擁有115年悠久歷史的牛津詞典本月推出了新版《牛津英漢－漢英詞典》，其中收錄了“山寨”、“房奴”等近年來流行的中文詞匯。據介紹，為了編纂這本新發行的中英文詞典，中英兩國的出版社共計60名編輯人員花費了近5年的時間。與原版相比，它用更加現代化、口語化的語言來對詞條進行解讀，達到深入淺出的效果。這將是史上第一本“達到如此規模的中英文詞典”。為了更易于理解詞條的文化含義，該詞典還專設了側欄，對“胡同”、“油條”等富有文化內涵的詞語提供詳細解釋。這本詞典的主編表示，由于語言發展過快，紙質版本很難跟上更新步伐，詞典出版后更新的詞條將只在其網絡版進行更新。

A woman reads the new Oxford English-Chinese, Chinese-English dictionary at the Beijing International Book Fair last week. For the first time, the dictionary now includes some fashionable Chinese words like "shanzhai", "youtiao" and "fangnu", which are popular among netizens.(China Daily)

The 115-year-old prestigious Oxford Dictionary will now include popular new Chinese terms like "shanzhai" "youtiao" and "fangnu", as part of the modern Chinese language.

As China plays a more and more important role in the world economy, the Chinese language is forever evolving, attracting more attention from people who want to understand this ancient yet vibrant language.

For instance, the word "shanzhai" is used to describe the plethora of cheesy wigs on sale in many shops and markets. Or another example would be the countless knockoffs of iPhones or designer bags imprinted with Louis Vuitton logos.

Another new term in the new edition is the word "fangnu", or a "mortgage slave" - a term used to describe the phenomenon in larger cities whereby well-educated youth complain of a miserable existence due to the heavy burden of a home mortgage.

All these new or often fashionable terms can be found in the new Oxford English-Chinese,  Chinese-Englishdictionary that was unveiled in the recently concluded Beijing International Book Fair last week.

The dictionary now is available for retail sales since the beginning of this month.

This dictionary is the largest single volume English-Chinese, Chinese-English dictionary and contains 670,000 words and phrases after five years of preparation. Sixty editors from the Oxford University Press and its partner in China - the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press - worked together on the project. According to Julie Kleeman, the dictionary's chief editor, most of the firm's editors were Chinese, while about one fourth were native-English speakers.

"We don't want to make it florid, we want it to be modern and conversational... many of the words in the present dictionary are no longer in use," said Kleeman. "The need for studying Chinese by foreigners today is totally different from decades ago... Precise, native and practical - that is our core advantage," she said.

She added the dictionary also has a sidebar section that explains words that pack in too much cultural information, like "hutong", a traditional architecture style common in the narrow lanes of Beijing. Another would be "youtiao" the popular Chinese breakfast staple usually eaten with soybean milk.

According to the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press' press release, terms included in the new version of dictionary were selected from both the Oxford English Corpus and the, City University of Hong's LIVAC Synchronous Corpus.

Kleeman said newer publications updates will be available only for the online version as language often changes too quickly for book versions to keep pace. The online version will also offer a Chinese phonetic pronunciation guide.

The online version, allowing access via different platforms from the PC to the iPad, will be ready "as soon as possible", Kleeman said.

相關閱讀

全世界現有2500種語言瀕危

2009年十大網絡流行語英文版

《牛津英語詞典》網絡版流行 或將停止印刷

(Agencies)

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）