Lettish/Latvian scripture and liturgy

[Kim Braithwaite]

I'm curious about the language of an 1890 Lettish New Testament - Ta Jauna Derriba - that I acquired decades ago (teenage hobby). It is printed in Gothic/Fraktur script, and the orthography is quite unlike that of today's standard Latvian. Even more intriguing is the use of tas or ta (meaning "that") to mean "the" in noun phrases. Although I don't know Latvian - Russian and Georgian are my main languages - I do know that normal Latvian never did have the definite article. For all I know this NT may contain other violations of normal Latvian grammar as well.

My untutored hunch is that this version of the NT was translated from the German, and that the insistent use of tas and ta, along with any other deviations, somehow reflects either a crude translation or a deliberate aping, so to speak, of German der, die, das etc. In the front of the book there is a nihil obstat in German from the St Petersburg Lutheran office and a "Passed by censor" in Russian, dated Riga. I'm also aware that the Bible has been translated into regular Latvian since the time of my NT version.

Questions to anyone who knows:

(1) Do any of today's Latvian clergy and church-goers still cling to Ta Jauna Derriba, for liturgy or readings or whatever? It is well known that believers who are brought up on the sacred language of original translations of scripture almost universally tend to resist modernization or even correction (cf the King James Bible).

(2) Can you refer me to a brief history of the Lettish/Latvian version?

Thanks! Mr Kim Braithwaite, Translator

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