今天的选文是一个知乎高赞答案 题主问题 : 汉语为什么不是国际通用的语言?
原文地址
作者:Gunter Schoech 一个外企高管,德国人
参考其他翻译版本：原文下附翻译. 译者：满洲第一巴图鲁
Having said this, let me give you my theory:
In a sense, Chinese IS an international language. That is due to the big Chinese population, not only in China itself, but all over the globe.People of Chinese origin are to be found all over South East Asia, but also in a host of other countries. The "China Towns" are a visual sign. Even in my German university, the RWTH Aachen[1], the Chinese students were the biggest minority already in 1993 when I started my studies there.
This is of course possible because ~1 out of 5 people living on this planet is Chinese, the Chinese had strong trade relations in South East Asia, and even smaller waves of emigrations always make up a large number of people in absolute terms.
说到这个 , 我来谈谈我的理论:
某种意义上讲,中文是一个国际通用语言 . 因为中国人数量巨多 . 除了在中国本土 , 中国人的身影遍及全球. 在东南亚到处都可以看到华人 , 其他很多国家也是. "唐人街"就是一个直观的标志. 当1993年我还在德国亚琛工业大学念书时 , 中国学生就已经是学校里少数族裔群体中数量最多的了.
当然，这是因为地球上五分之一的人口是中国人。中国在东南亚有很强的贸易关系，就算在一次很小的移民潮中，都是中国人占人口数大头。
theory：理论，学说
visual：视觉的,视力的 -这里我为了语句通顺翻译为"直观的"
minority : 少数派,少数民族,未成年
1. RWTH Aachen 亚琛工业大学 德国西部的一所著名理工大学
However, as far as I can tell, the people speaking Chinese in such an international context, are mainly also ethnic Chinese. What is much more rare is to find the locals learning Chinese to interact with such Chinese. In order for Chinese to become a true international language, it would have to be chosen as "lingua franca" [1], which means a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different.
然而据我所知 , 在这种国际环境下 , 说中文的主要还是华裔 ，很少见到本地人学习中文去和这些华裔互动。要让中文变成真正的国际语言，必须让中文成为人们选择的“通用语”。意思就是被不同母语者所采用的公共语言
context：环境，上下文 -编程中常见的一个词，指的是历史，语境等概念中的情景。
interact ：相互影响，相互作用，根据这段的语境译为互动
adopted（adopte的过去式）：采用
1. lingua franca 意大利语 意为 通用语
Why this has not happened is at the heart of this question. I have mainly 2 arguments:
First Historic, Second suitability
I am no historian or linguist, but think that the main historical difference of Chinese and other likely contenders is the relative lack in colonial expansion. This is actually something very nice to say about the Chinese people: While there have been epic power struggles over thousands of years within the Chinese territory, conflicts with outside powers were mainly defensive. Just take the Great Wall as a symbol: It is a completely defensive instrument. Wars that China did fight with foreign powers were typically with nomadic tribes from central Asia, who were the aggressors.As a consequence, the language remained mainly confined to the Chines territory.
为什么人们没有选择中文作为通用语是这个问题的核心。我认为主要理由有2个：
第一，历史原因。第二，普适性
虽然我不是历史学家或者语言学家，但我认为中国和历史上其他竞争者的主要不同与中国缺少殖民扩张有关。事实上这是中国人非常棒的一点：尽管几千年来中华大地上史诗般的权利斗争从未停止，但中国对外冲突还是以防御为主。例如长城：它完全是一个防御工具。中国与外族的战争中最典型的就是与来自中亚的游牧民族的战争，后者为侵略者。结果这也导致了中文的使用主要被局限在本土。
linguist: 语言学家
contender: 竞争者
colonial : 殖民的
territory: 领土,版图,地域
instrument:工具,器械,仪器,乐器
nomadic : 游牧的
tribes （tribe 的复数）: 部落,族
aggressors （aggressor的复数）: 侵略者
confined（confine的过去形式） : 约束,局限 , 限制
Sure, there were the notable exploits of Zheng He for example. But they did not lead to colonization. On the contrary, the next emperor made all explorations illegal, as ships with more than 1 mast.
So China went back to it's core belief: Zhong Guo: If you are the "Middle Kingdom", literally "the center of the earth", and far far larger and mightier than anybody around you, how much sense does it make to venture further? China's attitude has over centuries and millennia been: "Let them come to us",maybe pay tribute and then do some trade, or maybe not even that. China has this tradition of closing itself more or less to the rest of the world, and depending when you look in history, it could very well afford that, while at others, this meant it fell behind.
