Every time I see an ancient text translated, it always sounds like it was spoken by a classy Englishman from the 1800s. Is there a reason it’s translated that way instead of modern English?

  • @MrJameGumb
    link
    86 months ago

    Language changes over time so they’re probably trying to make the translation sound accurate to the time period it was written in I would guess. The tone of the text is sometimes as important as the actual content

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      86 months ago

      I want them to translate things into zoomer english.

      “Went to the tavern today, the lukewarm beer was straight bussin fr.”

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        16 months ago

        You should try some Bible paraphrases. (They’re usually not called ‘translations’ once they have that much artistic licence.)

        “The Street Bible”, I think was a UK paraphrase into urban slang in the … late 90s? early 2000s? (Yeah, I could Google, but you could to and I’m lazy.)

        The most fun I found one time was a New Testament translation into Scots English. Looks gibberish (to me) but if you read it and imagine a heavy Scots accent, it all starts to make sense again as English.