(单词翻译:单击)
Pardon me, professor. Maybe you can help me out here, is this word pronounced cache or cache? Cache.
教授,打扰了 。你能不能帮我看看这个词是读cache还是cache?第一个 。
Appreciate it, Doc.
谢谢教授 。
You see, when Jacques Bailly pronounces a word, he pronounces it right,
要知道,雅克·百利念一个单词的时候,他总能念正确 。
He can pronounce this thing. Smaragdine.
他会念这个单词 。 Smaragdine(翡翠绿) 。
He can pronounce this thing. Scherenschnitte.
这个单词 。 Scherenschnitte(剪纸) 。
He even pronounces words, that don't make a lick of sense. Albumen.
就连那些毫无意义的单词他都会念 。Albumen(蛋白) 。
And when you're that damn good with words, sooner or later, someone's gonna pay you to say 'em.
而当你能够像他那样正确地念出所有单词时,迟早都会有人花钱请你念 。
Hi, Dr. Bailly.
百利博士您好 。
This is Jacques Bailly, the official pronouncer of the National Spelling Bee.
这是担任全国拼字大赛官方念词员的雅克·百利 。
Luxembourg. L-U-X-E.
Luxembourg(卢森堡) 。 L-U-X-E 。
Gala. Sherbet. Gyro. G-I-F.
Gala(节日) 。Sherbet(冰冻果子露) 。Gyro(陀螺) 。 GIF(动图) 。
Before Jacques' days as the world's foremost pronouncer of persnickety words,
在成为世界上最著名的难拼词朗读专家之前,
he began a spelling career on the other side of the microphone.
雅克的拼写生涯是从作为一名拼字大赛选手拉开帷幕的 。
Jacques was a competitive speller, and in 1980, he found himself in the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
雅克是拼字大赛上一名强劲的对手,1980年,他就站上了斯克里普斯国家拼字大赛决赛的舞台 。
His word, elucubrate, so he said. E-L-U-C-U-B-R-A-T-E and it means to burn the midnight oil, to study all night.
他拿到的词,elucubrate,他是这么拼的 。 E-L-U-C-U-B-R-A-T-E,这个单词的意思是挑灯夜读 。
And with those 10 letters, Jacques became a champion.
就是这十个字母让雅克拿到了拼字大赛的冠军 。
Twenty-three years later, Jacques had elucubrated all the way to the big show.
二十三年后,雅克火力全开,又杀回了这档大型节目 。
Propiophenone. Roquefort. Pyroclastic.
Propiophenone(丙酮),Roquefort(羊乳干酪), Pyroclastic(火山碎屑) 。
Can I please have the definition?
可以给一下单词释义吗?
But sometimes even Jacque's meticulous pronunciations don't tell the whole story.
但有时,就连雅克一丝不苟的发音也不能完全说明问题 。
English words are not always spelled as they sound.
英语单词的拼写和发音并非总是一致的 。
One thing that makes English words really hard to spell is the schwa, the schwa is that uh, like in butter or unutterable.
真正让英语单词变得困难的因素之一是英语里的“非中央元音”,就是butter(黄油)或者unutterable(难以形容的)里面的那个“uh”的音 。
The Y in syringe, the A in balloon, the O in freedom, they all sound the same spoken out loud, a speller's nightmare.
syringe(注射器)中的y,balloon(气球)里的a,freedom(自由)里的o,这三个原因大声读出来时听上去是一样的,简直是拼字员的噩梦 。
The longer and weirder a word is, the easier it is to spell,
一个单词越长越怪,拼写就越容易,
take the state fish of Hawaii, the humuhumunuku, ah, the humuhumunukunukuapua'a,
就拿夏威夷的州鱼“humuhumunuku”,不对,是“humuhumunukunukuapua'a”来说,
that's an easy word to spell, it's just long,
这个单词读起来就很简单,只是长而已,
it's a weird word and weird things stand out and are easier to remember.
这个单词是很奇怪,但奇怪的东西就会很显眼,也更容易被记住 。
O-N-O-M-A-S-I-A, paronomasia. Correct. Let's go!
O-N-O-M-A-S-I-A,paronomasia(双关) 。正确 。走你!
For a man with perhaps the most legitimate claim as the authority on pronunciation,
作为一个可能有着最高的朗读权威的人,
Jacques takes a rather agnostic approach to the right and wrong ways to say things.
对于发音正确与否,雅克的看法带着点儿不可知论的味道 。
A lot of people are kind of amazed, that I know how to pronounce all these words,
很多人都很惊讶我怎么知道那么多单词的发音,
But I don't. I read them from the dictionary.
但其实我并没有 。我都是从字典上学到的 。
Well, how does the dictionary know how to pronounce a word?
那字典又是怎么知道单词的发音的呢?
Because they go out there and listen to native speakers,
因为编纂字典的人会去当地听母语人士的发音,
if there are a whole bunch of people who pronounce a word a certain way, that makes it a correct pronunciation.
如果有一大群人对某个单词都有同样的发音,那他们的发音就是正确的 。
People have very strong opinions that there's an incorrect way to pronounce a word,
人们强烈地认为一个单词就会有错误的发音,
but it's like saying that dog barked wrong, that's not a bark,
但这就好像说有一只狗的叫声不对,它的叫声不是狗叫声一样,
well, the dog gets to decide.
是不是狗叫,还得让那只狗来决定 。
Thanks, Jacques, I reckon you got more wisdom, than all the books in the library.
谢谢雅克,我觉得你比图书馆里的所有书都更有智慧 。