Josh wrote:When translating into a language missing a feature in the source language, some other way to express it must be found. You're right that the KJV used those words for simplicity of showing this; by the 1600s thee's and thou's had largely fallen out of use in everyday speech in urban England.
Sometimes when the target language is missing a feature of the source language, it is not possible to express it and maintain any sort of naturalness in the translation. Sometimes you just have to accept a translation that is not 100% like the source. I'll give you an example:
Enga has three words that we would translate in English with
those. The first
dutupa refers to a group that has a specific number, the second
dokaita refers to a group that is viewed more as a collective whole. The third
dupa is a more general term that refers to groups that are not generally in view in the scene in focus. It is nearly impossible to maintain those distinctions in English without a very awkward translation.
Another example is that Enga has three past tenses: one for earlier today, one for yesterday, and one for two days ago or earlier. Again, it is nearly impossible to maintain those distinctions when translating from Enga to English because our verb system just has one past tense.
The hardest thing about learning another language, in my opinion, is learning to make distinctions like those that your native language does not make. I remember trying to learn the difference between
kame singi and
tatake pingi. Both of them can be translated by the English word
forget, and it took me a long time to realize the difference.
kame singi is an intentional act of putting something out of one's mind (Example: Even though you stole from me, I have forgotten about it.)
tatake pingi is a memory lapse or inability to recall something (Example: How do you say 'chicken' in Enga? Oh, I forget.)