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1. Most peoplehave heard of the Tower of Babel storyin the Bible. According to this story, long ago all people spoke the same language.Later, however, they were punished byspeaking a great number of different tongues. Today, thereare literally thousands of different languages (definedasmutually unintelligible tongues)around the world, though many arerelatedtoone another. Indeed,thetwo largest language families, the Indo-European (the language familywiththe largest number of speakers) and Sino-Tibetan (containingthe Chineselanguages, Thai, Vietnamese, and Tibetan)includehundreds of languageswithover half the world'spopulation.
1. 大多数的人都听说过圣经中巴别塔的故事。故事称很久以前，人们说的是同一种语言。但是，后来人们遭受惩罚，而开始说各种不同的语言。今天，全世界真是有好几千种不同的语言（此处指的是彼此无法相通的(unintelligible)语言），虽然其中语言彼此(one another)都有所关联。的确，这两个最大的语系，印欧语系（最多人使用的语系）和汉藏语系（包括华语、泰语、越语和西藏语），涵盖了几百种不同的语言，使用者也超过了全世界半数的人口。
2. Because there are so many languageswithinthe above two super-categories of language families, linguists have furtherdividedthese linguistically rich andgeographically diverse familiesintosub-groups,one ofwhich,the Germaniclanguage group, hasthesecond-largest number of speakers(Chinesebeingfirst).Withinthis group of over 500,000,000 speakers is the world's foremost international language, English,foremostin terms of itsgeographic spread and number ofsecond-languageusers. German,spokenby just over 100,000,000 people, isone of the world's ten-largest languagesin terms of population.AsEnglish and German speakers constitute the majorities in several of the world's mosteconomically, militarily, and technologicallydevelopedcountries, it is important to be familiar with this particular language grouping.
2.就因为有太多的语言涵盖于上述的两个超级语系，语言学家就进一步的把这两种语言丰富、地理涵盖范围非常广的语系(these linguistically rich and geographicallydiverse families)再区分为几种不同的次级语系(sub-groups)，其中的一个就是日耳曼语系(one of which, the Germanic language group)，使用这个语系的人数在所有语系中排名第二位（第一位为华语）。在这个有5亿多人口使用的语系中，包括了世界最重要的国际语言，那就是英语。英语之所以称得上是最重要的语言乃因使用的地区很广，且把英语当作第二种语言使用的人口亦很多。有1亿多人说德语，故就人口而言，德语是世界十大语言之一。由于（as）使用英语和德语的人口在几个经济、军事和科技先进的国家中(in several of the world's most economically, militarily, andtechnologically developed ecuntries)占绝大比例，因此熟悉(be familiar with)日耳曼语系的来龙去脉是很重要的。
3. Linguists furtherdividethe Germanic languagesintothree groups, two extant and one extinct. East Germanic languages are no longer spoken;Gothic is an example of this small and historic grouping. Afrikaans, Dutch, English,Flemish, and German are the more important languageswithinthe WestGermanic grouping. The Scandinavian languages of Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian,and Swedish comprise the North Germanic grouping.Thoughthese languagescannot beeasilyunderstoodamongtheir different speakers, thesimilaritiesin vocabularyare striking.
3.语言学家又进一步地把日耳曼语系分成3个支系，其中两个支系至今仍然存在（extant），另１个支系，也就是东日尔曼语，因无人使用而已不复存在(extinct)。歌德语(Gothic)就属于这种使用者不多但历史悠久的语系。南非荷兰语、荷兰语、英语、佛兰芝语、及德语则属西日耳曼语的几个重要语言。丹麦语、冰岛语、挪威语及瑞典语等北欧语系则属北日耳曼语系。虽然这些不同语言使用者彼此不易沟通，不过词汇的雷同处(the similarities)却很明显(striking)。
4.Takefor examplethe two largest languages with this group, English andGerman. The word Hausin Germanis housein English,withnearlythe same pronunciation. Somenames of German family membersareinstantlyrecognizable to Englishlisteners and readers: Mutter, Bruder, and Onkelfor the English mother, brother, and uncle(all German nounsare capitalized in print). Other German family membersare easily learned: Vater, Schwester, and Tantefor the English father, sister, and aunt.Thus, thosewhoknowEnglish and want to study Germanfind their first year of learningvocabularyto be relatively easy.The same is true, of course, for thosewhowant to learn Dutch or Danish from an English or German background;these many similaritiesare due tothe single common parent language ofall the Germanic tongues,eventhoughthis "grandfather" language no longer exists.
4.就拿日耳曼语系中英语及德语两大语言来说吧，德文的Haus 就是英文的house，发音几乎完全相同。一些德语家庭成员的称呼如：Mutter,Bruder 和Onkel,懂英语的人（English listeners and readers）很快地就知道这些字指的就是mother,bother 和uncle（德文的名词一律大写）。其它有关家庭成员名称的德语说法也很容易学：像Vater,Schwester 和Tante 在英文里指的就是father,sister 和aunt。因此懂英语而想学德语的人，会发现初学词汇的第一年是很容易的一件事。当然，具有英语和德语背景的人(from an English or Germanbackground)要学丹麦语和荷兰语也同样是件易事。这些相似处(these many similarities)乃因所有日耳曼语系皆源自共同的母语(the single common parentlanguage of all the Germanic tongues)，尽管这个“爷爷级”的语言已不复存。
5.Speakersand writers of the Germanic languages account for a great dealof the world's output in everythingfrom economics to literature to military to science and technology.Hardlyan aspect of modern lifedoes not benefit from the contributionsmadeby thoseusingthese languages,asin the Internet, Hollywood entertainment, Dutch (Phillips) and Scandinavian consumer goodsdesign (Ericsson, makerof cellular phones, is a Swedish company,asare Volvo andSaab),and even the Nobel prizes (awardedbyboth Norwegian andSwedish institutes).Morethan one-third of the world's economic production originatesin these countries,too.
5.全球举凡经济、文学、军事乃至科技等方面的产品(output)，有很多(a great deal of)都是使用日耳曼语系的人所生产的(account for)。现代生活几乎各方面无不受益于使用这些语言的人的贡献(the contributions made bythose using these languages)，譬如互联网络，好莱坞娱乐事业，荷兰（菲利普公司）和北欧的消费品设计（生产手机的爱利信公司就是瑞典的一家公司，富豪及绅宝汽车亦是瑞典的公司），甚至诺贝尔奖（the Nobel prizes）（由挪威及瑞典学术机构颁发(awarded)）。全世界的经济生产量有超过三分之一也是源自这些国家。
6. For any speaker of a languageoutsidethe Germanic language grouppreparingto choose a usefulsecond languagefor the future, English is probably the best bet. German, too, is very usefulinthe fields of medicine, economics, military, and science and technology.Beingable tocommunicate with othersin this far-reaching linguisticgroupwill offer the user immeasurable benefits.
6.对于那些非使用日耳曼语系的人而言，为了前途(for the future)而准备要选修第二种语言时，英文很可能是最佳的选择。在医学、经济、军事和科技方面，德语也是一样管用。日耳曼语系影响深远(far-reaching)，若能使用这种语言与该语系的人沟通将会带来莫大的好处。
