Category Archives: Languages

Books I Have Read: Found In Translation

Posted on by
Reply

One of the great delights in life is reading a book by someone who really loves what they do and who communicates it well. Over the years I’ve read some fascinating books on subjects as far apart as quantum mechanics and molecular virology. Popular science writing is hard to do, but when it is done well, it is wonderful.

Found in Translation by Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche is a superb example of a book written by practitioners who have a gift for explaning their subject. It is informative without being heavy, funny without being flippant; and as much as a non-fiction book can be a page-turner, this one manages to be one.

In my line of work, translation tends simply to mean Bible translation, but this book covers a whole gamut of fascinating fields of translation beyond that of Holy Writ. I have sometimes wondered how sports stars manage to ply their trade in a country where they don’t speak the language – now I know. It would be futile to try and list all of the aspects of translation that are covered in this book, so I won’t try. However, if you like words and you are looking for something good to read on the beach this summer; this should be in your bag (especially if you are involved in Bible translation).

Just a couple of remarks in passing. It was gratifying to read a whole book on translation that never once mentioned dynamic or formal equivalence, These terms which are so often debated on Bible translation blogs (including, sometimes, this one) are simply not a part of the everyday translation lexicon.

One sad omission from the section on literary translation were the two finest translators of great literature; Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge, the English translators of the Asterix books. Other opinions on great translators are available – they are just wrong!

I should mention that one of the authors of Found in Translation kindly sent me a copy; however, I’d have been just as positive about it if I’d paid for it myself. It really is an excellent book.

Languages In Nigeria

Posted on by

Next month, I’m travelling out to Nigeria, where I will be speaking at a retreat for my colleagues out there. It was a nice encouragement to read this peace in the Nigeria Guardian which is very complimentary about Wycliffe’s work there:

FEBRUARY 21, the International Mother Language Day, provided an opportunity to take a critical look at our languages as Nigerians. Because of the second fiddle nature Nigerian languages have assumed in our own society, it is pertinent to ask: Who is Killing Nigerian languages — foreigners or the language owners?

Incidentally, Nigerian languages have enjoyed a wide range of support from the Occident, the U.S in particular. One such support is from Wycliffe, a US-based organisation — established since 1942 to translate the Bible into every language spoken in the world. Giant strides have been made by the organisation as it has completed 700 translations. Currently, it supports languages spoken in 90 countries, including Nigeria. In keeping with its vision, Wycliffe has deployed human, financial, special-designed software and other resources to build orthographies for hitherto non-written languages, educate native speakers to read and write their languages, build glossaries in these languages while preserving the histories and cultures of language owners, etc. Unknown minority languages spoken by 10,000 and 1,000,000 speakers now have written documents, thus preventing the languages from extinction.

Pertaining to Nigeria, some ongoing and finished bible translations, which are due to the effort of the Wycliffe teams and native speakers of the languages include: Ezaa, Ikwo and Izii languages of the Abakaliki cluster (spoken in Ebonyi State: Abakaliki, Ezza, Ohaozara, and Ishielu LGAs); Benue State: Okpokwu LGA), Alago (a first language spoken in Nassarawa State: Awe and Lafia LGAs), Dadiya (a first language spoken in Gombe State: Balanga LGA; Taraba State: Karim Lamido LGA and Adamawa state: Numan LGA, Huba (a first language spoken in Adamawa state: Hong, Maiha, Gombi, and Mubi LGAs), Hyam (a first language spoken in Kaduna: Kachia and Jema’s LGAs), Ichen or Etkywan (a first language spoken in Taraba State: Takum, Sardauna, Bali, and part of Wukari LGAs).

Speaking of Nigeria, it’s nice to have the excuse to show this excellent photo of Sue doing some translation consultancy work there, a few years ago.

