Latinska kasusändelser i den fornsvenska versionen av Mechtilds uppenbarelser

Abstract

In this article, I discuss the use of Latin case endings in the Old Swedish text Mechtilde’s Revelations that was translated by Jöns Budde into Swedish in 1469. My article is a case study in which I systematically compare the Swedish text with the Latin original. Vernacular texts can be seen as a part of the Latin text culture because Latin was widely used as a model. Latin case endings were often used in personal names and loan words that often were exotic or foreign. The Latin forms are sometimes taken mechanically over from the Latin source text. On the other hand, they are in many cases used consciously by the translator to gain specific goals. The Latin endings give the text authenticity, authority, and credibility. They also create a bilingual atmosphere that helps persons unversed in Latin to have a share in the Latin text culture. Sometimes the Swedish translator uses different syntactic structures than the source text and must therefore use different case endings. In such cases, Jöns Budde must actively build Latin forms that are suitable in the new syntactic context. Budde knows his Latin and uses correct forms. Loan words have in some cases also Swedish endings. It’s quite common that a word has Latin endings in the indefinite form and Swedish endings in the definite form. Thus, the variation between Latin and Swedish forms is mainly logical.