爲減少閱讀障礙 英政府禁止網站用拉丁文縮寫

The government is to ban all Latin abbreviations on all its websites to avoid confusing non-English speakers, it has been announced.

英國政府日前宣佈，爲了減少非英語國家讀者的閱讀困惑，政府部門的所有網站將不再使用拉丁文縮寫。

Phrases such as etc., i.e., and e.g. will be phased out from all sites because foreign speakers find them "difficult to read".

像etc.（等等）， i.e.（換句話說，也就是） e.g.（比如）等拉丁縮寫將不會出現在英國官方政府的網站，因爲很多外國讀者覺得這些真的很難讀。

A spokesman added the phrases could even confuse English speakers who were "under stress or in a hurry". Campaigners said the decision was to give up Latin was "short-sighted" because they have been part of common parlance for hundreds of years.

一名政府發言人補充說道，就連以英語爲母語的人在匆忙和壓力環境下都會產生困惑。但是反對人士表示，政府的這一舉動缺乏遠見，因爲拉丁縮略詞在英語中已有數百年曆史，屬於常見用法。

But the Government Digital Service (GDS) said the move was designed to promote "plain English".

但是政府數字服務委員會表示，該舉動旨在推廣簡潔英語。

Writing on the blog Inside , GDS content manager Persis Howe explained: "We promote the use of plain English on . We advocate simple, clear language. Terms like eg, i.e. and etc., while common, make reading difficult for some. Anyone who didn't grow up speaking English may not be familiar with them. Even those with high literacy levels can be thrown if they are reading under stress or are in a hurry - like a lot of people are on the web."

政府數字服務委員會的內容經理珀西絲·豪在 的官網博客中發文解釋稱："我們旨在在網站上推廣使用簡潔英語。我們倡導使用更簡單清晰的語言。像 e.g., i.e.和 etc.雖然很常見，但是確實給一些人造成了閱讀障礙。對那些英語非母語的人來說，他們可能對這些縮略詞並不熟悉。即使是那些文化水平不低的人，如果是在壓力環境下或很匆忙的情況（很多在線閱讀的人都是這樣的）下，他們也會產生困惑。"

She added that programs that read the content for visually impaired people also mispronounced Latin abbreviations.

她補充說道，針對視力受損人羣而提供的朗讀服務中，其中有很多都不知道這些拉丁縮略詞的正確發音。

She said: "We've found that several programs that read webpages for those with visual impairment read 'e.g.' incorrectly, so we're updating the style guide. There are better, clearer ways of introducing examples for all users."

她說："我們發現一些有聲朗讀欄目把e.g.讀錯了，所以我們對網站的書寫規範做了更新。這樣對於所有讀者來說表達更加清楚、簡潔。"

Roger Wemyss Brooks of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, which teaches Latin language courses, condemned the move.

英國及威爾士提供拉丁語課程的拉丁彌撒社團的羅傑·威姆斯·布魯克斯對政府的這一舉動提出嚴厲抨擊。

He said: "Latin is part of our cultural heritage and it's part of the basis of English. It unites us with other cultures throughout Europe and the world who have a connection with the Romance languages. It's a very concise language which is used specifically for its precision and I think it's short sighted to be giving it up."

他說道："拉丁文是我們文化遺產的一部分，而且已經屬於常用英語的範疇。正是拉丁文將我們和歐洲以及其它屬於拉丁語系的地方聯繫起來。拉丁語是一門非常簡練的語言，特別是它的精確性。我覺得禁用拉丁文的做法實在缺乏遠見。"