Or黄色幽默， for that matter， French or Portuguese?

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本文作家从英语发源国英国的角度，证实了英语走遍寰宇之后，将不再是英国的英语，也不再是盎格鲁撒克逊国度的英语。英语走遍寰宇让作家显示，关联词关于其他文化对英语，非常是英语语法的变调，作家也默示了担忧。

WHAT COUNTRY does French belong to? The answer seems obvious: France， as it says on the label. But there are roughly four times as many speakers of French outside France as there are within it. Who does Portuguese belong to? You might now hesitate to blurt out “Portugal”， remembering that Brazil’s population is about 20 times bigger than Portugal’s. Maybe Portuguese belongs jointly to them both. But then 70m people live in African countries in which Portuguese is an official language. Perhaps it belongs to them， too.

注："Blurt out" 的道理是"直肚直肠"，指在不经过念念考的情况下，已而说出某个不雅点。举例，"I didn't mean to blurt out that secret about her， it just slipped out."（我不吵嘴常走漏她的巧妙，仅仅不防范直肚直肠了。）

本段中提到，法国除外说法语的东谈主数是法邦原土的四倍，而葡萄牙之外说葡语的除了东谈主口是葡萄牙20倍之多的巴西除外，还有7000万非洲东谈主将葡语动作官方话语。

The English can be under no illusion that the language of the same name is exclusively theirs. The small matters of the other nations in the British Isles， and of the superpower across the Atlantic， make clear that it is joint property. But these countries—along with Canada， Australia and other Anglophonepeoples—must at some point come to terms with the fact that， even collectively， their language no longer belongs to them. Of the estimated billion people who speak English， less than half live in those core English-speaking countries.

注："Under no illusion" 的道理是"莫得幻想"黄色幽默，这里指英国东谈主不成有英语是英国的英语这种幻想。that从句是illusion的同位语。

"Anglophone" 指的是说英语的东谈主或地区，平淡用于描述那些英语是主要或官方话语的国度或地区。举例，加拿大不错被称为是一个"Anglophone country"。雷同的，好意思国、英国、澳大利亚、新西兰、南非等国度亦然。

"Come to terms with the fact" 的道理是"袭取事实"，精美套图平淡用来描述一个东谈主经过一段技能的念念考、反省等进程后，终于袭取了某个不昂扬或不可幸免的事实。举例，"After months of denial， he finally came to terms with the fact that his marriage was over."（经过数月的否定，他终于袭取了他的婚配仍是适度的事实。）

Every day， the proportion of English-speakers born outside the traditional Anglosphere grows. Perhaps 40% of people in the European Union speak English， or about 180m—vastly more than the combined population of Britain， Canada， Australia and New Zealand. In India， calculations range from 60m to 200m. Most such estimates make it the second-biggest Anglophone country in the world.

注：在欧洲，有1.8亿东谈主会说英语，而在印度，说英语的东谈主口在6000万到2亿之间，印度是寰宇上第二大以英语为母语的国度。

English-speakers pride themselves on the spread of the language， and often attribute that to an open， liberal-minded attitude whereby it has happily soaked up words from around the world. In the coming century， though， English will do more than borrow words. In these non-Anglophone countries， it is becoming not just a useful second language， but a native one. Already it is easy to find children in northern Europe who speak as though they come from Kansas， the product of childhoods immersed in subtitled films and television in English， along with music， gaming and YouTube.

注："Soak up" 的道理是"给与"或"吸取"，本义是肖似海绵吸水那种给与，延迟指关于某种信息、常识、训戒等的给与和学习。举例，"She soaked up all the information in the book in just one evening."（她在一个晚上就给与了书中总共的信息。）

Today， many learners still aim for an American or British standard. Textbooks instruct Indian English-speakers to avoid Indianisms such as “What is your good name?” for “What is your first name?”， or “I am working here for years” instead of “I have been working here for years.” A guide to avoiding Europeanismshas long circulated in European Union institutions， to keep French-or German-speakers from (for example) using “actual” to mean “current”， as it does in their languages.

Yet as hundreds of millions of new speakers make English their own， they are going to be less keen to sound British or American. A generation of post-colonial novelists has been mixing native words and phrasings into their English prose， without translation， italics or explanation. Academic movements such as “English as a lingua franca” (ELF) have been developing the ideology that speakers—no longer referred to as “non-native” but rather “multilingual”—should feel free to ignore British or American norms. Karen Bennett of Nova University in Lisbon says the university website has been translated using words common in southern European English—like “scientific” for “academic”， or “rector” for “vice-chancellor”. The appropriate local dialect is not British or American but ELF.

注："Lingua franca" 是指在不同话语和文化的地区世俗使用的共同话语。在外洋调换中，英语被合计是一种lingua franca。

Given enough time， new generations of native speakers contribute not just words but their own grammar to the language they learn—from older speakers’ point of view， distortingit in the process. “I am working here for years” is a mistake today， but it is not hard to imagine it becoming standard in the future in culturally confident Anglophone Indian circles.

注：作家在顾忌其他地区的英语使用者会变调英语的用法。

"Distort" 的道理是"扭曲"、"歪曲"或"曲解"，平淡用来描述某种信息、事实或不雅点被非常或意外地变调或扭曲。举例，"The media often distorts the truth to get more attention." （媒体每每会为了诱骗更厚温和而歪曲事实。）

If this disturbs you， remember that this column is written in a mangled version of Anglo-Saxon， learned badly by waves of Celts， Vikings， Normans and others until it became an unrecognisably different tongue. And take comfort in the fact that such changes usually happen too slowly to affect comprehension in a single lifetime. Written language is less volatile than the spoken kind and exerts a stabilising force.

注："Mangled" 的道理是"败坏的"、"弄乱的"或"损坏的"，指某个物体或事物被严重絮聒、毁伤或弄乱的景色。举例，"The car was mangled in the accident" 默示"车在事故中被撞毁了"。本文中，作家合计，英语本来即是凯尔特东谈主、维京东谈主、诺曼东谈主等共同酿成的一种话语。

"Anglo-Saxon" 指古代盎格鲁-撒克逊东谈主（Anglo-Saxon people）以及他们的文化和话语。盎格鲁-撒克逊东谈主底本是在公元5世纪摆布从德国和丹麦等地迁徙到英国的日耳曼族东谈主。在话语方面，英语的发源不错纪念到古代的盎格鲁-撒克逊语（Anglo-Saxon language）。在当代英语中，"Anglo-Saxon" 还不错指英国或英国东谈主的文化和传统。

But if language is always evolving (true to the point of cliché)， the adaptations are even more profound when they come as a result of new speakers hailing from different linguistic worlds. No language has ever reached more speakers than English. It is hard to predict how they will change it， but easy to rule out the notion that they will not change it at all. In the end， it will be theirs too.

"True to the point of cliché" 指话语老是在进化这一不雅点其实是不合时尚。举例，"His behavior was true to the point of cliché， he was the typical arrogant businessman" 默示"他的行径特地安妥刻板印象黄色幽默，是典型的孤高商东谈主"。