《中英對照讀新聞》Monument to Russian alphabet character planned 規劃為俄文字母立碑

◎羅彥傑

After years of controversy, planners in Ulyanovsk have given the go-ahead for creation of a stone monument to a unique character in the Russian alphabet--an e with an umlaut--introduced in 1797 by Nikolai Karamzin, a poet, historian and the city's native son.

在歷經多年的爭議後，烏梁諾夫斯克的主事者已批准為俄國字母表中的1個獨特字母設立石碑─帶有母音變化的e─係由身兼詩人、史學家與該城市在地人身分的尼可拉卡拉姆金於1797年所引進。

A local sculptor, Alexander Zinin, has been awarded responsibility for the project to immortalize in red granite the letter, a diphthong corresponding to the sound "yo" and the only character in the Russian alphabet with an umlaut, ITAR-TASS news agency reported.

1名當地雕刻家亞歷山大季寧已被賦予以紅色花崗岩令該字母永垂千古的重責大任，這個字母為雙重母音，發出的聲音相當於「喲」（yo），這是俄文字母表中唯一一個母音變化的字母，伊塔─塔斯社報導說。

Linguists to this day dispute the utility of the letter, and it is considered perfectly acceptable by most Russians to write it without the two dots above.

語言學家直到今日還在爭論該字母的用處，而大多數俄羅斯人完全接受在寫它時不在上面加上兩點。

Indeed use of the mysterious letter is prohibited in official documents such as passports, despite the fact that many Russians have names containing the character, which signals a pronunciation quite distinct from the unadorned letter e, which is pronounced "ye".

實際上在諸如護照等官方文件上，是禁止使用這個神秘的字母，儘管許多俄羅斯人的名字都有這個字母，而它所代表的發音與未加兩點的字母e相當不同，後者的發音為「耶」(ye)。

新聞辭典

Go-ahead：名詞，指許可、放行訊號。例句：The UK Government decided to give go-ahead for human cloning.（英國政府決定許可複製人。）

award：動詞，指授予、賦予。例句：The university awarded him an honorary degree.（這所大學頒給他榮譽學位。）

immortalize：動詞，指使…名垂千古。例句：Beethoven is immortalized by his great musical works.（貝多芬以其偉大音樂作品名垂千古。）

to this day：片語，指直到現在、迄今。例句：To this day Cathy won't eat peas.（凱西直到今天還是不吃豌豆。）