Understanding Translation Effects: Lessons from the Old English Heptateuch

The Old English Heptateuch (the first seven books of the Old Testament) holds a unique position among Old English translations from Latin. Firstly, we know the identity of one of the translators, Ælfric of Eynsham, and have non-translated prose authored by him for comparison. The identity of the other translator(s) is unknown. Within this one text, therefore, we can compare the work of different translators and, for one of those translators, different approaches to translating, without having to control for different time periods, genres, or translation ability. Previous work (Taylor, Contact effects of translation. Distinguishing two kinds of influence in Old English. Language variation and change 20: 341–365, 2008, The effect of translation on the syntax of Old English pronouns. Societas Linguistica Europaea, Workshop: Latin influence on the syntax of the languages of Europe. Leiden, The Netherlands, 2015) has established that translation from Latin can influence the distribution of variable constructions in Old English in the direction of the Latin order. In this chapter, I compare two documented translation effects (distribution of pronominal objects of prepositions and pronominal objects of verbs), following the methodology of Taylor (Contact effects of translation. Distinguishing two kinds of influence in Old English. Language variation and change 20: 341–365, 2008), across the different sections of the Heptateuch.