收听BBC的英国问答节目可以让你了解到很多以前都不知道的英国当地信息，接下来，朗阁小编今天带大家了解更多关于英国地名的有趣故事。
收听BBC的英国问答节目可以让你了解到很多以前都不知道的英国当地信息，接下来，朗阁小编今天带大家了解更多关于英国地名的有趣故事。
Place Names 地名
Feifei: 大家好，欢迎收听《英国问答》我是冯菲菲。
Finn: And I’m Finn. Feifei, did you hear the story about the Ugley man who married the Nasty woman?
Feifei: The what, the ugly man 丑男人and the nasty woman 令人讨厌的女人? Sorry
Finn, don’t know that story.
Finn: Don’t know it? Actually, there’s no story. Both Ugley and Nasty are names of places in England.
Feifei: 原来这Ugley 和Nasty 都是伦敦北部两个小镇的地名place names.
Finn: And in fact, Britain is full of interesting, weird and wonderful place names. Which leads us to today’s question from Shirley Lee.
Feifei: Shirley 想了解更多关于英国地名的故事，尤其是叫做Richmond 的地方，她问Richmond 是不是就是富人rich people 所居住的地方呢？
Finn: Well, I think it’s a great question and a good guess Shirley. The name originally comes from French and means splendid hill.
Feifei: Splendid hill 肥沃的小山。那这么一个离伦敦不远的地方有一个法国名儿又是为什么呢？
Finn: Aha, another good question and do you know what? I think it’s time for a history lesson.
Feifei: 英国在战争年代受到了众多民族一波又一波的侵略invasion, 连年战争后不同国籍的人在英国安家settlement, 也就带来的自己的语言和文化。
Finn: In order to help us understand the history, I interviewed Dr Paul Cavill from the University of Nottingham, who’s an expert of the subject.
Feifei: 请听下面这段录音，Paul Cavill 博士给我们讲述了从公元年间Common Era 开始，移民来到不列颠的多个民族和其使用的语言。
Insert
Well the earliest recorded names are Celtic, and the Celtic dialects were spoken all over Western Europe around the beginning of the Common Era. That was modified slightly by the Romans in the first five centuries of the Common Era. Then everything changed with the invasions of the Anglo-Saxons in the fifth century, and they introduced all sorts of names. And then the Vikings, a Scandinavian people speaking a different dialect of Germanic, came and added a whole new layer of names. And then, after that the French came along and introduced a whole new layer of naming; not as many because many settlements had already been given names by 1066, the Norman Conquest. So we’ve got layer after layer of different languages, many of which make different names difficult to interpret.
Feifei: 你听清楚了都有哪些民族吗？
Finn: The earliest recorded names are Celtic. The Celts spoke a variety of Celtic dialects.
Feifei: 凯尔特人Celts, 他们讲的凯尔特语有很多方言，他们也是*早，在公元伊始年间很多地名使用的语言。
Finn: The we had the Romans.
Feifei: 古罗马人Romans 讲的是拉丁语。拉丁语也对早期凯尔特语的名字有很大影响。
Finn: Then a big change happened with the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons.
Feifei: 盎格鲁-撒克逊人Anglo-Saxons 讲的语言是日耳曼语系的一种语言。
Finn: Then the Scandinavians added a new layer of place names to Britain.
Feifei: 斯堪的纳维亚人讲的也是日耳曼语系的一种语言，他们也再次改变了英国的很多地名。
Finn: And finally the French arrived in 1066.
Feifei: *后1066 年法国人来到英国。So, a lot of changes in 1,000 years! Do we have some examples of how these different languages have affected place names?
Finn: Well, let’s look at one example here. I’m sure everybody has heard of the place Manchester. Well, the ‘chester’ part of the name actually comes from the Romans.
Feifei: 那当我们看到像chester, caster or cester 这样的地名，它们原来其实都是古罗马的堡垒Roman fort.
Insert
One of the oldest ones is Chester, which comes in Chester the name itself; Lancaster, Gloucester, Worcester, Leicester. And that is a word which is borrowed from Latin and it means a Roman fort.
Finn: So, even long after the Romans left about 1,500 years ago, their influence is still felt in the place names. One other group of people who had a big influence were the Anglo-Saxons.
Feifei: Finn*后请Cavill 博士给我们大家解释他任教授的诺丁汉大学所在城市Nottingham的意思。
Insert
The great cities of Birmingham and Nottingham are named after individual Anglo-Saxon chieftans; one called Beorma and the other called Snot. And the ‘-ingham’ means settlement of the people of; the tribal followers of these two chieftans. So all those ‘-ingham’ names are of this type, they’re tribal settlements.
Feifei: 原来Nottingham 和Birmingham 这两个城市的名字来源于盎格鲁-撒克逊人的两个首领的名字。这两个城市名字的前半部分是那两个首领的名字Beorma and Snot, 后半部分ingham 的意思是有一个民族的定居、存在的地方。
Finn: So originally the town would have been known as Snottingham – the settlement of the people of Snot. Now Snot was the chieftan 首领。So perhaps it’s not a bad thing that place names change over time!
Feifei: Finn说snot 这个词在现代英语里的意思是鼻涕，如果拿它当地名好像有点儿不妥。Not ideal Finn.
Finn: Not very nice is it? Almost as bad as Nasty or Ugley!
Feifei: Oh yes. I think I’m quite glad I come from Xi’an; the meaning of that place is quite clear!
Finn: It is isn’t it, quite a nice meaning I think.
Feifei: Oh, thank you.
1. Invasion 侵略
2. Celts 凯尔特人
3. common era 元年间
4. Germanic languages 开始日耳曼语系
5. Roman fort 堡垒
6. Anglo-Saxons 盎格鲁-撒克逊人
7. chieftan 首领
8. settlement 安家
