小米"孕育"了日语、韩语、土耳其语... | 外刊精读解析
泛欧亚语系 Transeurasian language family
——包括日语、韩语、通古斯语、蒙古语、突厥语——可能起源于约9000年前的中国，并在农业的发展下传播开来。这项研究帮助厘清了欧亚东部语言史上一段重要时期。
“一小粒小米可能孕育了地球上最神秘、最广泛的语系之一，这一结论的依据为迄今为止最大规模的来自亚洲十几个国家的语言、考古和遗传证据研究。”
我们来看一下《科学》杂志如何报道这一发现。如果大家对《自然》期刊发表的论文感兴趣，也可以通过后台获取哦~
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*文章来源：Science
*本文中原文及部分例句翻译均采用机翻+人工微调，仅供参考，不当之处欢迎大家在评论区讨论。
1
精读原文
How agriculture gave rise to one of the world’s most mysterious language families？农业是如何产生世界上最神秘的语系之一的？
A tiny grain of millet may have given birth to one of the most mysterious—and widespread—language families on Earth, according to the largest study yet of linguistic, archaeological, and genetic evidence from about a dozen countries across Asia. 一小粒小米可能孕育了地球上最神秘、最广泛的语系之一，这一结论的依据为迄今为止最大规模的来自亚洲十几个国家的语言、考古和遗传证据研究。
📒精读解析：
No.1
give rise to
【释义】to be the cause of (a situation, action, or state of mind) 引起，导致
下一段第一句使用了give birth to，既可以表示 to birth a baby 生孩子，也可以表示 to bring something into existence or be the cause or origin of 产生；造成
也就是说 give birth to 的意义涵盖 give rise to
【例句】And places like Silicon Valley will no doubt give birth to more of these services. 而像硅谷这样的地方无疑会产生更多这样的服务。
No.2
millet n./ˈmɪlɪt/
【释义】a cereal crop that is grown for its seeds or for hay. 小米; 粟
【例句】By June, the sale of one goat bought half as much millet as it had six months earlier. 到6月，卖出一只山羊所能买到的小米只有6个月前的一半。
2
精读原文
The Transeurasian languages, sometimes known as Altaic, include the languages of Siberia, Mongolia, Central Asia, and possibly Japan and the Korean Peninsula. The new study suggests the language family arose in northeastern China 9000 years ago, expanding with the spread of agriculture.
泛欧亚语系，有时被称为阿尔泰语系，包括西伯利亚、蒙古、中亚，可能还有日语和朝鲜语。这项新的研究表明，该语系起源于9000年前的中国东北地区，随着农业的发展而扩大。
📒精读解析：
No.1
transeurasian
【释义】
这个词目前未收入包括网络词典在内的任何词典中，因此我们通过构词法来分析词义。
前缀 trans- 表示“横穿，跨越”，eurasian 表示 of or connected with both Europe and Asia 欧亚的，因此这个词可以理解为“跨越欧亚大陆的”，本文采用中国媒体报道中的通用汉译，即“泛欧亚”。
No.2
possibly Japan and the Korean Peninsula
【拓展】
该研究最先发表于《自然》杂志，该论文指出：
“The origin and early dispersal of speakers of Transeurasian languages—that is, Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic—is among the most disputed issues of Eurasian population history. ”
“泛欧亚语系—即日语、朝鲜语、通古斯语、蒙古语和突厥语—的起源和早期传播是欧亚人口历史上最具争议的问题之一。”
然而，语言学界曾经认为阿尔泰语系只有三个语族：通古斯语族、蒙古语族、突厥语族，对朝鲜语和日语是否属于阿尔泰语系存在争议，因此本文（出自《科学》杂志）将表述改为 possibly Japan and the Korean Peninsula，更加严谨。
No.3
peninsula n. /pəˈnɪnsjələ/
【释义】
an area of land that is almost surrounded by water but is joined to a larger piece of land 半岛
【例如】
Arabian Peninsula 阿拉伯半岛；Liaodong Peninsula 辽东半岛
No.4
arise v. /əˈraɪz/
此处表示 to begin to exist or develop 出现；产生；发展
我们借此机会梳理一下 arise, rise, raise, rouse, arouse 几个词的区别。
此外，rise 和 arise 都可以表示“起床”和“起义，反抗”
【例句】
He was accustomed to rising early.
他习惯于早起。
We arose early on Christmas morning.
圣诞节早晨，我们早早地起了床。
The peasants arose against their masters.
农民奋起反对奴役他们的人。
He called on the people to rise up against the invaders.
他号召民众起来反抗入侵者。
3
精读原文
The origins of so-called Transeurasian languages—about 80 at the highest count—are hotly debated. Some linguists believe they sprang from the same source, but others say extensive borrowing between ancient languages explains why certain sounds, terms, and grammatical features are common among many tongues, from Turkish to Tungusic. Some researchers had suggested the family arose about 5000 years ago with nomadic shepherds in Central Asia.
