NAZWY CZARNOSKÓRYCH MIESZKAŃCÓW AFRYKI W DAWNYCH PRZEKŁADACH NOWEGO TESTAMENTU
Names of black inhabitants of Africa in old translations of the New Testament

Summary/Abstract: The author analyses translation equivalents of the names referring to black people (Gr. Αἰθίοψ, Νίγερ, Lat. Aethiops, Niger) in old Polish translations of the New Testament. He has excerpted translations based on Greek sources as well as on the Latin Vulgate, diversifi ed according to the translation method and religious denomination. The number of the excerpted Polish equivalents (transferred words: ‘Niger’, adopted words: ‘Murzyn’ (Negro), and its derivatives, ethnonyms: ‘Etiopczyk’, ‘Etyjopianin’ (Ethiopian), native words: ‘Czarny’ (Black)) have been confronted with the terms accepted in etymological dictionaries and history books. The author concludes that the translators from the Middle Polish period used the translation equivalents referring to black inhabitants of Africa quite freely. The reason for that was that the names ‘Murzyn’ and ‘Czarny’ were not burdened with such a stylistic and pragmatic load in the Old Polish language as they are in Modern Polish.

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