wfn.org | New Bible Translations Help Preserve World's Disappearing Languages

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

29-February-2000 
00098 
 
    New Bible Translations Help to Preserve 
    World's Disappearing Languages 
 
    by Cedric Pulford 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
LONDON - A New Testament published for the first time in an English-based 
Caribbean Creole, a language once used by slaves, has been hailed as one of 
the world's most significant Bible translation activities for 1999. 
 
    Geoffrey Stamp, chief editor for the United Bible Societies, based in 
Reading, England, was commenting to ENI on the UBS annual Scripture 
Language Report, which revealed that scripture became available in 21 more 
languages last year. 
 
    The total number of languages in which the Bible is available in part 
or in its entirety now stands at 2,233.  But this is still barely more than 
one third of the estimated 6,500 living languages in the world. 
 
    The Creole Bible was for the island of St Lucia.  Stamp told ENI: 
"Creole used to be looked down on, so there is a tremendous reaction from 
people who feel `now our language has been accepted.'  Although this Creole 
is based on English, it has developed to the point of being a language in 
its own right." 
 
    Stamp said that in one African country alone -- Nigeria -- 478 living 
languages had been identified.  Some languages around the world were spoken 
by so few people that they were constantly at risk of dying out.  "Bible 
translation fixes a language by providing a literature, so the language 
cannot die any more," he said. 
 
    Stamp said he knew of a group of 30 people in Papua New Guinea (PNG) 
who had three languages of their own: separate languages for men and women, 
which he said were not mutually understandable, and a language for 
communication between the sexes. 
 
    The UBS and its national bible society members around the world 
recognize three stages in making the word of God available in a language: a 
portion (at least one book of scripture), the New Testament and the 
complete Bible. 
 
    In Papua New Guinea 2,500 people living in small villages high up in 
the Owen Stanley Mountain Range received the Umanakaina New Testament last 
year.  Ten New Testament versions were provided for various ethnic groups 
in Papua New Guinea, where 817 languages have been identified. 
 
    The island of New Guinea, composed of Papua New Guinea and the 
Indonesian province of Irian Jaya, has by far the most languages in 
proportion to its geographical size and population in the world. 
 
    Among last year's achievements are complete bibles in Azumeina in Chad, 
Nuer in Sudan and Pakpak Dairi in Indonesia -- languages that have not had 
the complete word of God before.  These versions will serve sizeable 
population groups -- there are more than 1.2 million speakers of Pakpak 
Dairi, more than 840,000 speakers of Nuer and more than 150,000 speakers of 
Azumeina, also known as Marba. 
 
    In Bangladesh, a portion (St. Luke's gospel) became available in 
Sylhetti for the first time.  It was produced by the local Bible society in 
association with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, of Dallas in the 
United States.  Sylhetti is spoken by more than five million people. The 
language once had its own script, but, following the Bengali invasion, this 
was lost and today Sylhetti is written using the Bangla script. 
 
    Together with its member Bible societies, the UBS is currently involved 
in 708 translation projects, 45 of which are at the production stage. 
 
    Stamp told ENI that the translation effort was worthwhile even though 
scripture was already available in the majority language - lingua franca - 
of countries around the world. 
 
    "There are empowerment issues in scripture becoming available in the 
language of the home," he said.  "And throughout the developing world there 
is a move to using the first language in elementary schools, with the 
national language being used later on in education." 

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