ジョン・チーク訳『マタイ伝』の英語について
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概要
- 論文の詳細を見る
Many of the humanists in England in the sixteenth century tried to enrich the English vocabulary by borrowing words from classical languages, i.e. Greek and Latin. Indeed, so many words were imported from these languages, that some of their writings were difficult to understand. Dictionaries were published in order to explain these difficult words. They were sometimes called 'inkhorn terms' and ridiculed by ordinary readers, as wantonness of scholars. On the other hand, there were purists who insisted on writing in pure Anglo-Saxon. One of the champions of Saxonists was Sir John Cheke, graduate of St John's College, Cambridge. He was a Greek scholar and Protestant. He translated part of the Bible on this purist's principle. He might have thought of translating whole of the New Testament, but only the Gospel of Matthew and the beginning of the Gospel of Mark remain to this day. In this sense, the work is incomplete. This translation seems to have been done around 1550, when he was an exile in Europe, of Marian persecution. His draft was somehow obtained by Matthew Parker, later Archbishop of Canterbury, and bequeathed to Corpus Christi College Library, Cambridge. His English is said to have two main features: the spelling, and vocabulary. Pronunciation was in process of change (usually called Great Vowel Shift), and middle English pronunciation had drastically changed. Some spelling reformers tried to change the spelling to meet this. Sir John is also proposing a new spelling, especially of the vowels. In vocabulary, he coined new words of Anglo-Saxon roots. Whatever circumstances there might have been, he had to finish the translation incomplete. He might have been thinking of revising it, or at least reviewing it in later years, but it seems that he had no time to actually do it. So the work is in many ways inconsistent, in spelling as well as in the use of vocabulary. On the other hand, in grammar, his English reflects the sixteenth century English more faithfully than that of the AV.
- 四国学院大学の論文
- 2003-03-12