[#電影英語] 為什麼 Roger that 的意思是收到？

大家看間諜片（Spy movies）例如 Mission Impossible 的時候，會不會想為什麼角色表示「收到」時會說 “Roger That” 這句話呢？

原來英文裡面有一種東西，叫 phonetic alphabet。二次大戰的時候，美軍英軍為了溝通順暢，必須用整個英文字代表一個字母。

例如要講A，就要講 Able；講B就要講 Baker；講C就要講 Charlie。

因為造成什麼誤會（例如搞混了N和M），結果可大可小。

而 Roger，就是代表R，代表 Received（收到）。

// The letter “R” was used as an abbreviation for “received” back in the times when messages were sent via telegraphy (in Morse code), and the practice of confirming that a transmission was received by sending an “R” back was extended to spoken radio communication at the advent of two-way radio during World War II.

The phonetic alphabet used by the British and American military during the World War II was:

Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox, George, How, Item, Jig, King, Love, Mike, Nan, Oboe, Peter, Queen, Roger, Sugar, Tare, Uncle, Victor, William, X-ray, Yoke, Zebra
When a soldier or a radio operator said “Roger” after receiving a transmission, he was simply saying “R” for “received”. The alphabet has changed since then, but the practice of replying to a message by saying “Roger” stuck.//

Info Credit: Jakub Marian's Language learning, science art: http://bit.ly/2v4Gcnw

Image Credit: Netflix Mission Impossible: III

究竟英式英文的Look同廣東話的「轆」，Cook同「曲」，Book同「卜」的發音，除了尾音不同外，vowel quality上有什麼分別？且聽叔叔講解。

好久不見！不好意思，蕭叔叔實在太懶。

早幾天在電台節目同主持談到put，book，look，good，foot等字中的 vowel /ʊ/，想起未在YouTube講過這點，所以就把錄音放上來。

特別要一提的是，學發音，不要把focus錯放在符號，如何發聲，聲音上細微的分別，才是最重要的。發音不準，只認到符號，實在沒用。加油吧。

蕭叔叔

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