1.(旅馆的)马夫
1.formerly, somebody employed to look after horses at an inn
1.A peasant girl in a homespun skirt-some ostler's daughter most likely, by the jug she balanced on her shoulder-hurried past up the street.
一个穿着朴素裙子的农家女孩--从她放在肩头的水壶来看，可能是哪个马夫的女儿--匆忙穿过街道。
2.Ostler gives an account of the fluctuating fortunes of other major world languages.
奥斯特勒向读者讲述了世界其他主要语言跌宕起伏的命运。
3.Rather, English will have no successor because none will be needed. Technology, Mr Ostler believes, will fill the need.
更确切的讲，奥斯勒先生相信英语没有继任者因其无需继任，且技术会满足需要。
4.I've just begun Nicholas Ostler's "Empires of the Word" .
我正开始读尼古拉斯•奥斯特勒的《词语帝国》。
5.In articulating these arguments, Ostler demonstrates a formidable degree of erudition.
在阐述上述论点时，奥斯特勒展示出的博学多才令人敬佩。
6.Ostler is advancing not some tentative hypothesis, but a grand polemic.
奥斯特提出的不是什么没有把握的假设，而是大胆的论断。
7.Ostler argues that machine translation is improving, although it does struggle with nuance and figurative language.
奥斯特勒辩称，机器翻译正在改进，不过在对付细微语义差别和形象语言时的确还很吃力。
8.A linguist of astonishing voracity, Mr Ostler plunges happily into his tales from ancient history.
奥斯特勒先生是一名有着惊人求知欲的语言学家，他深深地投入到对古代历史的讲诉中。
9.Mr Ostler is surely right about the nationalist limits to the spread of English as a mother-tongue.
Ostler先生确信民族主义者限制英语作为母语的传播是做得对的。
10.In this erudite, stimulating book, Ostler traces languages' rise and fall and asks: what could end English's rule?
在这本旁征博引、引人入胜的著作中，奥斯特勒追根溯源了各种语言的兴衰，并提出了这样的问题：谁会终结英语一统天下的局面？