Re: Latin help

On 9/7/07, R A Brown <ray@...> wrote:
> caeruleancentaur wrote:
> >>>R A Brown <ray@...>
> >
> >
> >>>There are many examples of verb coming earlier or even at the
> >>>beginning, > cf. the opening of the Magnificat:
> >>>"Magnificat anima mea Dominum" (Luke 1:46)
> >
> >
> >>Douglas Koller <laokou@...> wrote:
> >>This may well be obvious, but does the fact that "magnificat" comes at
> >>the beginning account for the emphatic English, "My soul *doth*
> >>magnify the Lord." (KJV?) (emphasis mine)?
> >
> > I don't see "doth" as emphatic, but rather as an archaic present tense:
> > I do, thou dost, he doth, etc.
>
> Except that "My soul magnifieth the Lord" would be the simple present
> tense; "doth" is as redundant as "does" is in a modern "My soul does
> magnify the Lord."
>
> AFAIK the translators of the KJV left no working notes, so we cannot, I
> guess, be certain why they chose "doth magnify" rather than plain
> "magnifieth" - but my guess is that it is because of the obvious
> parallelism in the next line of the Magnificat:
> "And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour" [KJV]
>
> "doth magnify" gives a better balance to "hath rejoiced" than just plain
> "magnifieth" would do.
I agree. There is a fascinating book called _God's Secretaries_ by
Nicholas Ostler, I believe (I loaned out my copy so I don't have it at
hand). It is about the creation of the KJV. It is the author's
contention that literary effect was a major consideration for the
translators when considering different renderings of the texts.

Dirk