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Right, everyone, let's make a start.
好了，各位，我们开始吧。
Over the past few sessions, we've been considering the reasons why some world languages are in decline, and today I'm going to introduce another factor that affects languages, and the speakers of those languages, and that's technology and, in particular, digital technology.
在过去的几节课中，我们一直在思考世界上某些语言衰落的原因，今天我将介绍另一个影响语言和语言使用者的因素，那就是技术，尤其是数字技术。
In order to illustrate its effect, I'm going to focus on the Icelandic language, which is spoken by around 321, 000 people, most of whom live in Iceland–an island in the North Atlantic Ocean.
为了说明它的影响，我将会重点介绍冰岛语，约有32.1万人使用冰岛语，其中大多数人居住在冰岛，它是北大西洋的一个岛屿国家。
The problem for this language is not the number of speakers–even though this number is small.
这种语言的问题不在于说话者的数量，虽然冰岛语的使用者人数确实不多。
Nor is it about losing words to other languages, such as English.
也不在于某些单词被其他语言（英语）取代。
In fact, the vocabulary of Icelandic is continually increasing because when speakers need a new word for something, they tend to create one, rather than borrowing from another language.
事实上，冰岛语的词汇量在不断增加，因为当说话者需要某个新词来表达某物时，他们往往会创造一个新词，而不是借用另一种语言。
All this makes Icelandic quite a special language–it's changed very little in the past millennium, yet it can handle twenty-first-century concepts related to the use of computers and digital technology.
所有这些都使冰岛语成为一种非常特殊的语言，在过去的千年里，冰岛语几乎没有什么变化，但它可以表达与计算机和数字技术的使用有关的21世纪的概念。
Take, for example, the word for web browser…this is vafri in Icelandic, which comes from the verb'to wander'.
以web browser这个词为例。在冰岛语中是vafri，源于动词“wander”。
I can't think of a more appropriate term because that's exactly what you do mentally when you browse the internet.
我想不出一个更合适的词了，因为它准确描述了人们浏览互联网时的心理状态。
Then there's an Icelandic word for podcast–which is too hard to pronounce! And so on.
冰岛语中还有一个单词可以对应podcast，这个词太不好读了！诸如此类。
Icelandic, then, is alive and growing, but–and it's a big but–young Icelanders spend a great deal of time in the digital world and this world is predominantly English.
冰岛语仍然存在和发展，但很重要的是，年轻的冰岛人在数字世界中花费了大量时间，但数字世界是由英语主导的。
Think about smartphones.
想想智能手机吧。
They didn't even exist until comparatively recently, but today young people use them all the time to read books, watch TV or films, play games, listen to music, and so on.
它们直到最近才出现，但是当下的年轻人总是用它们来看书、看电视或电影、玩游戏、听音乐等等。
Obviously, this is a good thing in many respects because it promotes their bilingual skills, but the extent of the influence of English in the virtual world is staggering and it's all happening really fast.
显然，从许多方面来看这都是一件好事，因为它提高了他们的双语技能，但英语在虚拟世界中的影响程度令人震惊，而且一切都发生得非常快。
For their parents and grandparents, the change is less concerning because they already have their native-speaker skills in Icelandic.
对于他们的父母和祖父母来说，这种变化并不那么令人担忧，因为他们已经掌握了以冰岛语为母语的技能。
But for young speakers–well, the outcome is a little troubling.
但对于年轻的语言使用者来说，结果有点令人担忧。
For example, teachers have found that playground conversations in Icelandic secondary schools can be conducted entirely in English, while teachers of much younger children have reported situations where their classes find it easier to say what is in a picture using English, rather than Icelandic.
例如，老师们发现，冰岛中学操场上的对话可能完全用英语进行，而年龄更小的孩子的老师报告说，他们班级里的孩子认为用英语而不是冰岛语更容易说出图片中的内容。
The very real and worrying consequence of all this is that the young generation in Iceland is at risk of losing its mother tongue.
所有这一切引发的真正令人担忧的后果是，冰岛的年轻一代有失去母语的风险。
