BBC 6分钟英语学习 消失的单词

Hello. This is a program from the BBC Learning English archive.

It was 1st broadcast in March on the a BBC Learning English website.

We hope you enjoy it. This is Six Minute English from bbc learning english dot com.

Hello, I'm Kate Colin, and this is Six minute English.

And thanks to Jackie Dalton for joining me today.

Good morrow, jackie. Uh, pardon. Good morrow.

I beseech thee whencet commerce thou Umm, don't worry.

I didn't expect you to understand that im speaking in old English, what I said was the equivalent of saying, good morning.

Where do you come from? Using words which were in use a few hundred years ago and that we don't use any longer?

Hello, kate. Yes, english is a language which is evolving all the time, so this means that there are new words continuously appearing and older words are disappearing.

I didn't understand the old English she started the program with, because you are using words which we no longer use in everyday speech.

Exactly. So, as you might have guessed, the topic will be discussing is language and how it evolves and develops.

So, jackie, as usual, I have a question for you.

OK, some of the oldest English standing words date back for how many years?

Is it a 1000 years? Be 20000 years, or see, 500 years?

Well, I suspect it was quite a long time ago, so I'm going to say 20000 years.

OK, we'll check your answer at the end of the program.

But 1st, we're going to hear part of an interview with a scientist who's been using a special computer to study our use of words and their evolution through time.

Can you tell us what evolution means?

Yes, evolution. It's similar to the word evolving, which I explained earlier.

Evolution is the gradual process of change and development over a long period of time.

And in this context, it refers to language and how it develops and changes over the years.

OK, well, let's listen and see if you can hear which words he thinks are some of the oldest in the English language.

Well, we've been able to discover that the numbers two and three and five and the pronoun I and who, those are the oldest words in the English language.

So Jackie, did you get that?

Yes, he said that the oldest words were two, three and five, and the pronoun I and the word who that's correct.

It's hard to believe that some of the words we use every day are, in fact, extremely old.

Back to our scientist, as well as thinking about words that have been in use for many years, he also predicts which words may eventually become extinct.

Jackie, what does predict mean? To predict is to say, what you think will happen in the future, especially as a result of having prior knowledge or experience, e.g., it's cloudy outside today, so I predict that it's going to rain later.

And extinct. What does extinct mean?

To become extinct means to be no longer in existence.

Or you can use the frasal verb to die out.

And the word is often used when talking about a tribe of people or type of animal which has died out, e.g.

the dinosaurs have become extinct. So our scientists predicts which words are likely to become extinct.

He does this by finding out how quickly different words evolve or develop and are replaced by other words with the same meaning.

Now let's listen to the next extracts.

Which words does he predict might become extinct?

We can make some guesses as to what words might next go extinct.

So, e.g., the word dirty seems to have the highest rate of change, and so we might not addict that sometime in the next 750 years, that will be lost.

He said, the word dirty may become lost or become extinct in the future.

This is because it's being replaced quite quickly by other words that mean the same thing.

That's right. And we'll be hearing some more about his theory of why words come and go.

But 1st, let's look at some of the vocabulary will come across.

He uses the word frequency. What does frequency mean?

This is how often something happens.

So the frequency with which a word is used means how often the word is used and common everyday speech.

This is the language that we use most frequently.

And what about the word predictor?

A predictor is something which can help us predict, or say, what will happen in the future.

And finally, retained, retained means to keep So if a word is retained, it means will continue to use it.

Thanks. Well, let's listen to the final extracts.

What we've discovered is that the frequency with which words are used in our common everyday speech is a strong predictor of whether or not they'll be retained.

So he says, the words we use most often are the most likely to still be in use in the future.

The most common words tend to be the oldest ones.

That's cracks. And you might like to know that the other words he predicts may become extinct a squeeze and

guts. Let's go over some of the words which we came across in the program.

Today. We had

evolution, which means the gradual process of change and development over a long period of time.

Then we had extinct, which means to be no longer in existence or to have died out.

Predict, to say, what you think will happen,

frequency, how often something happens, common everyday, speech, the language that we use most frequently predictor something which can help us predict or say, what will happen in the future.

And finally, retained, which is to keep or be continued.

Thanks, jackie. And just before we finish for this week, let's see if you got the answer to my question correct.

I asked about some of the oldest English sounding words, and how old you thought some of them were.

I think I said 20000 years old, and you are correct.

The oldest English standing words were used by humans over 20000 years ago.

Incredible to think that our stone age ancestors were using similar sounding words all those years ago.

That's all we have time for today.

Until next time. Goodbye. Goodbye.

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