主题：【文摘】北美独立战争: 美国人编出来的神话 -- 李根

His translation of the Bible into the language of the people (instead of Latin) made it more accessible, causing a tremendous impact on the church (note: birth of protestant movement and destruction of Catholic control in Northern Germany) and on German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation,[4] and influenced the translation into English of the King James Bible.[5] His hymns inspired the development of singing in churches.[6] His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant priests to marry.[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther

In 1637, a further important step was made towards a unified language, when the Statenvertaling, the first major Bible translation into Dutch, was created that people from all over the United Provinces could understand. It used elements from various, even Dutch Low Saxon, dialects but was predominantly based on the urban dialects of Holland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_language

WRITTEN ENGLISH, GERMAN, DUTCH CAME into existence much late than other latin languages (French, Spanish, Italian). Average Joes in these three countries can speak, but not write either in their own language or Latin. Aristcrats communicate in French and written documents/Bible was in Latin and controlled by monks, who were the best educated people in mid-age Western Europe.

Chinese is like Latin/French--uniformed writing existed VERY VERY earlier, due to the force of Qing Shi Huang. Chinese differ in accents/pronounciation, but unify in writing. Europe IS FAR DIFFERENT FROM US.

That's why many Chinese might not understand my post on forum.