当然了，中国也曾有一些值得一提的对外探索行动，例如郑和下西洋，不过这些行动并没有导致殖民行动，下一任皇帝反而立法禁止了所有的对外探索，下令1杆以上的船不许出海。
然后中国就回归了它的核心理念：“中国”上来了。如果你是“中国”（字面意思可以理解为“地球的中心”），而且又比周围的所有国家强得多也大的多，那进一步的对外探索又有多大意义？中国几千年来所有王朝的心态都是“万邦来朝”。然后可能和番邦做点贸易收收贡品，也有可能连这点贸易和贡品都不需要。一直以来中国都或多或少都有对世界自我封闭的传统，而且根据你在历史中看到的情况，它也能自给自足。而在其他方面来看，这就意味着落后。
notable :显著的，值得注意的
exploits（exploit的复数） ：开发，利用，功勋 ，结合上文译为对外探索
mast：桅杆，天线
millennia（millennium的复数） ：千年，盛世，千禧年
tribute ：贡品，礼物，颂词，悼念
European nations were often very different: The Portuguese as first big explorers were a tiny, very poor and marginalized country, the opposite of the "Zhong Guo", as they did not have access to the Mediterran. So they had to seek far and wide. Spain is a little bit different case: Having been occupied by Moorish invaders for 700 years or so, they simply didn't stop when they finally managed to kick them out: By coincidence, Christoper Columbus[1] discovery happened in the very same year as the last Moorish fortress (Granada)[2] fell in Spain .
England was very much like Portugal, poor and marginalized, in the North Sea. Attracted by the new gained wealth of the Spanish and Portuguese, the "followed the money trail". Similar the Dutch, who in the 17th century were the leading seafaring nation.
The French were a little later, and focused on Africa, but that's still the common language there, and gains French international status.
All this ship-building, exploring, conquering and colony building lead to vast empires.
欧洲国家则完全不同:第一个殖民大国葡萄牙当时是一个又穷又小的边缘国家，它的处境完全是“中国”的反义词，由于无法进入地中海，葡萄牙人只能把目光投向遥远而辽阔的大洋。西班牙的处境有所不同：他们被摩尔入侵者占领了差不多700年，这期间只能不停的寻找合适的殖民地[1] , 终于当他们想办法把入侵者赶出去的时候，克里斯托弗 哥伦布 偶然碰巧发现了新大陆，同年，西班牙攻陷了摩尔人的最后一座要塞格拉纳达。
英国的情况和葡萄牙类似,在北海上,又小又边缘化。看到葡萄牙人和西班牙人获得的财富，被吸引走上了“淘金之路”。荷兰人情况也类似，17世纪时荷兰是世界上的头号海洋强国。
法国人稍微晚了一点，并且主要把注意力集中在非洲，如今，法语仍是非洲的通用语，这也奠定了法语的国际地位。
这一系列的造船，探索，征服和殖民活动，最终建立了幅员辽阔的帝国。
Portuguese : 葡萄牙人,葡萄牙的
marginalized (marginalize的过去式):排斥,忽略,边缘化
Moorish :摩尔人的,摩尔人
invaders (invader的复数) : 入侵者
coincidence : 巧合
fortress : 堡垒 , 要塞
seafaring(seafari) : 海洋探险(或勘探)
1.Christoper Columbus : 克里斯托弗-哥伦布,15世纪西班牙航海家,发现了美洲大陆
2.Granada : 格拉纳达 , 西班牙南部城市
British Empire
At its height it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. Still by 1922 the British Empire ruled over about 458 million people, one-quarter of the world's population at the time, and covered more than 33,700,000 km2, almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area.This of course covers the decisive time of the industrial revolution and a first wave of globalization. We might see tighter interactions today, but the directions were set there and then.
What's not on the map, but also key: The USA as ex-colony have dominated world history in the 20th century. And they happen to have adopted English. When I took an American history class during my high school year in the US, I learned that when the young US had to decide for a language, there was actually a majority for German. I think ~40% of US immigrants are of German origin. But through a bribe, English won the vote. Who knows, if the world might be a different place today. I remind you, I learned this in the US, not in Germany.
We Germans were even later, only uniting in 1871, and losing all colonies in WW 1[1]. This left the scientific world, where in the 1920's, German was the lingua franca, given that so much was published in German. However, Nazi prosecution of the Jews, including Jewish Germans, put an end to that. An Albert Einstein in the USA will write in English, not German anymore.
