Tatar translations of the Lord’s Prayer (1803–2015) [Part 2]

The Bible is the world’s most translated book. Throughout history it has been translated into a great many languages, and these translations have in recent years begun to attract wider attention. This article in‑ vestigates a selection of historical translations of the Lord’s Prayer from the Gospel of Matthew in a language called Tatar, and one contempo‑ rary translation, Volga Tatar. The timespan of the translations extends to over two hundred years: from 1803 to 2015. The translations are com‑ pared on a variety of linguistic levels, with special attention given to the lexicon. Orthography presents a noteworthy challenge, since most are in the Arabic script, not reflecting the nuances of the vowels. Fea‑ tures common to the translations are described, and those distinctive to each text are analysed. I discovered that many of the translations adhere to strict norms of literary language, clearly differing from spoken vari‑ ants. Up to the 20th century many Turkic literary languages were “tran‑ sregional”, that is, similar established literary norms extended over many Turkic peoples, whose spoken languages displayed a far greater variety. Interacting with the biblical text gives us a valuable glimpse of the multiple voices represented by the translations, and the circum‑ stances in which they were created.