中央电视台出错：把“中国宇航员”翻译成了 astronaut

黄佶

　　十年前诞生了一个英文单词 taikonaut，专门用来指中国宇航员。随着中国宇航员太空行走的成功，这个词在国际上得到普遍应用，在 google 上可以检索到 139,000 个应用（中文页面数为 10,500 个应用）。据新闻报导，该词已经被牛津辞典等重要辞书收入了（请见“Taikonaut：专指中国航天员”一文，http://www.loong.cn/taikonaut.htm）。新华社网站的英语新闻也使用这个词汇来代表中国宇航员（下图）。

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/28/content_10129486.htm

　　用一个专门的词汇称呼一国宇航员，是国际宇航界表达对该国宇航成就的尊敬的一种方法。在美国之外，目前只有苏联（俄罗斯）和中国宇航员有自己专用的英语名词。其他国家的宇航员搭乘美国或俄罗斯（苏联）的宇宙飞船上天后，只能分别使用 astronaut 或 cosmonaut，例如日本宇航员搭乘美国宇宙飞船上天，就被称为 astronaut，而东德宇航员搭乘苏联宇宙飞船上天，就被称为 cosmonut。

　　但是中国的国家电视台——中央电视台仍然把中国的宇航员翻译为 astronaut（见下图）。

电视画面截图（黄佶摄影，2008年9月29日）

　　这说明中央电视台的先生们孤陋寡闻，不知道中国宇航员在英语里已经有了专门的名字。这就好象不知道 boxing 在中文里有专门的名字“拳击”，却把它翻译成了“美国功夫”。或者是中央电视台的翻译们不愿意使用 taikonaut 这个新词汇。在中国，有很多人在坚定不移地捍卫着英语的纯洁性，反对把中国特有的事物音译过去。例如坚持把中国龙翻译成 dragon，使中国的象征和西方圣经和神话里的恶魔同名，却不愿意为龙取个新洋名，例如 loong。

　　下图是尤里·加加林俄罗斯国家科学研究宇航员训练中心（GCTC）的英文网页，使用了 cosmonaut 这个单词，而不是 astronaut。Cosmonaut 这个英语词是由俄语单词 kosmonavt 英语化而来的。

http://www.gctc.ru/eng/index.html

（2008年9月29日）

参考资料：

Taikonaut? Yuhangyuan? No consensus on what to call China's man in space

http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/031014045027.g40m9196.html

BEIJING (AFP) Oct 14, 2003

While a successful attempt to send a man into space could unite the Chinese nation for a brief moment of pride, they already seem divided on what to call the man in orbit.

This is no trifling matter, since space travelers, as probably the only profession in the world, have different names in different countries.

Some fairly outlandish suggestions -- such as "Chinanaut" -- have failed to find many supporters, narrowing the field to two candidates, "Taikonaut" and "Yuhangyuan."

"Taikonaut" is an odd mixture of languages, merging the Chinese word for space "taikong" with the Greek word for sailor, "naus."

Chinese officials do not particularly like this newly-coined word, and state-run newspapers mostly stick to the more technical term "yuhangyuan," meaning "space navigator."

However, "taikonaut" could eventually win out, because it is relatively easy for foreigners to pronounce, and because it alludes to terms for the profession coined by existing space powers.

"Astronaut," the US term, means "star sailor," while cosmonaut, the Anglicized version of the Russian word "kosmonavt," means "sailor of the cosmos."

Possibly for patriotic reasons, there have never been any efforts by the two former rivals to merge the idioms.

Rather, each of the terms has spawned its own class of words in their respective languages. For instance, "astronautics" is called "kosmonavtika" in Russian.

It could be that at the end of the day, no special word for Chinese space travelers will be needed.

After all, Japanese traveling on the US space shuttle are still referred to as astronauts, just as East Germans who hitched a ride on Soviet spacecraft called themselves cosmonauts.