My analysis of the three versions of the Amharic Bible was carried out to determine directions in the evolution of Bible translations, to show the mechanisms observable in the translation methods employed and to identify linguistic changes. It proves that the pragmatics of Biblical translations compels a bidirectional approach. On the one hand, the translators tended to bring their texts in line with the lexical and syntactic standards of the Amharic of the day, which we call modernization, while on the other hand, the 21st-century version reintroduces some 19th-century constructions and meanings in a process known as archaization.

Accordingly, we will regard introducing the traditional orthography, which can be traced as far back as the Ge'ez Bible, and the use of 19th-century lexical forms in the 2004 version as archaization. As regards modernization, it is of course difficult to discuss it in a comparative study involving texts in two different languages (Ge'ez and Amharic). Still, in view of the fact that the two languages share a substantial body of vocabulary, I have decided to indicate two periods of change: 14th c., 1840>1961, 2004 and 14th c., 1840, 1961>2004 in order to underline that important changes started in the 1961 version, and continued in 2004. As far as syntax is concerned, I have observed that it was modernized at each translation effort to bring it into conformity with the linguistic standards of the day, and so it does not represent an important level of manipulation on the archaization-modernization axis.

Using the above analysis as a basis, I can claim that the Emperor's Bible is the translation with the highest lexical and syntactic modernization levels, and the 2004 version--a hybrid translation, combining archaic and contemporary elements.

llykowska@uw.edu.pl