Sue consulting Nigeria

Praying in Our Own Languages

Posted on by

Many in Kenya’s Bibleless people groups believe their languages have no value… “A man in the Sabaot community of Western Kenya prayed aloud in his mother tongue in a gathering. Afterward, another man stood up and apologized to God for him praying in a language God wouldn’t understand; he then prayed in Swahili so God would understand.” (Read the full story.)

This is why I got so emotional when I heard Kouya being used in an international gathering! Thanks to Hannah for pointing out this article to me.

The Queen’s English?

Posted on by

The Guardian has a fascinating article on the way English is spoken in Ghana. It seems that there is a debate going on in Ghana between those who believe that Ghanaians should speak ‘the Queen’s English’ trying to mimic so-called ‘received pronunciation’, because they think that sounding English is prestigious, and those who value being multilingual and prefer to sound Ghanaian when they speak English:

“The idea that intelligence is linked to English pronunciation is a legacy from colonial thinking,” said Delalorm Semabia, 25, a Ghanaian blogger. “People used to think that if you speak like the British then you are as intelligent as the British. But now we are waking up to the fact that we have great people here who have never stepped outside the borders.”

It is great to see that Ghana (in contrast with some neighbouring countries) takes pride in its own languages:

Ghana has nine indigenous languages that are officially sponsored by the government, including Akan languages spoken widely in the south. A further 26 languages are officially recognised and at least double that number are also spoken. Unlike its francophone neighbours, which were forced under colonialism to teach only in French, Ghana has always maintained the use of African languages in its primary school education.

And at the same time Ghanaians want to make English their own, as Semabia says:

“For us, English is our language – we want to break away from the old strictures, to personalise it, mix it with our local languages, and have fun with it. The whole point of language is that it’s supposed to be flexible and it’s meant to be fun.”

Amen to that!

 

An Old, Old Problem

Posted on by

Archaeologists have recently unearthed fragments of a prayer letter from the first Roman missionaries to England along with part of the a response from one of their supporters. You might find it interesting.

Dear Friends,

Well we’ve been in England for a year now and we are slowly getting used to life here. You wouldn’t believe the weather. The climate is no where near as comfortable as the weather back home in Rome, it is far too cold most of the time. You wouldn’t believe what the nationals call summer – it’s more like a cold spring. Please, no one mention the rain! We are also getting used to the local food, which isn’t very inspiring. The English boil everything till it has no flavour and have never heard of olive oil, garlic or herbs and, what is worse, an amphora of wine costs a whole week’s support. (editor’s note: this paragraph shows that central concerns of many missionary prayer letters have not changed much over the years.)

Of course, the nationals don’t speak Latin, so we’ve been learning the local language so that we can teach them about Jesus. It’s hard going, but we are slowly getting there. One of our concerns has been to find a way to communicate Christian truth in English. It takes time to think of how to express even the most basic ideas. For example, how should we say “Deus” in English. We could use the Latin word, but that would make Deus sound foreign, so we’ve decided to settle on the English word “God”. There are some more difficult questions still to come. 

Meanwhile, our…. (the fragment ends here.)

And here is what we know of the reply.

… What do you mean you are using the English word “God” to describe “Deus”. Don’t you know that the Northern European “Gods” are nothing like the God of the Bible. They drink, they fight, they kill people. What is worse there are lots of them. They are nothing like the “Deus” of the Bible. If you use the word “God” you will be changing Christianity entirely, it will be a false Gospel, heresy. The word “God” could simply never be used to describe the loving Triune Deus of the Christian faith. The Father, Son and Spirit are nothing like Odin, Thor or those odious “Gods” from the frozen north. I demand that you change…

OK, this isn’t entirely serious, but it does illustrate a serious point. Over the last few months, Bible translators have been criticised for using the word “Allah” to translate the Greek “θεὸς” in some contexts. We are told that “Allah” is not the same as “θεὸς” so we should find another word to use.

Of course, this issue is a lot more complex than the purveyors of sound-bite theology would have use believe.

