Inserts and omissions in the Calvinist Catechism printed in 1648

Abstract

The present paper aims to contribute to researches on old Romanian translations, examined from the perspective of translation studies. In this respect, the pursued objective is to set up a typology of inserts and omissions found in the Romanian translation of the catechism printed in 1648, taking into account the main causes which generated them. Thus, applying the methods and tools characteristic for comparative analysis, we shall present the contexts in which the Romanian translation deviates from one of its sources or from both of them, focusing on the reasons which could have determined the translator’s options to insert or, on the contrary, to omit certain linguistic units. In the text chosen for analysis, the status of inserts and omissions varies from case to case, but, taken all together, they may be grouped into two main classes reflecting two different levels of translation achievement: the level of creation and the level of imitation respectively.

Keywords

• biblical text
• translation
• comparative analysis
• philology
• diachrony