所谓泛欧亚语系——最多约有 80 种——的起源备受争议。一些语言学家认为它们是同源的，但另一些语言学家认为，古代语言之间之间存在大量借用，这使得土耳其语、通古斯语等许多语言具有某些相同的发音、词语和语法特征。一些研究人员认为，该语系起源于大约5000年前中亚的游牧牧民。
📒精读解析：
No.1
spring from
【释义】
to come from or be a result of something 起源于，来自
可用于替换 originate in，derive from 等短语。
【例句】
His need to be liked obviously springs from a deep-rooted insecurity.
他需要人喜欢这一需求显然源于一种根深蒂固的不安全感
Some of today's best world music acts spring from the discovery of an obscure passion.
当今世界上一些最好的音乐表演都源于一种鲜为人知的激情。
No.2
tongue n. /tʌŋ/
这里指 language 语言
tongue 还可以表示 a particular way of speaking 说话方式
【例句】
I'll thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head.
请你说话礼貌点。
No.3
Tungusic a. /tʊŋˈɡʊsɪk/
【释义】
通古斯满语族的
通古斯语包括四种语支，其中较为大家熟悉的是女真语支，即现在的满语、锡伯语等。
No.4
nomadic a. /nəʊˈmædɪk/
traveling from place to place rather than living in one place all the time
游牧的，流浪的
【例句】
The daughter of a railway engineer, she at first had a somewhat nomadic childhood.
一名铁路工程师的女儿，她起初有过一个流浪般的童年。
名词形式为 nomad 游牧民，常用来指“四处漂泊”的人
了不起的麦瑟尔夫人 第三季
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 3 第7集
4
精读原文
Martine Robbeets, an archaeolinguist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, has long believed the Transeurasian languages belong to one family.To bring new evidence to the debate, she teamed up with linguists, archaeologists, and geneticists from China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea to build an extensive linguistic family tree for languages across Eurasia. They focused on what Robbeets calls “culture-free” vocabulary, including words for basic items such as “field,” “pig,” and “house.”
马克斯·普朗克人类历史科学研究所的考古学家马丁·罗伯茨长期以来一直认为，泛欧亚语言属于一个语系。为了给这一论点提供新的证据，她与来自中国、日本、俄罗斯和韩国的语言学家、考古学家和遗传学家合作，为欧亚大陆各地的语言建立了一个广泛的语言谱系树。他们聚焦罗伯茨所说的“无文化”词汇，包括 “田野”、“猪”和“房子”等基本术语。
📒精读解析：
No.1
archaeolinguist
【释义】
合成词，由“archaeologist 考古学家”和“linguist 语言学家”合成，“考古语言学家”从事考古学和语言学的交叉学科，包括但不限于语言学和考古学人类学的相互作用。
5
精读原文
The team used similarities between such basic terms and known historic shifts in sound to reconstruct an ancestral language, Proto-Transeurasian. Their family tree, which went back approximately 9200 years, suggested a common origin for dozens of words related to the growing and harvesting of a grain known as broomcorn millet. “That tells us that the speakers of Proto-Transeurasian were … farmers probably
concentrating on millet,” Robbeets says.
研究小组利用这些基本术语和已知的历史声音变化之间的相似性，重建了一种古老的语言——原始泛欧亚语。他们的谱系树可以追溯到大约9200年前，结果表明有几十个与小米种植和收获有关的单词起源相同。罗伯茨说:“这告诉我们，原始泛欧亚语的使用者可能是从事小米作物的农民。”
📒精读解析：
No.1
ancestral a. /ænˈsɛstrəl/
【释义】
referring to a person's family in former times, especially when the family is important and has property or land that they have had for a long time 祖先的
【例句】
Meantime, Innu and Inuit groups claimed the nickel deposit lay on their ancestral land.
与此同时，因努人和因纽特人声称镍矿就在他们祖先的土地上。
No.2
broomcorn n. /ˈbruːmˌkɔːn/ 高粱
No.3
proto-
可作为名词前缀或形容词前缀
表示 original; from which others develop 原始的；最初的
【例如】
prototype 原型；
proto-history 原史，指在一种文明还没有发展出自己的书写系统，但被外部其它文明以其文字所记载的时期。
6
精读原文
Next, archaeologists examined data from 255 sites across Central and Eastern Asia dating from about 8500 to 2000 years ago. Previous research had found fully domesticated millet arose in China’s Liao River Valley by at least 6000 years ago. The researchers tracked how similarities between nearby sites in pottery styles, burial styles, and the use of the same domesticated plants clustered together over time. They followed the spread of these “cultural packages” as they moved out of the Liao River Valley and diverged and meshed with other cultures over time. That spread roughly matched the march of the hypothesized Proto-Transeurasian language.
