Skip to main content

Speaking in Different Languages

The very first believer from one Central Asian group we worked with said that it wasn't possible to pray or preach in his mother tongue. 'Our language is too poor, it doesn't have the right vocabulary for prayer or preaching. How would you even say the word "prayer" in our language? The word "doga" means "charm" as well as "prayer". We couldn't possibly use that word in church! We should use Russian, which is a rich language and has all the right words for these things!'

This is a very common response when people first become believers. They see their own language as inappropriate for use in worship. This is because what they see as 'Christianity' is being modelled in a language of wider communication like English, French, Russian, Urdu or Classical Arabic. To use a more local language seems like a step down to something too basic for spiritual use.

In the end a whole bunch of young men became believers, and they didn't have the same hangups as the first believer. They began meetings where people used their mother tongue, sat on a carpet on the floor instead of pews, drank tea while having fellowship, and wore Central Asian clothing.

The word used for prayer, by the way, was 'doga' but it was obvious when saying 'let us make/do doga' that they were talking about 'a prayer' not 'a charm'. In the Bible translation the translators used a combination of words doga-dileg, meaning 'prayer-request'. New believers are taught to give up using charms and amulets, of course, as soon as they trust in Isa Mesih (Jesus the Messiah).


Labels:

Comments

  1. Jenny G20 April 2018 at 14:38

    New paradigms require new vocabulary to be developed in any language. And this can be a stretch for people - but it can also be done! How great that your folks soon had a group to work out such things together. It's true that it isn't possible for just one person to manage that in most cases, since language expresses shared experiences.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dawut26 April 2018 at 08:15

      What a wise reply - thank you! Just to say that do`a is an Arabic loan word and in Arabic it means free prayers (personal or family requests, etc.) whereas in this language of Central Asia it has 2 senses. The believers didn't have to develop a term for prayer - there was one in existence already, but they had to give each other permission to use it in the new (follows of Isa) context.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Asset Based Bible Translation (ABBT)

Many of you will have heard of asset-based community development (ABCD). How can Bible translation programmes be asset based, rather than deficit based? The best way to look at this is a comparison table: Deficit based Asset based Driven by outsiders Driven by the community Outside funding Community funded Done to meet a need Done to help the community grow Quality control done by a consultant Community checked and approved Control from outside-in Lead by stepping back Products not accepted? Products are accepted Little engagement Engagement with products Scientific Organic Not sustainable Sustainable Of course many translation programmes these days are neither one nor t'other, they are somewhere between these two extremes. Nevertheless, this illustrates a point, and shows that the current
Post a Comment
Read more

A Flow Chart for Bible Translation (a Relevance Theory Approach)

One of the current theories behind modern translation work is Relevance Theory. [1] Here is a flow chart that explains the process often used to produce a draft when using such an approach: *Make sure your translation committee makes the decision as to what kind of translation they want. A domesticated translation is one that submits to dominant values in the target language [2] whereas a foreignized translation is one that is happy to import foreign terms and ideas from Hebrew, Greek, or the language of wider communication such as the Greek term baptizo . The chart looks something like this: Text                                   Communicated Ideas                  Context A sower went out to sow  A farmer went out to sow grain   People scattered/threw seed etc. The text has very little information, but behind it is the idea that seed was scatted by throwing it from a bag carried round the farmer's shoulder. This could be explained in the para-
Post a Comment
Read more

Asking the Right Questions in Bible Translation and Scripture Engagement Planning

If you want to get useful answers you have to ask the right questions. Do you agree? Yes, of course you do. In the Bible translation world we often ask a very narrow question when planning for the next stage of work: 'What would you like to see translated next?' Now, if you simply want to translate, and that's it, that question is fine, but what if you want to see some kind of result from your translation work? What if, for instance, you want to see transformation occur? Then a more powerful question to ask the community and positive stakeholders in the project would be: 'What kingdom goals would you like to see reached?' These kingdom goals should meet felt needs of the community - they should solve problems that are apparent to most or all in the community. See below on how those can be met. If that's too abstract, then try, 'What kinds of things, in your extended family, do you tend to worry about?' This will help establish some felt needs, from which
7 comments
Read more