欧美人文风情第246篇:台风是如何命名的

 Much like hurricanes with names like Sandy, Dennis, and Katrina, typhoons, which originate in the Pacific, are also named. 就像飓风有着珊迪、丹尼斯和卡崔娜这些名字一样，台风，源自太平洋，也有被命名。

This may come to a surprise to folks in Japan, who do not refer to typhoons by a proper name at all but instead utilize¹ a numbering system, 这对日本人来说可能很意外，他们完全不用专有名称来讨论台风，而是使用一套编号系统，

in which the first typhoon of the year is number one, the second number two, and so on. 当年度首个台风是一号台风、第二个是二号台风，依此类推。

This numbering system seems to serve the Japanese quite well, 这套编号系统对日本人来说颇管用的，

but let's look into the more interesting, creative, and official names for typhoons. 不过让我们来研究一些更有趣、有创意且正式的台风名称。

In the year 2000, a system was introduced by the World Meteorological Organization to name typhoons. 在 2000 年时，世界气象组织推出一套台风命名系统。

A pool of 140 names is arranged into five lists—one list for each year. 总共有一百四十个名字被分成五份名单－－每年用一份。

These names are quite diverse as they are supplied by 14 different countries in the Asia-Pacific region, 这些名字相当多元化，因为它们是由亚太地区十四个不同国家所提供的，

including Cambodia, China, North Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Micronesia, 包含柬埔寨、中国、北韩、香港、日本、寮国、澳门、马来西亚、密克罗西尼亚、

the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam, who each provide 10 names for the list. 菲律宾、南韩、泰国、美国，以及越南，这些国家各自提供名单十个名字。

Unlike the hurricane system of strictly² using first names of people, typhoon-naming goes a bit differently. 不像谨循人名的飓风命名系统，台风命名有点不一样。

Typhoon names are based on plants, like Rumbia, which is "palm tree" in Malay; 台风的名字是依据植物，象是伦比亚，这是马来语中的「棕榈树」；

animals, like Usagi, which is "bunny rabbit" in Japanese; places, like Halong, a scenic³ spot in Vietnam; 动物，象是乌莎吉，日文中的「兔子」；地名，象是哈隆，越南的一个景点；

concepts, like Lupit, which means "brutality⁴" in the Philippines; 抽象观念，象是卢碧，这在菲律宾是「残暴」的意思；

mythological⁵ figures, like Wukong, the Chinese Monkey King. 神话人物，象是悟空，中国美猴王。

And there are some names thrown in there too, like Typhoon Francisco that touched the coast of Japan in October 2013. 也有一些名字被丢进名单里，象是 2013 年十月对日本海岸造成损害的台风范斯高。

Now, some confusion does arise in the variety of cultures and languages involved in these name origins. 现在，这些名字起源中牵涉到的文化和语言多样性确实引起一些困惑。

While Mindulle is a cute form of destruction approaching from the sea to the Koreans, 尽管敏督利对韩国人来说是从海上靠近的破坏王的可爱版，

to the rest of the world, it's just a long, hard-to-pronounce foreign word. 对世界上其他人来说，这就只是一个冗长、难发音的外来字。

And when typhoons with foreign names come to town, like Typhoon Francisco, people are like, 而当有着外国名字的台风到来时，象是台风范斯高，人们就会这样说：

"Francisco? He's not from around here, is he?"— “范斯高？他不是这附近来的，对吧？”－－

which is why perhaps going with the simple number system is a bit more understandable. 这就是为什么或许接受简单的编号系统会稍微比较好理解一些。

 

1 utilize   

vt.使用，利用

参考例句：

• The cook will utilize the leftover ham bone to make soup.厨师要用吃剩的猪腿骨做汤。
• You must utilize all available resources.你必须利用一切可以得到的资源。

2 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

3 scenic   

adj.自然景色的，景色优美的

参考例句：

• The scenic beauty of the place entranced the visitors.这里的美丽风光把游客们迷住了。
• The scenic spot is on northwestern outskirts of Beijing.这个风景区位于北京的西北远郊。

4 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

5 mythological   

adj.神话的

参考例句：

• He is remembered for his historical and mythological works. 他以其带有历史感和神话色彩的作品而著称。
• But even so, the cumulative process had for most Americans a deep, almost mythological significance. 不过即使如此，移民渐增的过程，对于大部分美国人，还是意味深长的，几乎有不可思议的影响。