评论
打印
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。
