The Translation of the Book of Mormon

When one considers the language of the Book of Mormon, perhaps one thing that sticks out is that it uses all the thees and thous that aren't really used in our language anymore.  Some have suggested that the church provide a new translation with modernized language.  An April 1993 Ensign article says that the church is opposed to it, and gives as some of the reason:

When a sacred text is translated into another language or rewritten into more familiar language, there are substantial risks that this process may introduce doctrinal errors or obscure evidence of its ancient origin.

These are good and valid reasons.  It's certainly possible that one day the church will think these risks worth it, but not today.  One interesting thing to consider-- there have been changes to the Book of Mormon already.  I first learned it before or during my mission, and have recently been learning more about that process.  Joseph Smith made many edits to the Book of Mormon when it came time for later printings.  That's fine since he was authorized, but what if these changes obscured evidence of its ancient origin?  And what about copying mistakes?

Starting in 1988, Royal Skousen started a project to recover this earliest text.  This was a long and exhaustive effort analyzing all the manuscripts and printed editions of the Book of Mormon, and finally in 2009 he printed The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text.

His analysis is ongoing and he is still printing findings.  So what sort of evidence has he discovered?  In this blog post, I would like to summarize what he and others have found that sheds light on how the Book of Mormon was translated, and some surprising findings.