翻译技术速递Vaccine Saves Language and Lives, NPR Reports
NPR报道：新冠疫苗拯救语言和生命
Getting vaccinated against covid-19 may do more than save your life. It could also save your language. That’s what Cherokee schoolteacher Meda Nix told National Public Radio (NPR) in an interview last week.
A member of the Cherokee Nation — a sovereign tribal government within the geographic boundaries of the United States — Nix grew up in an English and Cherokee speaking home, then studied Cherokee later as an adult. She is one of only around 2500 people who speak the language fluently today.
Native Americans — including the Cherokee — have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic, according to the US Center for Disease Control, contracting the disease at a rate 3.5 times higher than white Americans. The Cherokee Nation specifically has seen more than 11,000 coronavirus cases and 63 deaths. At least 20 of those who passed were Cherokee speakers, per NPR.
Initially, Nix had not planned on being vaccinated. Then tribal leaders held a Zoom call with covid-19 specialists, urging Cherokees to step up — not just for their lives but for their culture.
Cherokee is a member of the Iroquoian language family. Its writing system does not use an alphabet. Rather, 85 distinct characters represent the sounds used for speaking the language with one character assigned to each discrete syllable found in a word. For this and other reasons, the US Secretary of State considers Cherokee to be a Class IV language. Language classifications refer to the average amount of time required for English speakers to achieve proficiency when studying full time. At 88 weeks, Class IV languages are the most difficult group.
Nix teaches Cherokee to fifth graders, starting with vocabulary she learned from her mother about the natural world — such as the names for trees and birds. NPR reports that “by preserving her language, she is really preserving ‘everything. Our culture. Our beliefs. Our ways.'”
“接种covid-19疫苗挽救的可能不仅仅是你的生命，更是你的语言”。这是切罗基族学校的教师梅达·尼克斯（Meda Nix）上周在接受美国国家公共广播电台(NPR)采访时所说的话。
作为切罗基族（美国境内的一个主权部落政府）的一员，尼克斯在一个说英语和切罗基语的家庭中长大，成年后专门学习切罗基语。她是目前仅有的2500名能流利说切罗基语的人之一。
美国疾病控制中心表示，包括切罗基人在内的美洲原住民受到冠状病毒影响的比例极大，感染这种疾病的比例是美国白人的3.5倍。切罗基族已经发现了超过11000例感染病例和63例死亡病例。据NPR报道，因新冠去世的人中至少有20人是说切罗基语的。
起初，尼克斯并没有接种疫苗的打算。但是后来部落领袖与covid-19专家在Zoom（网络会议软件）上召开了一次网络会议，敦促切罗基人站出来赶紧行动起来接种疫苗——不仅为了他们的生命，也为了他们的文化。
切罗基语是易洛魁语系的一种。它的书写系统不使用字母表。确切地说，它使用85个不同的字符来代表说这种语言时所用的声音，一个字符分配给一个单词中的每个离散音节。由于上述原因以及其他种种原因，美国国务卿将切罗基语认定为“四级语言”。语言分类的指标是讲英语的人在全日制学习一种语言时达到熟练程度所需的平均时间。四级语言意味着所需的平均时间为88周，是最难的一组。
尼克斯给五年级学生教切罗基语，从她从母亲那里学到的关于自然界的词汇开始——比如树和鸟的名字。NPR报道说：“通过保护她的语言，她真正意义上保护了‘一切’——我们的文化、我们的信仰，以及我们的处世之道。”
以上中文文本为机器翻译，存在不同程度偏差和错误，请理解并参考英文原文阅读。
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