The Canadian Bible Society helpfully comments:

… centers around the use of the term “Allah” for God. While there is some legitimate debate in some languages where Islam is the dominant religion about whether this is the best designation to use, it is commonly accepted as a general term for God in many, if not most, of these languages. Semitic languages such as Arabic commonly use “Allah” where English uses “God.” The word “Allah” does not belong to Islam, although Muslims do use it. The word is actually closely related to the Hebrew term “El” and “Elohim” used for God in the Hebrew Bible.

The Arabic language is closely related to Hebrew (south Semitic and north Semitic respectively) and the term “Allah” is the direct cognate of the corresponding Hebrew term. In a number of languages Christians have been using the term “Allah” for many generations. In fact, in one country Christians have actually gone to court to retain their right to use this term when a Muslim dominated government tried to restrict its use for Muslims only. Truthfully, if we compare the origins of words used for God, the English / German term is among the most pagan. “God / Gott” was originally the designation used by our pagan ancestors long before the introduction of Christianity in northern Europe.

Which takes us back to where I started.

 

 

 

A Question About Numbers

Posted on by

Cross-cultural missionaries, such as myself, place a great deal of emphasis on Revelation 7:9.

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

The statement that people from every tribe, people and language (or tribe, tongue and nation in other translations) is a very precious one to people who are involved in bringing God’s Word to the minority groups of the world. It is a huge assurance to know that there will be representatives from every people group in eternity. Or will there?

Lately, I’ve started to have a few doubts about the way in which this verse has been read. I’m not sure of my ground here, so I’ll tread lightly, but let’s ask the question: does this verse really say that there will be people from every ethnolinguistic group in heaven?

The first thing to note is that this passage occurs in the Book of Revelation and belongs to a literary genre called apocalyptic. Apocalyptic literature uses an awful lot of colourful, descriptive language which was never meant to be taken literally. You can get into all sorts of doctrinal and practical confusion if you forget that Revelation is apocalyptic and start taking it literally.

Secondly, John’s description of the crowd is clearly not meant to be taken literally. He says that the crowd could not be counted. Of course it could, if everyone stood still for long enough and someone had the patience, the could have counted the crowd. This is clearly a figurative statement indicating that there were an awful lot of people there! If John starts off by using a deliberate hyperbole, it doesn’t take a huge leap to imagine that the rest of the phrase is not to be taken too literally either.

My third point is a pragmatic one. Nations have been coming and going all through history and many ethnolinguistic groups simply vanished from the map long before the Christian Gospel made it to their part of the world. I’m not sure what would need to happen or how a special case could be made for these groups to get a special dispensation for representation in eternity.

Does it matter if this passage was not intended to be taken literally? Well it would probably mean that a lot of mission publicity material would need to be rewritten! Seriously, I don’t think it should make a great deal of difference because our responsibility to make disciples at home and around the world would not change in the slightest. The Church would still have a call to witness to Christ at home and around the world.

So why ask the question? Because the Bible is important and we have to take reading the Bible seriously, we shouldn’t accept a possibly dodgy reading just because it fits our missionary strategy or we have never thought to question it before.

I’d value your thoughts on the interpretation of this verse in the comments.

Bible and Mission Links II

Posted on by

I’m not sure where I came across the link to this, but David Rattigan has an amazing set of New Testament exam questions. Readers of Sellers and Yeatman will recognise the style. Here are a couple of examples.

2. Who did what, to whom, and in what year? Explain your answer.

3. Discuss, in no more than 2000 words, nothing in particular, with reference to anything you like.

ABC has an excellent new site devoted to the King James Version. There is an awful lot to explore here and it is worth giving some time to it.

Last month, Wheaton College held a conference on Global Theology in Evangelical Perspective. All of the papers are now available as both video and audio downloads. The speakers include such luminaries as Andrew Walls and Lamin Sanneh. I can’t imagine a reason not to get hold of these talks.

Mark Woodward posted an excellent piece on the Son of God translation controversy (I have to declare an interest in this post as you will see if you read it).

