词汇大师-- You Do Not Have to Watch 'Star Trek'

　　AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: we're back with linguist¹ Arika Okrent, author of the new book "In the Land of Invented Languages."
One of those languages was C.K. Ogden's Basic English, first published in 1930. Arika Okrent describes Ogden as a Cambridge-educated editor, writer, translator and mischief² maker³. He tried to reduce English to just 850 words.

　　ARIKA OKRENT: "The problem was that it relied on these kind of phrasal verbs which foreign speakers have so much trouble with. So you can say 'to intend' is 'have a mind to.' So you get rid of the word intend and use these other small words. But it's not much clearer to someone who doesn't speak English."
AA: "Well, was Ogden's intention with that, was it to create an English for international communications? Or did he have a different purpose?"
ARIKA OKRENT: "Well, he had multiple purposes -- partially⁴ as a sort of simplified English that could be easy for foreigners to learn. But it also was supposed to have these mind-enhancing properties, that forcing yourself to speak this way would make you think more clearly and express yourself more clearly."
RS: "We also understand from having read your book that you have what's called a first-level certification in the language called Klingon. And for our listeners, that's the language of 'Star Trek⁵' -- '"
AA: "Or of one of the groups on 'Star Trek.'"

　　RS: "Right, right, one of the groups on 'Star Trek.' So tell us how you got -- what it means to be first-level certification and what's the following with Klingon? Or is it merely the enthusiasts⁶ for this television show?"
ARIKA OKRENT: "The Klingon speakers actually consider themselves a bit apart from the people who just dress up in the costumes, because dressing⁷ up in the costumes, anyone can do that. But I went in as the impartial⁸ scientist to see what was going on. Were they really speaking this language? What were they doing? And I got caught up in the challenge of it.
"It was invented by a linguist who took the most unusual properties he could think of from various natural languages and put them together to make this alien-seeming language that also works in a way that it feels like a natural language."
AA: "Could you maybe explain to us -- in Klingon -- what a Klingon is for someone who maybe isn't familiar with 'Star Trek'?"
ARIKA OKRENT: "Well, it's this warrior⁹ race on the show, so they're this sort of tough, violent aliens who like battles and talk real rough."
RS: "Well, how would you greet someone in Klingon?"
ARIKA OKRENT: "You say 'nuqneH,' which means 'what do you want?'"
AA: "So to describe a warrior race of aliens in Klingon, can you do that or ... "
ARIKA OKRENT: "I only passed the first level."
RS: "So the first level, meaning -- how many levels are there?"
ARIKA OKRENT: "There's three levels, but for even the first level you have to know five hundred words of vocabulary. Well, let's see, I can do a little 'Hamlet' for you."
RS: "You want to do a little 'Hamlet' for us? All right."
ARIKA OKRENT: "taH pagh, taHbe'. DaH mu'tlheghvam vIqelnIS."
RS: "Could you translate that?"
ARIKA OKRENT: "That's, of course, 'To be, or not to be ... ' Well, actually, it's 'To continue, or not to continue. Now I must consider this sentence.' That's how you translate it."
AA: "Have you tried teaching your baby any Klingon yet?"
ARIKA OKRENT: "I haven't, but somebody did try to make their son the first native Klingon speaker. He only spoke¹⁰ Klingon to him for the first two years."
RS: "No way! And what happened?"
AA: "Did they arrest him, or what?"
ARIKA OKRENT: "No, his mother spoke English to him, so he wasn't a monolingual native Klingon speaker."
AA: "That's a real 'Star Trek' fan."
RS: "There's one thing that I noticed when I was reading through your book. I was thinking about ... I taught one of my sons, who was having a hard time, to read. I taught him -- you do have picture languages."
ARIKA OKRENT: "Well, that's what this Bliss¹¹ Symbolics -- Charles Bliss invented this language to be this universal logical symbol language. It would let us see the truth because we couldn't be manipulated by words as we were looking at symbols.
"And a school for children with cerebral¹³ palsy used it, picked up on it, started using it to help kids who were so impaired¹⁴ that they couldn't speak, learn how to read and use English. But he got angry about that because he wanted it to be a universal logic¹² language, not a tool for learning English."
AA: Arika Okrent's book is called "In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a Perfect Language." You can find the first part of our interview at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 linguist   

n.语言学家；精通数种外国语言者

参考例句：

• I used to be a linguist till I become a writer.过去我是个语言学家，后来成了作家。
• Professor Cui has a high reputation as a linguist.崔教授作为语言学家名声很高。

2 mischief   

n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹

参考例句：

• Nobody took notice of the mischief of the matter. 没有人注意到这件事情所带来的危害。
• He seems to intend mischief.看来他想捣蛋。

3 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

4 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

5 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

6 enthusiasts   

n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A group of enthusiasts have undertaken the reconstruction of a steam locomotive. 一群火车迷已担负起重造蒸汽机车的任务。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Now a group of enthusiasts are going to have the plane restored. 一群热心人计划修复这架飞机。 来自新概念英语第二册

7 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

8 impartial   

adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的

参考例句：

• He gave an impartial view of the state of affairs in Ireland.他对爱尔兰的事态发表了公正的看法。
• Careers officers offer impartial advice to all pupils.就业指导员向所有学生提供公正无私的建议。

9 warrior   

n.勇士，武士，斗士

参考例句：

• The young man is a bold warrior.这个年轻人是个很英勇的武士。
• A true warrior values glory and honor above life.一个真正的勇士珍视荣誉胜过生命。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 bliss   

n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福

参考例句：

• It's sheer bliss to be able to spend the day in bed.整天都可以躺在床上真是幸福。
• He's in bliss that he's won the Nobel Prize.他非常高兴，因为获得了诺贝尔奖金。

12 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

13 cerebral   

adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的

参考例句：

• Your left cerebral hemisphere controls the right-hand side of your body.你的左半脑控制身体的右半身。
• He is a precise,methodical,cerebral man who carefully chooses his words.他是一个一丝不苟、有条理和理智的人，措辞谨慎。

14 impaired   

adj.受损的；出毛病的；有（身体或智力）缺陷的v.损害，削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Much reading has impaired his vision. 大量读书损害了他的视力。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His hearing is somewhat impaired. 他的听觉已受到一定程度的损害。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》