英语何时真正超越法语成为了外交语言？_风闻

【来源龙腾网】

评论原创翻译：

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。

这一天，《凡尔赛条约》正式签署。它没有像传统要求的那样只用法语撰写，而是有两个对等的版本，法语和英语。

法语自中世纪以来就很流行，在路易十四统治时期，法国是欧洲最强大的国家，法语变得更加流行。它取代了拉丁语和意大利语，成为欧洲的外交语言。

1815年滑铁卢战役后，法国不可逆转地将其领导大国的地位输给了英国。然而，这并没有影响法语的地位。英国虽然成为世界上无可争议的领导者，是一个霸权主义国家。并且到1914年，它控制了世界四分之一的土地。但只有商人和船长会去学英语。外交官和国际组织仍在继续使用法语。

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.

大多数出国的英国人都学会了法语，尽管英国外交官把讲英语和配备翻译作为他们的重点。一个生活在国外却不愿学习国际语言的英国人是19世纪文学的典型形象之一，受到了英国和欧洲大陆作家的嘲笑（尽管英国作家认为这种拒绝是爱国的，虽然可笑，但也值得尊重）。

甚至在1870年，当法国被德国人击溃和羞辱的时候，和约的文本也是只使用法语的文本。因此，当1919年巴黎和会开始时，在期待已久的法国对德国人的反击战之后，法国总理乔治-克莱蒙梭和他的助手斯蒂芬-皮雄提议用法语起草新的和平条约，他们没有想到会有任何反对意见。

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.

乔治-克莱蒙梭和斯特芬-皮雄

然而，有一个人表示反对。他就是美国总统伍德罗-威尔逊。他承认法语一直是欧洲的外交语言，但他说有一个新的大国不是欧洲人，而且只讲英语。

皮雄表示反对，并提到美国已经参加了以法语为唯一官方语言的外交会议。此外，他还说，在给法国人民带来巨大痛苦的战争之后，剥夺法国的历史特权是不公正的。威尔逊态度坚决：根据美国宪法，所有条约都必须提交给参议院，而参议院不懂法语。他找到了英国首相戴维-劳埃德-乔治的支持，后者强调，全世界讲英语的人比讲法语的人多得多。

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.

伍德罗-威尔逊和戴维-劳埃德-乔治

法国代表为挽回法语的声望做了最后的努力：他们提议将意大利语作为和平会议和条约的第三种官方语言。这将淡化英语的地位。然而，该提议被否决了。根据一位历史学家的说法：

“这样，200多年来法语在国际舞台上的主导地位就结束了。”

威尔逊和劳埃德-乔治都不会说任何法语，而克莱蒙梭却能说一口流利的英语，他曾在美国生活并与美国人结婚。因此，英语成为了巴黎和会的主导语言：“四巨头"中，只有意大利的维托里奥-埃马努埃莱-奥兰多不会说英语。

‘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.

巴黎和平会议的 “四巨头”。大卫-劳埃德-乔治、维托里奥-奥兰多、乔治-克里蒙梭和伍德罗-威尔逊

因此，具有讽刺意味的是，法国在第一次世界大战中来之不易的胜利标志着法语作为一种国际语言的衰落迈出了第一步。说英语的人的数量和经济实力意味着它只能走下坡路。至此，英语被赋予了平等的地位，它成为唯一的国际语言只是时间问题。

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.

我有点惊讶，德国人竟然没有强迫法国人用德语签署《法兰克福条约》。看来，到了1871年，习俗已经深入人心，他们从来没有想过这个问题。

我想，那个让威廉一世加冕为德国皇帝的地方，对法国人来说已经够丢人了。