Spanish Empire(西班牙帝国版图)
French Empire(法兰西帝国版图)
So there are alternatives for global languages.
大英帝国
大英帝国是历史上最大的帝国，并且在超过100年间的时间里它都处于世界第一强国的地位。直到1922年大英帝国治下的人口仍多达4.58亿，占当时世界总人口数的四分之一左右，领土大小超过3370万平方公顷，占据地球大陆总面积的约四分之一大小。这个进程中包含了第工业革命和第一次全球化浪潮。今天我们能看出其中的紧密联系。但总体方向已经在当时设定好了。
还有些地图上看不出来的关键要素：作为一个前殖民地的美国，在20世纪时已经成为了世界历史进程的主宰。而美国人选择的语言也是英语。当我在美国上高中学习美国历史课时，课上说刚建国的美国当时正投票决定官方语言，那时候德国人占大多数。我想大约40%的美国移民具有德国血统，但最后英国人靠行贿赢了投票，不知道真的假的，如果是真的也许现在的世界会完全不同。注意，这可不是德国人的YY，是我在美国上课的时候学到的。
我们德国人就更晚了，国家直到1871年才统一，还在1战中失去了所有殖民地。不过好在还有科学领域，1920年左右，学术界的世界通用语是德语，这促进了德语的推广。不过纳粹对犹太人（包括犹太裔德国人）的迫害终结了这一切。阿尔伯特 爱因斯坦后来在美国写的论文全是英语，再也没用过德语。
以上列举了有可能成为国际通用语的语言.
foremost ：最重要的，首先的
decisive ：决定性的
tighter （tight比较级）：紧密的，密封的
majority ：多数的人或物
prosecution ：起诉，检举，履行职责。（此处翻译成迫害，因为当时纳粹鼓励举报犹太人）
alternatives （alternative的复数）：备选方案，替代物
1.WW 1: WORLD WAR 1 的缩写，指第一次世界大战
- The second reason I can give is "suitability":
If foreigners want to adopt a language as lingua franca, how hard is that to do?
Here, I speak from personal experience. My mother tongue is German, a "Germanic" language[1].
English is usually also considered "Germanic" language, although it is a big mix. That was my first "living" foreign language[2], as I had studied the "dead" language[3] Latin before. I then learned French, and later Spanish, so 2 "Romanic"[4] or "Romance" languages. I also learned some Polish, a "Slavic"[5] language, and very different from all the others, closely related to Russian. Last but not least, I am trying to learn Chinese. I have already written on Zhihu about my experiences with these languages.
E.g. here Gunter Schoech：如何用英语学德语？
为什么法国人英语普遍较差，而德国人英语大多不错？
In short, in terms of grammar, worst is Polish, then close second German.
Chinese has very very little grammar by comparison (before you angrily reply me, please read my article above: Many people only understood what grammar actually is, when they read this. Because Chinese has so little of it).
2.第二个我给出的理由是"普适性"
如果外国人想采用一门语言作为通用语有多难？
我从我的个人经历出发来谈谈这个问题，我的母语是德语，是“日耳曼”语族
英语虽然是个大杂烩，但通常也被认为属于“日耳曼”语族。这是我学的第一门“活外语”，我之前还研究过一门“拉丁语”，这是一门“死外语”。后来我学习了法语和西班牙语，他们属于“罗马”语族。波兰语我也学过，它属于“斯拉夫”语族，与其他的语言都不同，接近于俄语。然后我现在正在学中文。我曾写过一些关于学习这些语言的经验：
E.g. here Gunter Schoech：如何用英语学德语？
为什么法国人英语普遍较差，而德国人英语大多不错？
简而言之，从语法条件上讲，波兰语最难，德语次之。中文比起这两个几乎没什么语法（你先别生气，喷我之前看看我上面写的2篇文章，大多数人读完才明白什么叫真正的语法。因为中文真的没什么语法。）
Germanic:德国的,日耳曼的
Latin :拉丁语,拉丁人
Romanic & Romance:拉丁系语言,古罗马语言
Polish:波兰的,擦亮,抛光
Slavic:斯拉夫语.斯拉夫的.
1.日耳曼语族:印欧语系的一支,常用的有瑞典语,丹麦语,英语,德语及后两者的变种。
2.活语言:指的是如今现存仍有人在使用并以其作为母语的语言.
3.死语言:与活语言相对,指没有人以之作为母语或没有能能够读写的语言.
4.罗马语族:印欧语系的分支,包括法语,意大利语,葡萄牙语等
5.斯拉夫语族:属于印欧语系,常见于东欧.包括俄语,波兰语,捷克语等.
