Translation under Protestantism (1550–1595)

Slovene Protestant writers translated biblical texts from one or two basic sources and revised them with the aid of additional source texts. When a Slovene translation was already available, its translation solutions were also taken into consideration. In Jurij Dalmatin’s translations, based on those made by Primož Trubar, the ratio between Trubar’s existing translation solutions and Dalmatin’s new solutions stands at approximately 80% to 20%. With respect to translation techniques, Slovene non-biblical works
can be divided into three general categories: works which include original texts and summaries/paraphrases of identifiable sources, as well as literal translations of easily identifiable sources; works which include explicit indications of their translation sources on the cover or in the accompanying texts, even though these texts did not serve as their sources but were roughly summarised at best; and works which represent translations in the modern sense. In this period, Slovene translations mostly included works translated from German or Latin, exceptionally also from other languages, and particularly notable is the German influence on the syntax and vocabulary of Slovene biblical translations. The influence of translations by Slovene Protestant authors in the 16th century has been considerable, as they determined the development of Slovene literary language in a significant manner. At the same time, the still emerging Slovene literary language was faced with the difficult task of having to express some very complicated content.