Stuck for a word - help!

Carol wrote: "I'm 'translating' some documents from medieval to modern English, but 'translate' doesn't seem like quite the right word to describe what I'm doing since late medieval English isn't a foreign language (unlike the Middle English of Chaucher nearly a century earlier that really does require translation). 'Rewrite,' 'revise,' and 'transcribe' are all obviously wrong. So is 'paraphrase,' since I'm not putting a quoted passage into my own words; I'm just modernizing it. I suppose 'modernize' could do in a pinch, but that's not really the word I'm looking for either." Doug here: "Rephrase?" "Update," rather than "modernize," might better fit what you're trying to say. Although they're awfully close in actual meaning, they *do* have, slightly, different connotations with the former being seen as more of a simple "adjustment" than the latter. "Colloquial" is normally used for substituting day-to-day usage for less well-known words/phrases, perhaps it would apply? However, if you're including the "originals" along with your "translations," perhaps a sentence in a preface about "substituting modern words/phrasing for their medieval equivalents" would meet the need? Doug

Doug wrote :

"However, if you're including the "originals" along with your "translations," perhaps a sentence in a preface about "substituting modern words/phrasing for their medieval equivalents" would meet the need?"

Carol responds:

I'm including some but not all the originals in an appendix. The preface where I explain what I'm doing is where I need the word. Given that the language we speak is Modern English, I do think that "modernize" is better than "update" (though I could say "modernize the spelling and update the punctuation." Both will, of course, be American. Not that I expect ever to publish this little work, which is primarily for my own use, but you never know.

Carol

Carol you should publish.
On Mar 27, 2014, at 4:36 PM, "justcarol67@..." <justcarol67@...> wrote:

Doug wrote :

"However, if you're including the "originals" along with your "translations," perhaps a sentence in a preface about "substituting modern words/phrasing for their medieval equivalents" would meet the need?"

Carol responds:

I'm including some but not all the originals in an appendix. The preface where I explain what I'm doing is where I need the word. Given that the language we speak is Modern English, I do think that "modernize" is better than "update" (though I could say "modernize the spelling and update the punctuation." Both will, of course, be American. Not that I expect ever to publish this little work, which is primarily for my own use, but you never know.

Carol

Hi, Carol,
IMHO (and because I've been in the same situation), I vote for the "modernize"/"update" combo. Even as we type, some underpaid scholar at the O.E.D. is struggling with these very issues.
And, yes, publish.Judy Loyaulte me lie

On Thursday, March 27, 2014 4:38 PM, Pamela Bain <pbain@...> wrote:
Carol you should publish.
On Mar 27, 2014, at 4:36 PM, "justcarol67@..." <justcarol67@...> wrote:

Doug wrote :

"However, if you're including the "originals" along with your "translations," perhaps a sentence in a preface about "substituting modern words/phrasing for their medieval equivalents" would meet the need?"

Carol responds:

I'm including some but not all the originals in an appendix. The preface where I explain what I'm doing is where I need the word. Given that the language we speak is Modern English, I do think that "modernize" is better than "update" (though I could say "modernize the spelling and update the punctuation." Both will, of course, be American. Not that I expect ever to publish this little work, which is primarily for my own use, but you never know.

Carol

Carol wrote: "I'm putting the modern word in square brackets. I can't just substitute a modern word, expecially in poetry. For example, 'but the last alle/Was Ursula, to him God list call' becomes 'but the lat of all/Was Ursula, to Him God list [chose to] call.' So spelling and capitalization are modernized, word order is left as is, and the wording is the same, with the possibly unfamiliar words defined in square brackets as we used to do when I wrote literary criticism (aka literary analysis, not always 'critical' in the modern sense)." Doug here: Don't believe in tackling easy problems, do you? I think you're quite right about brackets being the way to go. Should anyone other than you look at results (hint, hint), they'll have a basis for comparison right at hand. Perhaps you might post a larger snippet for, um, critiquing? Again, best of luck! Doug At any rate, best of luck and hope to see

Doug wrote :

"Don't believe in tackling easy problems, do you?I think you're quite right about brackets being the way to go. Should anyone other than you look at results (hint, hint), they'll have a basis for comparison right at hand. Perhaps you might post a larger snippet for, um, critiquing?Again, best of luck!DougAt any rate, best of luck and hope to see"

Carol responds:

Thanks for the encouragement, but at the moment I'm at a very preliminary stage. Much of what I'm doing is for my own information and won't go into the book. For example, I'm transcribing Hearne's Fragment (which deals mostly with Edward but has bits on Richard, George, and Warwick) from a very bad digital text, which involves sorting the text from the notes and eliminating meaningless garbage that somehow got in there. (If anyone knows of a good copy of Hearne that I can use instead, please let me know!) In any case, here's a sample of what I'm dealing with (I don't intend to use this particular passage; I'm just using it as an illustration):

"secret conspiracies were done in the winter, in so much

that the Earl of Warwick enticed so the Duke of

if Clarence, that he followed all hta council. And there-

upon it fortuned, that those both went into "Warwick-

shire, to the intent that they might bring their purpose

into effect : where at, at after Easter in the begmniug of

the tenth year of King Edward, the Archbishop of

  York,3* George Nevile, Brother to the Earl of Warwick,

r desired the King to a banquet at his Palace of the Moor

beaidea Langley[.]"

It's pretty clear how this passage should read, just a matter of cleaning it up. When it's all done, I'll have my own copy of the Fragment to refer to with the useful passages highlighted. Too bad it ends just after Anne marries Edward of Lancaster.

Carol