单词本：通用语言

今天又收到同学们的留言，督促我赶紧发布更新。谢谢来自新加坡的 Mr. Z 同学提醒，离上次更新转眼又过去了 2 周了。

前几天跟我的同事聊起来，都说年纪越来越大，一年过得越来越快。一周感觉就像过了一天，一年就像一两个月。深深的觉得“日月忽其不淹兮，春与秋其代序，汨余若将不及兮，恐年岁之不吾与”。

不过，看到这两周公众号的订阅用户增长了 8 位，还是觉得挺开心的。

不如就设定一个小目标：每增长 5 位订阅用户，就不论有多忙，披星戴月也要写一篇新文章。

之前学习了不少蔬菜水果的单词，感觉有点腻烦了，今天换些不一样的。前几天看书，遇到这句话：

C is the lingua franca of programming, and you should be competent in making heads and tails of it.

意思是说，C 编程语言是编程语言中的通用语言，你必须对它非常了解。

wikipedia 是这么解释的¹：

A lingua franca ˌlɪŋɡwə ˈfræŋkə also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language or vehicular language, is a language or dialect systematically used to make communication possible between people who do not share a native language or dialect, particularly when it is a third language that is distinct from both native languages.

lingua franca 又叫桥语言，共同语言，贸易语言，传输语言。总之是一种在不同母语人群之间可以沟通的语言。

之所以说 C 语言是计算机编程语言的 lingua franca 是因为它是使用最广泛、最简洁的语言，同时很多其他语言，比如 Java，C++，C#，Python 都或多或少继承借用了 C 语言的一些语法。而且这些语言也是非常流行的。

当今世界，最主要的 lingua franca 应该非英语莫属了。但是在人类历史上，欧洲和东亚的 lingua franca 分别是法语和文言文²：

The popularity of languages changes over time, and there are many lingua francas that are of historical importance. These include French, which was the language of European diplomacy from the 17th until the mid-20th century, and Classical Chinese, which served as both the written lingua franca and the diplomatic language in Far East Asia until the early 20th century. French and Chinese are still significant lingua francas today.

20 世纪前，蒙古，高丽，日本，琉球，越南国都曾以文言文作为通用书面语和外交语言。可惜慢慢的他们也不再学讲中国话了，大概一方面中国国力日渐衰弱，另外一方面中国开始了白话文改革了，周边国家也懒得学白话文了。总之，几百年前，蒙古、日本国王贵族都曾以会写汉字为荣的：

在本文最开始的例句里面，另外一个有趣的词组：make heads and tails of it:

C is the lingua franca of programming, and you should be competent in making heads and tails of it.

TheFreeDictionary 的解释是这样的³：to understand someone or something that someone has said. (Usually with the negative.) 理解某人或者某人说的话，但是经常用在否定形式上，比如：

• I can't make heads or tails of Fred. 我不理解 Fred 同学。
• I couldn't make heads or tails of the document. 我看不懂这份文件。

注意，如果是否定用法，and 要写成 or 哦。

花一个小时，好好理解一句话，学会两个词组，其实也是一件挺愉快的事情的。下次遇到 lingua franca 就不用猜测是什么意思了。遇到不懂的人，不懂的文章，就可以说：Sorry, I can't make heads or tails of it.