In the Oct. 10 edition of American English and British English we looked at the simplification of certain spelling conventions preferred by American lexicographer and reformer Noah Webster. These included the removal of the superfluous “u” in words such as colour, favourite and neighbour (to become color, favorite and neighbor) and the changing of the ending “-ce” to a more representative “-se” in words such as defense and license.
There are other spelling conventions followed in American English after Webster’s changes that differ from those still used in British English. These include the “-er” ending to replace the “-re” ending in words such as fiber (fibre), meter (metre), center (centre) and theater (theatre), and the dropping of the redundant “a” or “o” in words such as anemia (anaemia), diarrhea (diarrhoea), encyclopedia (encyclopaedia) and archeology (archaeology).
Another difference is observed in words ending in -ogue, such as analogue and catalogue, which have the variants analog and catalog. These are essentially alternative spellings of the same word. While the use of “o” instead of the British “ou” in words like colour is now standardized, both “-og” and “ogue” are possible in American and British English, although the Americans prefer analog and catalog, the British analogue and catalogue.
(Paul Cooper, Taipei Times)
在十月十日刊出的美式&英式英文單元,我們審視了美國字典學家暨改革者諾亞‧韋伯斯特偏好的某些拼音慣例之簡化。這些包括移除在colour、favourite、neighbour等字裡多餘的字母「u」(簡化為color、favorite、neighbor),和字尾「-ce」轉變為更能代表其發音的「-se」,例如defense、license等字。
而在美式英文中還有其它的拼音慣例,經由韋伯斯特的更動,變得和仍在使用的英式英文有所不同。這些包括以字尾「-er」取代字尾「-re」,例如fiber(fibre)、meter(metre)、center(centre)、theater(theatre)這些字,及省略字裡累贅的字母「a」或「o」,例如anemia(anaemia)、diarrhea(diarrhoea)、encyclopedia(encyclopaedia)、archeology(archaeology)這些字。
另一差異則可在字尾「-ogue」的字被觀察到,像是英式拼音analogue、catalogue等字的變體為analog、catalog,它們基本上算是同樣單字的不同拼法。對於像colour這些字來說,使用「o」而非英式的「ou」現今已被視為合乎標準,不過「-og」和「-ogue」在美式和英式英文中均有可能出現,雖然美國人還是偏好使用analog、catalog,而英國人則偏好analogue、catalogue。
(台北時報張聖恩譯)
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
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It’s no secret that Japanese people have a deep affection for noodles. Like in the rest of East Asia, noodles are an important staple food, second only to rice. Japanese people have enjoyed noodles for over 1,000 years. The first noodles came from China and were introduced around 800 CE. As time passed, noodles in Japan not only became widespread but also developed some unique Japanese characteristics. The three most popular types of noodles in Japan are ramen, soba, and udon. Ramen, typically made from wheat flour, is usually thin and firm. The dough is kneaded and left to
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