英語の翻訳お願いします
先月、金星堂出版の英語のテキストを購入したのですが、解答が付いていなく、訳が分からないのでお忙しいとは思いますが翻訳お願いしたいです。以下長文。
English is often called the world's lingua franca. About this, there is little dispute. However, what about the term lingua franca? It means the Frankish language, but how did it come to be known so well as an expression in English? The language is full of intersting idioms and expressions whose origins we often fail to give even a thought to. If we did, we would find that English expressions and idioms often have fascinating stories behind them.
Pidgin English is one such expression. If you ask a native English speaker what thia means, he or she will likely explain the meaning corrently:broken, or badly spoken, English. If you ask why people use this exprettion, they might explain in it this way: Pigeons are not very clever birds, so it means someone whose Englilsh is not beyond the level of a simple bird.
However, this is not correct at all. During the period of the Opium Wars,1839-60, Potuguese, British, and Dutch traders went to China in large number to do business. They created a simplified from of English that could be used to do business. Business English often sounded like pidgin English when spoken with an accept, so this name stuck.
Flea market is another intersing expression. Most people think that this word comes from the old goods that are often sold at such markets. Because they are old and possibly durty, they might be full of fleas. Fleas are associsted with dirty things. People used to think that those selling goods at such markets looked dirty,too. They might have been carring fleas, which could have been a cause for the name.
Neither is correct. There was a market in New York City long ago called the Vallie Markt. In Dutch, it meant Valley Market. It is easy to forget that the Dutch were the first European settlers in New York, before the British too over in 1664.
Over the year, Vallie Markt became Vlie Market. In Dutch, the "v "sound like an "f" in English: "Flee" or "flea" both sound like the "vlie" in "Vlie Market." The term "flea market," however, has been translated into "market of fleas" in many languages, Japanese and French included.
When a ship is in troublle, it sends out this message: "Mayday! Myday!" Many believe that this word is used because something bad once happened on May 1. Actually, it is the English version of "M'aidez!," which means, "Help me!" in French.
"My brother is up the river!" thismeans that your brother ia in prison. How did English get this expression? Ossining State Prison was 30 km away from New York City... along the Hudson River. Therefore, if you did something illegal in New York City, which has never had a shortage of criminals, you might have been sent to Ossining... up the Hudson River.
So many words and phrases have entered the English language in an intersting way. Bcause English is the lingua franca of the world, it gets to borrow from many launguages of the world as well/ Bravo for English! Brovo... that was originally an Italian word, by the way.
お礼
回答ありがとうございます。 具体例付きでわかりやすかったです。 やはり、ameliorateは「現状がひどい」という場合に使うのですね。 「上から目線を感じさせる」というのはとくに注意すべき点ですね。 へたに使うと誤解を招くということがわかりました。勉強になりました。