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Look at the language barrier between, the Saxon churls and their Norman conquerors. The conversation had swung from Australian convicts of the 19th century to the English peasants of the 12th century. Who was right, who was wrong, did not matter. The conversation was on wings.
看看撒克逊农民与征服他们的诺曼底统治者之间的语言隔阂吧。于是话题又从19世纪的澳大利亚囚犯转到12世纪的英国农民。谁对谁错，并没有关系。闲聊依旧热火朝天。
Someone took one of the best-known of examples, which is still always worth the reconsidering. When we talk of meat on our tables we use French words; when we speak of the animals from which the meat comes we use Anglo- Saxon words. It is a pig in its sty;' it is pork (porc) on the table. They are cattle in the fields, but we sit down to beef (boeuf). Chickens become poultry (poulet), and a calf becomes veal (veau). Even if our menus were not written in French out of snobbery, the English we used in them would still be Norman English. What all this tells us is of a deep class rift in the culture of England after the Norman conquest.
有人举出了一个人所共知，但仍值得提出来发人深思的例子。我们谈到饭桌上的肉食时用法语词，而谈到提供这些肉食的牲畜时则用盎格鲁一撒克逊词。猪圈里的活猪叫pig，饭桌上吃的猪肉便成了pork(来自法语pore);地里放牧着的牛叫cattle，席上吃的牛肉则叫beef(来自法语boeuf);Chicken用作肉食时变成poultry(来自法语poulet);calf加工成肉则变成veal(来自法语vcau)。即便我们的菜单没有为了装洋耍派头而写成法语，我们所用的英语仍然是诺曼底式的英语。这一切向我们昭示了诺曼底人征服之后英国文化上所存在的深刻的阶级裂痕。
The Saxon peasants who tilled the land and reared the animals could not afford the meat, which went to Norman tables. The peasants were allowed to eat the rabbits that scampered over their fields and, since that meat was cheap, the Norman lords of course turned up their noses at it. So rabbit is still rabbit on our tables, and not changed into some rendering of lapin.
撒克逊农民种地养畜，自己出产的肉自己却吃不起，全都送上了诺曼底人的餐桌。农民们只能吃到在地里乱窜的兔子。兔子肉因为便宜，诺曼底贵族自然不屑去吃它。因此，活兔子和吃的兔子肉共用rabbit这个词表示，而没有换成由法语lapin转化而来的某个词。
