欧盟再起语言纷争（More EU Languages）

欧盟正在为明年即将加入的10个新成员国进行一些主要的准备工作。扩大化不仅为欧盟带来了7500万人口，还带来了9种新的语言。鲁宾•奥克雷将带我们去关注欧盟在确保每个人都可以被理解方面做出的努力。

ANCHOR FEMALE
Major preparations are underway to prepare the European Union for 10 new member states next year. The enlargement not only brings with it 75 million people, but also 9 new languages. Robin Oakley looks at the drive to ensure that everyone will be understood.

女主播
欧盟正在为明年即将加入的10个新成员国进行一些主要的准备工作。扩大化不仅为欧盟带来了7500万人口，还带来了9种新的语言。鲁宾•奥克雷将带我们去关注欧盟在确保每个人都可以被理解方面做出的努力。

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE
Bonjour.

女被访者
早上好。（法语）

UNIDENTIFIED MALE
Ciao.

男被访者
早上好。（意大利语）

UNIDENTIFIED MALE
Guten morgen.

男被访者
早上好。（德语）

CORRESPONDENT
But workers in the European Union have to do more than say, “Good morning.” Each year a million documents have to be translated as continent-wide laws are processed. Interpreters must cover 11,000 meetings. Tough enough already in a union of 15 nations with 11 official languages. But when the E.U. expands to 25 nations next May, the number of official languages will jump to 20. And the man in charge insists there will be no weakening of the principal that every citizen can deal with the E.U. in his or her own language.

记者
但欧盟的工作人员可不能只会说“早上好”这样简单的英语。在批订、审查通行全欧的法律、法规的过程中，每年有上百万份的文件需要翻译，而且有1万1千次的会议需要口译人员。1个15国的联盟中有11种官方语言，这已经是一个很大的难题了，而欧盟明年5月会增加到25个成员国，官方语言更是会增加到20种。而且欧盟的负责人坚持公民以自己的语言参与欧盟事务这一原则不能有任何的松动。

NEIL KINNOCK, E.U. VICE PRESIDENT
I’m very, very firmly against any deviation from the absolute and solemn undertaking to all citizens that they can communicate in and expect to comprehend the replies that they get in exchanges with the European institutions.

尼尔•基洛克，欧盟副主席
我坚决反对违背我们对所有欧盟公民的不容置疑的神圣承诺，我们保证过他们可以用自己的语言与欧盟的公共机构交流并得到他们可以理解的答复。

CORRESPONDENT
Interpreting from say, Greek into Estonian, or Latvian into Portuguese, threatens chaos at meetings like this one on the engine power of E.U. fishing vessels. But the world’s biggest interpreting service will cope, largely by using the most commonly spoken tongues, English, French and German, as relay languages.

记者
比如从希腊语翻译成爱沙尼亚语，或者从拉脱维亚语翻译成葡萄牙语，这样复杂的翻译在类似规定欧盟渔船发动机功率的会议上就可能造成混乱。而即使是世界上最大的口译服务机构，也只能以被广泛使用的英、法、德语作为中转语言，然后再根据这些语言翻译成其他语言。

IAN ANDERSEN, E.U. JOINT INTERPRETING SERVICE
The new countries will, in the beginning, have to do much of the interpreting out of their own languages themselves, which means that the Polish interpreters, for example, will work from Polish into English or French or German, depending on what they’re able to do. And we will then... the rest of the team will then work from say, German, into all the other languages.

伊恩•安德生，欧盟联合口译服务社
新加入的国家在最开始的时候必须负责很多翻译自己语言的工作，比如说波兰的口译工作者根据自己的特长，把波兰语翻译成英语，法语或德语。然后，我们会—— 团队中的其他人会负责将，比如说，德语翻译成其他语言。

CORRESPONDENT
Expensive? No, insists Commissioner Kinnock. Per head, the service will cost E.U. citizens no more each year than a cup of coffee or half a pint of beer. But there is one potential tension.

记者
这样的代价是不是太高了？不，欧盟委员基洛克认为这项花费只相当于每个欧盟公民每年少喝一杯咖啡或半品脱啤酒。但这当中有着一个潜在的紧张局势。

KINNOCK
In 1995, countries coming in were Finland, second language of use ------English, Sweden, second language of use------ English, and Austria, same for Austria. French will more than survive. French will remain healthy, there’s no question at all about that. But in terms of efficiency and convenience of use, English has become more generally implied.

基洛克
1995年加入的国家是：芬兰——他们的第二语言是英语，瑞典——第二语言也是英语，还有奥地利也是一样。法语也在用，而且不只是在用，是被广泛使用，这毫无问题。但就效率和使用方便来说，英语用得更多。

CORRESPONDENT
And the arrival of more Eastern Europeans, with English as a second language, will increase that trend.

记者
随着更多使用英语作为第二语言的东欧国家的加入，这一趋势还会进一步地增强。

Thanks to highly professional interpreting and translation services, the 25 nations will communicate. But there’s a difference between an official language and a working one. Politicians seem likely to maintain a struggle for dominance among the few languages in which the bulk of E.U. business is actually conducted. Robin Oakley, CNN, Brussels.

由于那些高度专业化的口译和笔译服务机构，欧盟的25个成员国可以相互交流。但官方语言和工作语言在地位上还是有所区别的。政治家们似乎仍然认为，在欧盟贸易实际使用的这几种语言中，到底由哪种语言占统治地位是一个值得继续斗争的问题。CNN，鲁宾•奥克雷在布鲁塞尔报道。

ANCHOR FEMALE
Well, Robin spoke of the so-called relay languages, English, French and German, and here’s how widespread they are currently understood within the European Union: English leads the way with 41 percent of E.U. citizens able to speak; less than half that number speak French, about 19 percent; German comes in third at 10 percent.

女主播
呃，刚才鲁宾谈到了被称为中转语言的英语、法语和德语，以下是目前这些语言在欧盟内部的普及程度：英语一马当先，有41%的欧盟人口能讲英语；讲法语的人比这个数字少一半，大约占19%；10%的人讲德语，位居第三。

ANCHOR MALE
But just try telling any of the other countries that they have to default into either English, German or French, and you’ll have a battle the like of which you’ve not seen before. Anyway, I just thought I’d mention that.

男主播
但是如果告诉其他的国家他们必须在英语、德语或法语中选择一种作为第一语言的话，将会有一场你前所未见的斗争。无论如何，我想我刚才提到过那一点了。

ANCHOR FEMALE
Very true.

女主播
的确是这样。

注释：

1. underway adj. 进行中的             2. deviation n. 背离
3. undertaking n. 承诺                4. chaos n. 混乱
5. relay n. 接力；中继                6. pint n. 品脱
7. imply vt. 使用                     8. dominance n. 统治
9. currently adv. 当前                10. default v. 默认