接下来，考古学家研究了中亚和东亚255个遗址的数据，这些数据可以追溯到8500年至2000年前。之前的研究发现，完全人工种植的小米至少在6000年前就出现在中国的辽河流域。研究人员追踪了在陶器风格、墓葬风格和种植作物方面具有相似之处的遗址如何随时间推移逐渐聚集。研究人员追踪了这些“文化包”随着人们逐渐迁移出辽河流域，并与其他文化发生分化和融合而导致的扩散传播。结果发现，这种传播与假设的原始泛欧亚语的发展轨迹大致相符。
📒精读解析：
No.1
domesticate v. /dəˈmestɪkeɪt/
【释义】
to make a wild animal used to living with or working for humans 驯养，驯化动物，或者 to grow plants or crops for human use 驯化，培育植物或农作物
【例句】
But now some domesticated ducks have developed resistance to the disease.
但是现在一些家鸭已经对这种疾病产生了抵抗力。
喜欢《小王子》的同学可能对另一个“驯服”也很熟悉：tame
tame指to make something not afraid of humans or easy to control
区别在于domesticate 强调驯化一个野生物种，如野猪向家养猪的转变，而tame 强调对具体动物的行为的驯服，如 a tamed tiger 仍然是野生动物，只是它习惯与人类接触。
【例句】
Dogs unlike raccoons are a domesticated species, and make far better pets.
与浣熊不同，狗是被驯化的物种，是更好的宠物。
It took a while to tame the horse.
驯服这匹马花了一些时间。
生活大爆炸 第四季 The Big
Bang Theory Season 4 第3集
No.2
burial n. /ˈberiəl/
the act or ceremony of putting a dead body into a grave in the ground.
埋葬; 葬礼
【例句】
His family insisted he should be given a proper burial.
他的家人坚持要为他举行适当的葬礼。
No.3
diverge v. /daɪˈvɜːdʒ/
1）to separate and go in different directions 分叉；岔开
【例句】
We went through school and college together, but then our paths diverged.
我们从小学到大学一直在一起，但后来就分道扬镳了。
2）to be different 分歧；相异
【例句】
Opinions diverge greatly on this issue.
在这个问题上意见分歧很大。
3）to be or become different from what is expected, planned, etc.
偏离；背离；违背
【例句】
He diverged from established procedure.
他违背了既定程序。
No.4
mesh v. /meʃ/
to fit together or match closely, especially in a way that works well; to make things fit together successfully （使）吻合，相配，匹配，适合
【例句】
This of course meshes with the economic philosophy of those on the right.
这当然和那些右翼派的经济哲学相吻合。
7
精读原文
Finally, geneticists analyzed DNA from 23 individuals who lived between 300 and 9000 years ago in what are now Siberia, Mongolia, China, SouthKorea, and Japan. They used computer algorithms to predict how those individuals were related to one another and to 2000 modern people whose genomes have been uploaded to genetic databases. Taken together, the three strands of evidence suggest a shared common ancestor for modern-day speakers of Japonic, Koreanic, Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic languages: farmers living in the Liao River alley approximately 9000 years ago, the researchers write today in Nature.
最后，遗传学家分析了生活在300至9000年前的23个人的DNA，这些人生活在现在的西伯利亚、蒙古、中国、韩国和日本。遗传学家使用计算机算法来预测这些人彼此之间的关联，以及与2000个现代人之间的关联，这些现代人的基因组已被上传到基因数据库。研究人员在《自然》杂志上写道，上述三种证据综合表明，当今说日语、朝鲜语、通古斯语、蒙古语和突厥语的人有共同的祖先：大约9000年前生活在辽河流域的农民。
📒精读解析：
No.1
genome n./ˈdʒiːnəʊm/
No.2
strand n./strænd/
此处指 one of the different parts of an idea, a plan, a story, etc.
观点、计划、故事等的部分，方面
【例句】
The author draws the different strands of the plot together in the final chapter.
作者在最后一章把不同的情节线索归拢到了一起。
8
精读原文
Over time, ancient farmers got better at growing millet, and their population expanded, Robbeets says, sending their language out into the world. Eventually, their populations split and merged with other groups across Eurasia, developing distinct languages and cultures, but retaining a still-recognizable linguistic backbone.
罗伯茨说，随着时间的推移，古代农民越来越擅长种植小米，他们的人口也增加了，因此把他们的语言传播到世界各地。最终，他们的人口分裂并与欧亚大陆上的其他群体融合，发展出不同的语言和文化，但仍然保留着可识别的语言基础。
📒精读解析：
No.1
backbone n. /ˈbækbəʊn/
【释义】
the most important part of a system, an organization, etc. that gives it support and strength 支柱；骨干；基础
【例句】
Its capacity to constantly reinvent itself makes it the backbone of transformational changes within societies.
它不断自我改造的能力使它成为社会变革的支柱。
backbone 还表示 he strength of character that you need to do something difficult 毅力；骨气
【例句】
You might be taking drastic measures and you've got to have the backbone to do that.
你可能在采取极端措施，而且你得有骨气做它。
摩登家庭 第十季
Modern Family Season 10 第11集
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