The World Wide Web is about to start using the languages of the world

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　　互联网将开始使用全球各种语言。 cdBD.sg  
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　　Leaders of the private body that oversees the basic design of the Internet are expected to decide at a meeting here Friday to let Web addresses be expressed in characters other than those of the Roman alphabet. Already, portions of a Web address can be written in other languages. But the suffix, such as the 'com' after the dot, must be typed in Roman letters. 9oe=*#Ig1m  
　　预计负责监管互联网这一基本设计的私营机构负责人将在周五于首尔召开的会议上决定，允许用罗马字母以外的字母来拼写网址。现在，网址可以部分用其他语言拼写，但“.com”等后缀必须使用罗马字母输入。 e 7n[NVrX  
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　　The change will allow the suffix--known as a top-level domain in the architecture of the Internet--to be expressed in 17 other alphabets. They include traditional and simplified Chinese characters, Russian Cyrillic, Korean Hangul and Hebrew. Dozens of other alphabets are likely to be added in coming years. ,/oqLI\  
　　根据这一变化，网址的后缀可以使用17种其他语言字母；后缀被认为是互联网架构中的一级域名。这17种语言包括繁体中文和简体中文、俄文、韩文以及希伯来文等。未来数年可能还会新增数十种其他字母。 jpGZ&L7i&  
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　　That means computer users will be able to type or input a full Web address without the need for Roman letters. Web site designers will be able to use a consistent character set on a Web page without, for instance, having to resort to Roman letters to portray a link to another page. ?RP&XrD  
　　这意味着电脑用户无需使用罗马字母就可以输入完整的网址。网站 设计者将在一个网页上可以使用一致的字符集，而不需要必须使用罗马字母来描述对另外一个页面的链接。 }0y2k7^]  
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　　Authorities who oversee top-level domains in their home countries could begin accepting applications next month. 8zI*<RX.Q  
　　各国负责监管一级域名的相关机构下个月将开始接受申请。 ZH~=;S-t  
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　　Making it happen has taken six years of discussion by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, and technical work by the Internet Engineering Task Force, both independent non-profit organizations that endeavor to preserve the universality of the data network, which got started as an offshoot of a U.S. military network in the 1960s. QWncKE,O$  
　　互联网名称与数字地址分配机构(Icann)对这一变革进行了六年讨论，互联网工程工作小组(Internet Engineering Task Force)为此承担了技术工作。这两家机构都是独立的非营利性机构，致力于维护互联网的通用性。互联网开始于上世纪六十年代，当时是美国一个军用网络的一个分支。 A$7j B4  
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　　'The statistics show that over half of the users of the Internet today don't use the Roman alphabet in their first language,' says Rod Beckstrom, chief executive of Icann. 'It's an issue of national pride in some cases and cultural identity.' pO_$8=G+  
　　互联网名称与数字地址分配机构首席执行长贝克斯托姆(Rod Beckstrom)说，统计数据显示目前超过半数的网络用户，他们的第一语言都不是使用罗马字母。在某些情况下，这是一个民族自豪感的问题，还涉及到文化认同。 hI$IBf>  
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　　Icann's directors and advisors are meeting in Seoul this week to wrestle with some of the final technical issues. The thorniest is what to do with characters that look the same but mean something different, which is particularly difficult with Chinese, the language that may someday be one of the most heavily used for Internet addresses. ]jB`" to*}  
　　互联网名称与数字地址分配机构的董事与顾问本周在首尔开会讨论一些最终技术问题。最为棘手的问题是如何处理看似相同但意思不同的字符，这个问题在中文中尤其麻烦。中文未来可能会成为互联网地址使用最多的语言之一。 es6]c%o:t^  

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　　'The program is very likely to get approved as a whole,' Beckstrom says. 'There are simply details that are being negotiated.' Ue?mb$ykC.  
　　贝克斯托姆说，这个计划很有可能会通盘获得批准，目前商谈的只是细节问题。  K!<3|d  
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　　In China, Web sites generally use roman letters to spell Chinese words out in the Hanyu Pinyin system, the Western alphabet transliteration of Chinese characters. But the system has also led to some domain names that are a series of numbers that rhyme with Chinese words. O{<uW-  
　　在中国，网址一般都是使用罗马字母按照汉语拼音系统来拼出汉字。但这一系统也包括与中文相谐音的一系列数字组成的域名。 Y9SaYSX  
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　　Peter Lu, managing director of China IntelliConsulting, said the change will boost Web use in China. Switching from Chinese characters at the start of an address to Roman characters for the '.com' or the '.gov' is cumbersome. But he said it would have made a bigger difference 10 years ago when Internet usage was starting out in the country. 'Now, more and more Chinese know English or at least, are used to using Pinyin as a substitute,' he said. /S #Z.T~~  
　　北京正望咨询公司董事总经理吕伯望说，这一变革将推广互联网在中国的使用。从网址前面的中文字符转向 “.com”或“.gov”等罗马字母很麻烦。但他说，如果是10年前互联网在中国起步的时候，这一变革可能会带来更大的变化。现在，越来越多的中国人懂英语，或至少习惯用拼音作为替代。 8 U<$u,WS  
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　　Elsewhere, the importance of the change in Web addresses may depend on how much people type out an address versus finding it from a search engine or portal service. South Korean Web users, for instance, rely heavily on two portal companies that allow Korean-language searches and present not just Web sites but news, videos and other content from a single request. HYwtGj~5  
　　在其他地区，网址变更的重要性可能取决于选择输入网址以及通过搜索引擎或门户网站找到网站的用户比例。例如，韩国网民显著依赖于两个门户网站，这两个网站可以进行韩语搜索，一条搜索不仅可以显示网站链接，还能显示新闻、视频和其他内容。 cHAq[Ebp2!  
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　　'I think the decision is unlikely to bring about huge changes for users,' says Lee Wang-sang, an Internet analyst at Woori Securities in Seoul. 'But there will be some competition between companies to obtain popular Korean words for addresses.' wqasI@vyu  
　　友利证券(Woori Securities)驻首尔互联网分析师Lee Wang-sang说，我认为这一决定不太可能给用户带来显著变化。但各家公司之间为了获得热门的韩语网址，可能会出现一些竞争。  oB8LJZ;  
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