liter”代替了“litre”，1913年，“center”取代了“centre”。

‘1913 marked a turning point in the usage of the British spelling, as the American alternative became more frequently used in literature,’ the post explains, in regards to 'center.'

提到“center”一词时，博主解释道，随着美式英语在文学作品中的频繁出现，1913年成为了英式拼写的一个转折点。

‘This was just a year before the beginning of World War I, which many view as a key period in America’s rise to superpower status.’

而这一年正是第一次世界大战爆发的前一年，一战被视为美式拼写取得主流地位的关键时期。

During World War I, the world also began to favor ‘defense’ over the British English version, ‘defence.’

第一次世界大战期间，人们对“defense”一词的喜爱也超过了英式版本的“defence”。

Though this switched again between 1920 and the late 1930s, the American spelling took over for good around 1940.

尽管在1920年至1930年末期之间，英式拼写曾经抢回过一次其“地位”，但是在1940年，美式拼写永远地确立了其主导地位。

Around the same time, use of the spelling ‘airplane’ spiked⁵ dramatically over ‘aeroplane,’ and continued to dominate through the century.

同时，“airplane”一词以迅雷不及掩耳之势取代了“aeroplane”，并且一直被广泛使用。

For many years, British English maintained its hold on ‘honour,’ grappling with the American version for years as the two flip-flopped in popularity around the world.

曾经，英式英语的“honour”一词与美式英语版本的流行度不相上下，由此二词展开了长期的拉锯战。

In the 1970s, however, American English gained a clear lead as ‘honor’ increasingly became the more spelling of choice.

但在20世纪70年代，美式拼写“honor”明显处于领先地位，“honor”逐渐成为更受欢迎的拼写方式。

‘If there were ever a word that failed to make it across the Atlantic, it must be ‘gaol,’ the post says.

“如果说曾经有一个词没有跨过太平洋，被美式化的话，这个词肯定是’gaol’”，博主称。

‘Ever since the middle of the 19th century it has been fading into obscurity as even the British Isles⁶ slowly rejected the old spelling.’

19世纪中期以后，这个词变得越来越少见，连英国各岛都开始逐渐拒绝使用这种旧的拼写方式。

 

1 variants   

n.变体( variant的名词复数 )；变种；变型；（词等的）变体

参考例句：

• Those variants will be preserved in the'struggle for existence". 这些变异将在“生存竞争”中被保留下来。 来自辞典例句
• Like organisms, viruses have variants, generally called strains. 与其他生物一样，病毒也有变种，一般称之为株系。 来自辞典例句

2 swapping   

交换，交换技术

参考例句：

• The slow swapping and buying of horses went on. 马匹的买卖和交换就是这样慢慢地进行着。
• He was quite keen on swapping books with friends. 他非常热衷于和朋友们交换书籍。

3 dwindling   

adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The number of wild animals on the earth is dwindling. 地球上野生动物的数量正日渐减少。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is struggling to come to terms with his dwindling authority. 他正努力适应自己权力被削弱这一局面。 来自辞典例句

4 fluctuations   

波动，涨落，起伏( fluctuation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He showed the price fluctuations in a statistical table. 他用统计表显示价格的波动。
• There were so many unpredictable fluctuations on the Stock Exchange. 股票市场瞬息万变。

5 spiked   

adj.有穗的；成锥形的；有尖顶的

参考例句：

• The editor spiked the story. 编辑删去了这篇报道。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They wondered whether their drinks had been spiked. 他们有些疑惑自己的饮料里是否被偷偷搀了烈性酒。 来自辞典例句

6 isles   

岛( isle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the geology of the British Isles 不列颠群岛的地质
• The boat left for the isles. 小船驶向那些小岛。