汉语常被认为是一种非常古老的语言。从某种意义上说,这种说法不免失之偏颇。人类所有的语言都可追溯到朦胧的史前时期，但目前我们还无法确定这些语言是否都同宗同源。五千年前华夏祖先说汉语的方法同英语人士的祖先说英语的方法大致相似。而从另外一种意义上说,汉语确实也是一种很古老的语言。今天所存留下来的最早的汉字已有近四千年的历史。这些文字均为甲骨雕文。大部分铭文为神谕圣言,内容大都与政治事件和宗教活动有关,有些则是关于天气或战争的记录。汉语有丰富的古代文字作品,源远流长,远非任何其他一种语言的文字可与之媲美。一些最古老的汉字属象形文字。虽然大部分汉字无法从其图案的形态来解意,一般说来,汉语书写文字的形与意与英语相比,形意之间的联系更为直接。而且大部分汉字都是一些单音节的字。汉字的悠久历史及其艺术价值,使其在大小形状方面的变化大于其他书写体系的文字。
Chinese is often termed a very old language. In a sense such a statement is misleading. All human languages go back to the dim uncertainty of prehistory, and at present we have no way of knowing for sure whether or not they can all be traced back to the same root. Five thousand years ago the ancestors of the Chinese people spoke an early form of the Chinese language in much the same way that the ancestors of the English-speaking people were using an early form of
the English language. In a sense, however, Chinese is indeed a very old language. The earliest written forms of Chinese in existence today date back nearly 4,000 years. These writings are incisions on bone and tortoise shell. Most of the inscriptions are oracular, dealing mostly with political or religious events, or with weather or warfare. Chinese has an abundance of ancient writings that reach back continuously in time further than the writings of any other language in the world. Some of the earliest written Chinese characters were quite pictographic. Although most of the words in the language cannot be suggested by a simple picture, generally, a written Chinese character has a more direct connection with its meaning than a written word in English does. And most Chinese characters are exactly one syllable long. The long history and artistic values of Chinese characters have given them a much greater range of variability in their size and shape than the characters of any other writing system.
汉语句子的基本结构为“主一谓一宾”,与英语相同。例如“我会说英语”这句话同英语的I can speak English的词序完全一样，但是汉语可以省略那些可有可无的、不会引起误解的主语或宾语。
近年来世界各地学汉语者与日俱增。对于这门拥有世界上使用人数最多、文学历史最悠久的语言来说，这股学习热潮早该出现了。随着各位学习汉语兴趣的上升,我们可以深人探讨汉语的发展历史与语言结构,探讨汉语对中华民族的文化和思维所起的影响作用。这样的研究一定能使我们更好地、更全面的了解人类语言的本质。我以后会安排时间与你们一起探讨这方面的问题。今天就讲到这里。
The basic sentence structure in Chinese follows the order of subject-verb-object, as in English. For example, the sentence "wo hui shuo yingyu" is word for word "I can speak English". There is, however, a tendency in Chinese to omit either the subject or the object when it is considered unnecessary and causing no confusion.
In recent years, interest in the Chinese language is increasing at an accelerating tempo throughout the world. Considering the fact that the Chinese language has the largest number of speakers in the world and the greatest time depth in its literature, this interest is long overdue. With the increase in your interest we may look forward to decper probing into the history and the structure of the language, and into the influence the language has had on the cultural and intellectual development of the Chinese people. These studies will surely lead to a better general understanding of the nature of human language.I will schedule time for our discussions on these issues at a later time. That's all for today.
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