| 2007 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Heiki Reila. Hornung's Translation of the New Testament and its Role in the Making of Ecclesiastical Estonian |
2007, nr. 2 |
Modern research sees the translation of the
New Testament into North Estonian (1715) as a cumulative process
that lasted over sixty years. In 1687 one round of the revising
work was finished with the end of the second conference of Bible
translators in Pilistvere. After that Johann Hornung had to re-write
different manuscripts according to the new principles of Estonian
orthography. Some sources describe his work by using the term
'translate'. Unfortunately the manuscript of Hornung's edition
or translation has been lost, but there are copies of the so-called
Munich manuscript from 1694 as the first one to consider.
Comparative semantic analysis of the four Estonian translations
available can explain to what extent the Munich manuscript differs
from those finally revised in Pilistvere. Thus motivated I have
compared Acts 1-2, 10-11, 26-17 in the manuscript of H. Göseken
junior (P1, based on the influential translation made by H. Göseken
senior), the same text edited in Pilistvere and before the conference
(Pp), the printed South Estonian version titled Wastne Testament
(WT, 1686) and the Munich manuscript (M). The results indicate
that Hornung's work consisted in more than just re-writing the
manuscripts finished in Pilistvere. We can also assume a growing
impact of the South Estonian version on the translation process.
Keywords: old literary Estonian,
text semantics, textual analysis, Bible translation history.
Heiki Reila (b. 1963), MA, University of Tartu,
PhD student; Institute of Estonian Language, researcher,
heiki.reila@ut.ee
| 2007 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|