'The simplest and most proper' English of the 14th-century Richard Rolle's Psalter rendition

Abstract

The paper investigates the claim pertaining to the 14th-century Richard Rolle’s Psalter rendition which asserts that the translator of the text in question adhered to vocabulary of native origin unless an item necessary in the context was not available in the English language. In particular, the study focuses on the nominal equivalent selection strategy in instances where a single Latin lemma corresponds to more than one English noun and the competing items differ with respect to their etymologies. The issue is of considerable interest in the context of Rolle’s predominant consistency in this respect reflected in his general observance of a one-to-one correspondence between Latin nouns and their English equivalents.