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Part of
A World Atlas of Translation
Edited by Yves Gambier and Ubaldo Stecconi
[Benjamins Translation Library 145] 2019
► pp. 309–321

Chapter 14
The concept of translation in Slavic cultures

This report traces the evolution of the concept of translation in Slavic cultures from the Early Middle Ages up to the post-WWII period. It was through translation in the 9th–11th centuries that the written Slavic vernacular emerged. The very first translations aimed at sense and were not slavishly literal, although they calqued the Greek textual pattern and style because they used a Slavic dialect as a target language. Irrespective of a variety of terms, the concept of translation was based on methods oscillating between literalness and adaptation. The concept also changed with historical contexts and the role of translation that emerged in the different cultural environments involved the requirement for an integral representation of the original in terms of both content and form.

Keywords: Slavic cultures, Old Slavonic, Church Slavonic, Slavia Orthodoxa, Slavia Latina, religious translation, secular translation, translation method, translation concept, Great Moravia
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The terms for translation
  • 3.Translation practices and concepts through history
    • 3.1Common origins
    • 3.2Reconstructing translation methods
    • 3.3Secular translation
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.145.14jet
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