1) "Really early" seems (to me) to be a sloppy modern usage of the
word "really", very common since 1990 or so.  Is it common outside the
United States?  Maybe it'll recede.
2) "Really" means either of two things:  "in a real way", "genuinely";
or "very" (in the current vernacular, as in SENT's Mark 1:35).
2) "Very early" is equally clear and understandable, without such
ambiguity.  Not being a recent trend, I think it'll last longer.

Thanks for the feedback!

You say that "really" means "very" "in the current vernacular". This
translation is rendered into the current vernacular, just like Mark
was in his time. Sounds to me like an argument in favor of the
rendering as it is. "Very" just sounds a little elevated to me, as
though the person speaking is trying to sound "proper". Without
producing formulations that sound unnatural, folksy, or "sloppy", to
use your word, I want to make the baseline of style and tone relaxed
and non-elevated--just the way a person would talk if they weren't
trying to impress anyone with their correctness. Maybe not all parts
of the country talk the same, but if I were explaining to a friend why
I was so tired, I'd be much more likely to say,

"I had to get up really early this morning to take a friend to the
airport"

than

"I had to get up very early this morning to take a friend to the
airport."

There are a couple more considerations that go into the mix here that
might not be so obvious.

First, I don't mind if my translation has something other than the
maximum possible shelf life. Currently English translations of the
Bible seem to come out one on top of the other. If mine passes its
sell-by date and neither I nor anyone else is around to update it,
it's guaranteed that some other translation will be around that will
fit the bill at that moment. That said, I doubt that people using
"really" to mean "very" is going to go out of style anytime soon. But
then I'm not an evolutionary linguist. Someone else may have a
weightier opinion than me. ["Than I," I hear you murmur.]

Secondly, producing a "spoken" English version implies putting
significant value, all other things being equal, on *euphony*, i.e.
how easy a rendering is to say (what I call "how it feels in the
mouth") and how pleasant it sounds to listen to. Every single
rendering in SENT has been spoken aloud by the translator a number of
times the way you see it, and probably two or three other ways as
well, to see what rendering (among equally good translations) flows
the best. It's been some years since I made this particular rendering,
but I want to wager that I chose "really" over "very" in this instance
not only because "very" sounds just slightly elevated, but because
"really" avoids the glottal stop that wants to insert itself between
"very" and "early" when the passage is read aloud. "Really" thus
produces a smoother and "pleasanter" flow of sounds in the mouth, or,
in other words, better euphony. We could even coin the term "eulalia",
if it feels better to say but doesn't particularly feel better to
listen to. :)

Please know that even if I'm not persuaded by your comments to change
my rendering in this or that case, I value them nonetheless. They are
valuable as indicators of the reaction that many of my readers will
have. Every rendering is a compromise that will please some people
more than others, and there is no escaping that.

Best Regards,

Webb

On Jan 21, 11:53 am, Phil Davidson <davidsonp...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for thinking this through.  I think this is a judgment call, to
be based on weighing and measuring the considerations you have
listed.  It's helpful to hear your reasoning.  I can begin to imagine
the discussions that take place on translation committees.

I don't pronounce "very early" with a glottal stop between the words.
They run together.

I wonder how widely "really early" is used, geographically.  I think
you and I are both in the East Bay, so a more remote perspective might
be helpful.  Or are you aiming at a consistent rendering into a
specific local vernacular?

(As yet another possible rendering, my wife might say "Jesus got up at
dark-thirty," depending on how early it really was :-)

-- Phil