Lastly, Clayboy (among others) highlighted this excellent guide to English as she is spoken and understood:

What writers think of the King James Bible’s language

Posted on by

In this year of celebrating 400 years of the King James Bible, here is an interesting article in today’s Guardian. A number of writers (including Alexander McCall Smith and linguist David Crystal) talk about their experience of the KJV’s language in 6 short pieces. Below are a couple of extracts from novelist Janine Winterson’s article:

“My mother taught me to read from the Book of Deuteronomy because it is full of animals – mostly unclean. So while other children had horses, bunnies, kittens and ducks, I had hoopoes, sloths, snakes, rock badgers, rams, swine and shellfish.”

“My dad left school at 12, and never learned to read properly. He had no trouble with his Bible, and when he didn’t understand a word or a construction, he asked Mrs Winterson or the minister. He was a man of few words himself, but he had dignity of speech, learned directly from the King James.”

There are easier ways to learn to read than from the Bible, but if you grew up reading the KJV from an early age, it’s language would certainly be etched on the memory.

Why English Doesn’t Always Work

Posted on by

A while ago, I posted a short video entitled Why not Just Teach Them All English?; talking about Bible translation. My answer (if you can’t afford the 1 min 40 seconds to watch the video) is that this is not what God would do. Today, the Guardian looks at the issue of teaching English in Schools around the world and comes up with similar answers to me, though for different reasons.

The idea that English language skills are the key to unlocking access to professional training, investment and business opportunities is short-sighted. The impact of English might be immediate as a quick fix, but there are negative consequences for the longer-term development of a country and its people. Over the long-term it means widening the divide between those able to benefit fully from the education system and the opportunities that follow and those who are not, storing up social problems and limiting the contribution of vast numbers of people to the larger development aims. (Full article).

Cross-Cultural Living

Posted on by

The BBC is making a big thing about a researcher who is going off to live in the Arctic to study a disappearing Inuit language and culture. Now don’t get me wrong, I think this is fantastic. I’m all in favour of people doing language and culture research. The thing I don’t understand is why the BBC are making so much fuss about a man going off to live with a minority group for a year. I don’t want to blow my own trumpet, but we lived with the Kouya for six years and hundreds of our Wycliffe colleagues have lived for far longer and in far more isolated situations than we did.

I must admit that I don’t envy Dr. Leonard having to live through an Arctic winter, but at least his house will have electricity, which is more than we had. Admittedly, we didn’t have to melt snow to get our water (that would have been interesting in a tropical rain forest) but our water did come from a well that we had to have dug in our garden.

Dr. Leonard is hoping to document a good deal about the Inuit language and culture which is wonderful and I wish him well. We did a fair bit of documentation of Kouya culture too (some of which you can read here) but we also produced reading and writing books and eventually helped to translate the New Testament.  And that is the reason that the BBC are making a big fuss about Dr. Leonard and never say anything about the hundreds of people who have lived in equally isolated and difficult situations around the world documenting languages and cultures. Dr, Leonard won’t translate the Bible (he won’t stay their long enough); so he must be okay, while the rest of us are definitely suspect!

Car Ice Cream for Dogs

Posted on by

This fascinating (and potentially useful) headline comes from an Indonesian newspaper after Google Translate had finished with it. There were a number of fascinating other things to read, including:

  • Train Miniature Rooms
  • Success Plastiki Skip the Pacific Ocean
  • Salad Dressing Women Arrested Police
  • Japanese PM Leadership Doubtful Wife
  • Elvis Autopsy Equipment Sale
  • The car is moving faster than a bullet
  • Car Ice Cream For Dogs

I’m sure that all of these articles made perfect sense in the original and it is possible to work out what some of them mean even in the translation. However, this shows how difficult machine translation really is. None of these headlines comes across as natural English and all of them are difficult to understand. We are not about to see machine translations of the Bible into minority languages any time soon, whatever the pundits say.