New language helping to reduce tensions 增进相互理解的新语言

蒋建平

1 A new African language is helping to reduce tensions and bring young people together in certain areas. And academics are so impressed by the language's potential that a social media platform promoting it will form the subject of a major presentation at this year's eLearning Africa， the continent's leading conference on technology-assisted learning， training and development.

2 The language， Sheng， combines Kiswahili， English and a number of Kenyan tribal words， along with a little of Arabic， Hindi， French， German， Spanish and Italian. It was born on the streets of Nairobi.

3 Now as a society in Kenya， Go Sheng， is helping to celebrate and promote the language， which is almost generally used by young people so much that it has become the first language of many young Kenyans in urban areas.

4 The society provides a platform for social dialogues of the language's growing numbers of speakers. In doing so， it is giving voice to a powerful alternative culture in Kenya and celebrating the many tribal languages that contribute to Sheng.

5 Go Sheng uses a variety of different means to grow Sheng language and culture. Its most significant achievement， to date， has been the development of a Sheng dictionary， which contains over 3，900 words and continues to grow rapidly. It functions as a socially driven resource， where registered members can add words or phrases which then get voted for by other members， before being accepted as authentic. Go Sheng also runs a website and various social media channels， which have an online community of around 15，000 active participants.

Reading  Check

Choose the best answers according to the text.

Detail 1. What does eLearning Africa usually do？

A. Promote language researches.

B. Invent new African languages.

C. Develop technology learning and training.

D. Help people learn and develop with technology.

Detail 2. What is the most successful work done by Go Sheng？

A. Bringing cultural harmony and better understanding.

B. Running a website and various media channels.

C. Working as a resource to identify words.

D. Developing a Sheng dictionary.

Inference 3. What can we know about Sheng？

A. It will still take in new words approved and accepted by voting.

B. It combines Kiswahili， Russian and a number of Kenyan tribal words.

C. It was born in some of the areas hardly influenced by local customs.

D. It has become the first language of many young Kenyans in rural areas.

Language  Study

Memorize some text-centered chunks

reduce tensions 減少紧张局势

bring...together 使……（团结）在一起

be impressed by 对……印象深刻

along with 与……一起

provide...for 为……提供……

in turn 反过来

a variety of 多种多样的

to date 迄今为止

function as 发挥着……的功能

Cutural  Background

两种神奇的语言

口哨语言——加那利群岛中拉戈梅拉岛的土著居民使用这种语言来进行交流。这种语言有一个“字母表”，仅仅有两到四个元音和四个辅音，并且用口哨的形式将它们连接起来。

宇宙语言——这是一种科学家发明的语言，其目的是和外星人交流。在1960年，荷兰学者Hans Freudenthal提出了一套宇宙语言的设计方案，他认为通过此规则和代码表达出的句子，任何可能的智慧外星生命都能理解。Freudenthal认为这本书应该很容易被人类理解，即使是不熟悉地球上任何语法或语言的人。