Bible Translation
My field of study, linguistics, has an interesting little overlap with my faith in the domain of Bible Translation. Many linguists work as Bible translators. Many people who want to get involved in Bible translation become linguists to do that work better.
However, academic linguists (that's me) and so-called missionary linguists don't always see eye-to-eye. This weekend, at a linguistics conference, I overheard one professor telling a graduate student how they work with SIL (that's a Bible translation organization) linguists when doing fieldwork, but they actually do good work, she said, as if that would come as a surprise. In class, once, we spent the seminar ripping apart this paper that had several big problems with it. It was co-authored by two people, a woman and a man, with the same last name. As we left the room afterwards, one of my classmates remarked, I betcha they're missionary linguists. I looked it up later. They weren't--they were anthropologists. I also hear stories of researchers investing significant time and money developing new software for fieldwork so that they can avoid using the free, open-source software developed by SIL.
So many of my colleagues do fieldwork in communities which were deeply hurt by the residential school system, a system run, in most cases, by people who purported to be missionaries. Some of the first linguistic analyses in those communities were made by Bible translators who didn't always do the best of jobs.
*This was several years ago. There is a chance that my recollection is inaccurate.
However, academic linguists (that's me) and so-called missionary linguists don't always see eye-to-eye. This weekend, at a linguistics conference, I overheard one professor telling a graduate student how they work with SIL (that's a Bible translation organization) linguists when doing fieldwork, but they actually do good work, she said, as if that would come as a surprise. In class, once, we spent the seminar ripping apart this paper that had several big problems with it. It was co-authored by two people, a woman and a man, with the same last name. As we left the room afterwards, one of my classmates remarked, I betcha they're missionary linguists. I looked it up later. They weren't--they were anthropologists. I also hear stories of researchers investing significant time and money developing new software for fieldwork so that they can avoid using the free, open-source software developed by SIL.
And I get it.
So many of my colleagues do fieldwork in communities which were deeply hurt by the residential school system, a system run, in most cases, by people who purported to be missionaries. Some of the first linguistic analyses in those communities were made by Bible translators who didn't always do the best of jobs.
It's easy to see that, though the residential school system was inethical, that doesn't mean that all schools are inethical. Likewise, it is not necessarily the case that all missionary work is undesirable, either.
I really love linguistics, and my faith is really important to me, as well, so I quite naturally decided to explore Bible translation as a possible career path during my undergrad. So, in the summer between third and fourth year, I went on a three-week long internship with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Cameroon (West Africa) working on a language called Mpumpong. I didn't pursue it any further--as it stands right now, my favourite place to spend my thoughts about language is at a deeper layer of abstraction than what is required for the task of Bible translation. (Plus, I'm not great at phonetic transcription). But I did get a little snapshot into what modern Bible translation projects are like in at least that little corner of the world, and so I thought I'd share that with you.*
Wycliffe goes where they are asked. There are approximately 7,000 languages in the world, but only about 636 of those have a complete translation of the Bible (source). They do not have the time or resources to start a project in every single one of the remaining languages. Rather, they go to the communities that invite them.
It's not just about proselytism. One of the churches we visited in Cameroon had a priest who was a speaker of Mpumpong, the language my hosts were working on. The entire service was conducted in French, the trade language of the region, but the announcements were translated into Mpumpong by the priest. The crowd was silent and respectful during the French version of the announcements, and didn't react to them until they were translated into Mpumpong. It was a fairly large church, and it was packed--but nearly all of the people there didn't understand French well enough to follow the announcements, let alone the finer points of theology. Surely these people have the right to make an informed decision about their worship and beliefs, by having access to a translation of the Bible that they can actually understand.
It is community-led. The community asked for help, and help was sent, and although the foreign missionary linguists give direction, advice, and lend their expertise, it is the responsibility of the community to keep the project going. The project was led by a team made up of leaders from all of the churches in the area. They were responsible for raising a portion of the funds needed for the project. Rather than translating the Bible themselves, the linguists trained the locals, who are far more proficient in the language and familiar with the culture than the linguists could ever be, in the work of translation. Some of the locals even go on to pursue university degrees in linguistics. The Mpumpong project was actually the second project my hosts in Cameroon had worked on; the first was not finished, but it was no longer in need of continual outside assistance.
It is a joint venture. My hosts in Cameroon were particularly careful to include all of the churches in the area, from Catholic to Pentecostal, in the translation project. They attended a different church every week to maintain their non-partisan position.
Wycliffe goes where they are asked. There are approximately 7,000 languages in the world, but only about 636 of those have a complete translation of the Bible (source). They do not have the time or resources to start a project in every single one of the remaining languages. Rather, they go to the communities that invite them.
It's not just about proselytism. One of the churches we visited in Cameroon had a priest who was a speaker of Mpumpong, the language my hosts were working on. The entire service was conducted in French, the trade language of the region, but the announcements were translated into Mpumpong by the priest. The crowd was silent and respectful during the French version of the announcements, and didn't react to them until they were translated into Mpumpong. It was a fairly large church, and it was packed--but nearly all of the people there didn't understand French well enough to follow the announcements, let alone the finer points of theology. Surely these people have the right to make an informed decision about their worship and beliefs, by having access to a translation of the Bible that they can actually understand.
It is community-led. The community asked for help, and help was sent, and although the foreign missionary linguists give direction, advice, and lend their expertise, it is the responsibility of the community to keep the project going. The project was led by a team made up of leaders from all of the churches in the area. They were responsible for raising a portion of the funds needed for the project. Rather than translating the Bible themselves, the linguists trained the locals, who are far more proficient in the language and familiar with the culture than the linguists could ever be, in the work of translation. Some of the locals even go on to pursue university degrees in linguistics. The Mpumpong project was actually the second project my hosts in Cameroon had worked on; the first was not finished, but it was no longer in need of continual outside assistance.
It is a joint venture. My hosts in Cameroon were particularly careful to include all of the churches in the area, from Catholic to Pentecostal, in the translation project. They attended a different church every week to maintain their non-partisan position.
Foreign missionaries conform to the host culture. While we were there, we were expected to conform to the norms of the local culture, and not the other way around. For example, I was told to only wear skirts that were knee-length or longer; pants and shorts were not allowed. In some churches, we were expected to wear a head covering. My hosts didn't do everything the way the locals did--for example, they had an African version of a Western kitchen--but they did conform where needed to be respectful.
Bible translation brings benefit to the whole community. For example, my hosts in Cameroon developed the first ever writing system for the Mpumpong language. Providing a writing system for a language increases the speakers' perspective on the legitmacy of their language, showing the community that their language can be considered valuable. Bible translation projects are usually accompanied by literacy development projects, since translating the Bible into a language no one can read is a fruitless task. Additional educational materials are also often developed in the language, covering topics such as health and hygiene. Furthermore, those directly involved in the translation project are taught beneficial new skills, such as typing and computer use, linguistic analysis, and fundraising.
Charles Peace, a burglar and murderer, is reported to have said on his execution day, "Sir, if I believed what you and the church of God say that you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and think it worth while living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that!"
If there's even a chance that there is a God who wants a relationship with us, oughtn't the people of the world be allowed to at least hear about it in their own language and make an informed choice about what they believe?
*This was several years ago. There is a chance that my recollection is inaccurate.
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