Friday, January 21, 2011

Milestone and a Discovery: Calvin in French

Language changes over time. I discovered some French changes when I began reading Calvin's 1554 French translation of his own book (he originally wrote it in Latin 1536).  

When John Calvin translated his magnus opus The Institutes of the Christian Religion into French, he regularly used, for example:
1) snake-like 'f' for today's French 's' (like in 'Chrestienne,' title below)
2) 'v' for today's French 'u' (like in 'un,' line 6 below)
3) 'y' for today's French 'i' (like in 'vraye,' line 2 below)
Baumgartner translated Calvin's Latin text into French in 1888. Compare the changes:
1) no more snake-like 'f' for 's'
2) no more 'v' for 'u'
3) still occasional use of 'y' for 'i' (like 'vraye,' line 3 below)
For an English comparison, notice the occasional use of the snake-like 'f' for todays 's' in this 1739 George Whitefield letter and in 1758 Jonathan Edwards' Original Sin.
To do for Chris: Find a more recent translation in French of Calvin's Institutes.

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