So then, Chinese should be easy? Well, no. For me, it is, with Polish, the most difficult to learn. The reasons are :
a) the writing. As it is not based on an alphabet, the effort to learn it is much greater. Chinese children spend a lot of time to learn all the characters, and I guess you never fully stop. My 6 year old son reads German and French without much difficulty, and his 4 year old brother has already picked up a little from him.
b) the relative scarcity of different "sounds". There are only a little over 100 sounds in Chinese. Multiply that by 4 (or 5 incl. silent) tones, and you get << 1000 combinations. But already for the simplest of newspapers you need > 2000. So your end up with orally identical sound which have various meanings. For disambiguation, you have either the written language (with the problem in a), or the context, preferably by adding another word with many meanings, but only in this one , wanted, meaning, they overlap.
For your native speakers, this comes naturally. But I find that to learn Chinese, you have to live it and breathe it every day, on site. Then you can make those links fast enough between words. But you can't really learn that in a language class far a way, or worse, in home study.
In fact, I taught myself Spanish, from 0 to a level which allowed me to fly to the capital, with my suitcase in hand, and start living there: find a place to live, to go university etc. I don't think that would ever be possible with Chinese for me.
所以呢,中文难吗?对我来说,很难.几乎和我学过的最难的波兰语差不多,原因如下
a) 书写.中文不基于字母表使得学习起来要更加费劲.中国孩子们花了大量时间学习汉字,而且我猜你们从来没有真正停止过学习新字.而我6岁的儿子现在基本已经可以做到无障碍阅读德语和法语了,他四岁的弟弟也能跟着他一起学一些了.
b)相对来说音比较少,中文只有一百多种发音,大多数用4种声调(算上轻声有5种),并且有远超1000种以上的组合.如果要看一份最简单的报纸需要懂2000种以上的组合.同样的发音有多种不同的意思.为了消除歧义,你要么把它写出来(可能导致上面的问题a),要么联系上下文.中国人喜欢造一个具有很多意思的词,但通常只有一个意思是你想表达的,但是这些意思会交叠在一个词上.
对于母语者来说这可以信手拈来,但对我来说,我感觉学习中文需要时时刻刻置身于那样的语言环境中,你才可能快速建立起词语间的联系,这是课上学习学不来的,在家自学更是如此.
事实上我是从零开始自学西班牙语,最后我能做到自己拎包飞赴西班牙首都,在那里住下,生活,上大学等.如果换成中国,我觉得永远不可能.
alphabet : 字母表,入门,初步
scarcity :不足,缺乏
combinations(combination的复数):组合,化合
identical :完全相同的(事物)
disambiguation :消歧义
preferably :宁可
overlap :重叠,重复,同时发生
When people study Chinese in Germany, they say: I study "Sinology". That includes speaking and writing, maybe a little History on the side. But essentially, they study Chinese. Nothing else. Imagine, your entire studies consisted of CET 4 or let it be CET 6. But nothing else. You will say: "I study electrical engineering", and CET 4 is just something that comes with it.
It seems, as lingua franca, Chinese is just too difficult.
And if you take most of the populations that did not grow up with English, they are still much closer to learning English than learning Chinese. Portuguese is very close to Spanish, so you can add Brazil. With that, you have the American Continents 100% complete. Even Hindi is an Indo-Germanic language (common roots)
So I assume that the growing role of China will not reverse what the historic developments set up before.
那些在德国学中文的人,他们会说自己在学"汉学".这包括对话和写作,还有一点历史之类的.但实质上他们就是在学中文,没别的.你可以想象一下类似你的整个学习过程都是英语四六级,别无其他,但是你却说:"我学的是电子工程",四级只是附带品.
看起来,要作为一门通用语,中文还是太难了.
如果你要要说那些非英语母语的人,英语对他们中的大多数人来讲也比中文亲民一些.葡萄牙语接近西班牙语,再加上整个巴西都说葡萄牙语.所以你可以把整个美洲大陆都算作葡萄牙语的地盘.就算是海地语也属于印欧语系1.
所以我觉得就算日益强大的中国也很难转变这种既定的历史发展方向.
sinology:汉学
essentially(essential的副词):本质上,本来
consisted (consist过去式):组成,
brazil:巴西
continents (continent 复数):大陆,大洲
hindi :海地,南美国家
1.Indo-Germanic:印欧语系,也叫印度-日耳曼语系或者雅利安语系,主要使用者分布在南北美洲,澳洲,西南亚,中亚地区