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Moroni, the last person to write on the plates, was the custodian of them and it was Moroni who delivered them to Joesph Smith. The Book of Mormon was written mostly by Moroni’s father and the assignment as custodian of the record obviously came from God. There is no reason to suspect that anyone other than Moroni was the translator of the record into English.
The simplest and most reasonable explanation as to why it was translated into Early Modern English is that is when Moroni made the translation. This would be about the time the first English settlers were arriving in America and he most likely learned it from them. The translation was later transmitted to Joseph.