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In:Dutch and Contact Linguistics: The Dutch language outside the Low Countries
Edited by Christopher Joby and Nicoline van der Sijs
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 55] 2025
► pp. 227–248

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Chapter 7
The Lithuanian translation of the Statenbijbel and how it was influenced by Dutch

ORCiD logo with link | Vilnius University
Published online: 4 July 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.55.07kav
Abstract
This chapter deals with the influence of the Dutch Statenbijbel and its language on a 17th-century Lithuanian Bible translation, the Chylinski Bible. In its language it differs from that of Chylinski’s forerunner, the Lutheran Bretkūnas, and from Vilentas’ Gospels and Epistles, which were used in Protestant churches. The difference was one of translation source as well as of dialect: Lutherans were active in Prussian Lithuania, whereas the Calvinists’ centre was in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL). It was not until 2003 that research established that Chylinski’s translation source was the Statenbijbel, and that many linguistic features of the Dutch translation shine through in the Lithuanian text. The influence of the Statenbijbel is manifest from the formal features of the text, and also from linguistic features. Besides bequeathing us a Lithuanian translation of the Statenbijbel, the Reformed Protestants of the GDL also started work on a Polish translation, which was never completed.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Lithuanians studying abroad in the 17th and 18th centuries
  • 3.Chylinski’s choice of translation source and translation method
  • 4.Research on the Chylinski Bible and its language
  • 5.Textual influence of the Dutch Bible
  • 6.Lexical and grammatical influence of the Dutch Bible
  • 7.The further fates of Chylinski’s Bible and his influence in Lithuania
  • Acknowledgement
  • Sources
  • Notes
  • References
References (28)
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