英語何時真正超越法語成為了外交語言？_風聞

【來源龍騰網】

評論原創翻譯：

Alexey Tereshchenko

On 28 June 1919.

On this date, the Treaty of Versailles was signed. Instead of being composed solely in French, as tradition demanded, it had two equivalent versions, in French and in English.

The French language, popular since Middle Ages, became even more so during the reign of Louis XIV when France was the strongest power in Europe. Displacing Latin and Italian, it became the language of European diplomacy.

After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, France had irreversibly lost its status of leading power to Britain. However, it did not affect the status of the French language. Britain became an undisputed leader of the world, a hegemonic power. By 1914 it controlled one quarter of the world. But only businessmen and sea captains learned English. Diplomats and international organizations continued to use French.

1919年6月28日。

這一天，《凡爾賽條約》正式簽署。它沒有像傳統要求的那樣只用法語撰寫，而是有兩個對等的版本，法語和英語。

法語自中世紀以來就很流行，在路易十四統治時期，法國是歐洲最強大的國家，法語變得更加流行。它取代了拉丁語和意大利語，成為歐洲的外交語言。

1815年滑鐵盧戰役後，法國不可逆轉地將其領導大國的地位輸給了英國。然而，這並沒有影響法語的地位。英國雖然成為世界上無可爭議的領導者，是一個霸權主義國家。並且到1914年，它控制了世界四分之一的土地。但只有商人和船長會去學英語。外交官和國際組織仍在繼續使用法語。

Most British who went abroad learned French, although British diplomats made it their point to speak English and have translators. A Briton who lived abroad but did not want to learn the international language was one of the typical images of 19th-century literature and was ridiculed by both British and continental authors (though British authors saw this refusal as patriotic and, while laughable, deserving some respect).

Even in 1870, when France was crushed and humiliated by the Germans, the text of the peace treaty was uniquely in French. So when the Paris Peace Conference started in 1919, after the long-awaited French revanche against the Germans, French prime minister Georges Clemenceau and his associate Stephen Pichon proposed to draft the new peace treaty in French and they did not expect any obxtions.

大多數出國的英國人都學會了法語，儘管英國外交官把講英語和配備翻譯作為他們的重點。一個生活在國外卻不願學習國際語言的英國人是19世紀文學的典型形象之一，受到了英國和歐洲大陸作家的嘲笑（儘管英國作家認為這種拒絕是愛國的，雖然可笑，但也值得尊重）。

甚至在1870年，當法國被德國人擊潰和羞辱的時候，和約的文本也是隻使用法語的文本。因此，當1919年巴黎和會開始時，在期待已久的法國對德國人的反擊戰之後，法國總理喬治-克萊蒙梭和他的助手斯蒂芬-皮雄提議用法語起草新的和平條約，他們沒有想到會有任何反對意見。

Georges Clemenceau and Stéphen Pichon

However, one person obxted. It was the US President Woodrow Wilson. He acknowledged that French had been the language of diplomacy in Europe but stated there was a new great power that was not European and spoke only English.

Pichon obxted, mentioning that the US had already participated in diplomatic conferences where French had been the only official language. Furthermore, he said that it was unjust to rob France of its historic privilege in the wake of the war that caused so much suffering to the French people. Wilson was adamant: according to the US Constitution, all treaties had to be submitted to the Senate where they did not know any French. He found support from British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who emphasized that the number of English speakers worldwide was much bigger than the number of French speakers.

喬治-克萊蒙梭和斯特芬-皮雄

然而，有一個人表示反對。他就是美國總統伍德羅-威爾遜。他承認法語一直是歐洲的外交語言，但他説有一個新的大國不是歐洲人，而且只講英語。

皮雄表示反對，並提到美國已經參加了以法語為唯一官方語言的外交會議。此外，他還説，在給法國人民帶來巨大痛苦的戰爭之後，剝奪法國的歷史特權是不公正的。威爾遜態度堅決：根據美國憲法，所有條約都必須提交給參議院，而參議院不懂法語。他找到了英國首相戴維-勞埃德-喬治的支持，後者強調，全世界講英語的人比講法語的人多得多。

Woodrow Wilson and David Lloyd George

The French delegates made a last ditch effort to salvage the prestige of French: they proposed to include Italian as a third official language of the peace conference and the treaty. It would have downplayed the status of English. However, the proposal was defeated. According to a historian,

Thus, more than 200 years of French language dominance on the international scene came to an end.

Neither Wilson nor Lloyd George spoke any French while Clemenceau spoke perfect English, having lived in the US and having married an American. As a result, English became the dominant language of the Paris Peace Conference: of the ‘Big Four’, only Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy could not speak English.

伍德羅-威爾遜和戴維-勞埃德-喬治

法國代表為挽回法語的聲望做了最後的努力：他們提議將意大利語作為和平會議和條約的第三種官方語言。這將淡化英語的地位。然而，該提議被否決了。根據一位歷史學家的説法：

“這樣，200多年來法語在國際舞台上的主導地位就結束了。”

威爾遜和勞埃德-喬治都不會説任何法語，而克萊蒙梭卻能説一口流利的英語，他曾在美國生活並與美國人結婚。因此，英語成為了巴黎和會的主導語言：“四巨頭"中，只有意大利的維托里奧-埃馬努埃萊-奧蘭多不會説英語。

‘Big Four’ of the Paris Peace Conference: David Lloyd George, Vittorio Orlando, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson

Thus, ironically, the hard-won French victory in World War I marked the first step in the decline of the French language as an international one. The numerical and economic strength of English speakers meant it could only go downhill. Now that English was given an equal status, it was only a matter of time for it to become the sole international language.

巴黎和平會議的 “四巨頭”。大衞-勞埃德-喬治、維托里奧-奧蘭多、喬治-克里蒙梭和伍德羅-威爾遜

因此，具有諷刺意味的是，法國在第一次世界大戰中來之不易的勝利標誌着法語作為一種國際語言的衰落邁出了第一步。説英語的人的數量和經濟實力意味着它只能走下坡路。至此，英語被賦予了平等的地位，它成為唯一的國際語言只是時間問題。

John Cate

I’m kind of surprised that the Germans didn’t force the French to sign the Treaty of Frankfurt in German. I guess custom was so well-seated by 1871 that they never thought of it.

I guess it was humiliating enough to the French with the location where Wilhelm I was crowned as Deutscher Kaiser.

我有點驚訝，德國人竟然沒有強迫法國人用德語簽署《法蘭克福條約》。看來，到了1871年，習俗已經深入人心，他們從來沒有想過這個問題。

我想，那個讓威廉一世加冕為德國皇帝的地方，對法國人來説已經夠丟人了。