The English language is a story of invasions, thefts, sloth, caprice, mistakes, pride and the inexorable juggernaut of change. In its broadest strokes, these problems come down to people being greedy, lazy and snobbish.
英語是一部侵略、盜竊、懶惰、反復(fù)無常、錯(cuò)誤、自豪和勢(shì)不可擋的變革金剛的故事。從最廣義的范疇來說,這些問題都可以歸結(jié)為人的貪婪、懶惰和勢(shì)利眼。
First, the greed: invasion and theft. The Romans invaded Britain in the 1st Century AD and brought their alphabet; in the 7th Century, the Angles and Saxons took over, along with their language.Starting in the 9th Century, Vikings occupied parts of England and brought some words. Then the Norman French conquered in 1066 – and replaced much of the vocabulary with French.