October 2021 SIL Translation Newsletter

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 International Translation Services (ITS) works in collaboration with colleagues in SIL and other agencies to creatively steward and advance the translation practices, tools, methods, and training necessary to enable a supportive environment for individuals and communities to flourish and engage with Scripture.
We value: Interconnectedness. Capacity Building. Diversity. Innovation.

October  2021

• Live the change you desire… today! - Greg Dekker
• Translation Resources Update - Paul O'Rear
  • Translator's Workplace (TW) - Paul O'Rear
  • Paratext - Paul O'Rear
  • Translator's Notes (TN) - Randy Groff
  • KTOT (Key Terms of the Old Testament) - Paul McLarren
  • Psalms Project - Katie Frost
  • Translation Resources of the Future - Mike & Rachel Aubrey
• A New Sign Language Consultant - CW 
• Ancient Translation Techniques Research - Theo van der Louw
• Now With The Lord
  • Bob Gunn (1941-2021) - SIL Americas
  • Marilyn Laszlo (1933-2021) - SIL Pacific

Links for International Translation
SIL International Translation Services Leadership Team

Live the change you desire… today!
Greg Dekker (ITS Director)

Last month I made an effort to humorously expound on the benefits of older age in the workplace! This month I want to say a few words about why I think youth in the workplace is equally as important, with a bit less effort at being humorous!  

The underlying point of this Schulz comic for me is that there are advantages to youth that we want to maintain. We (older folks!) harken back to our youth and wish we could relive it. Why? Well, some reasons are obvious. But when it comes to work, let me suggest what I think may be less obvious:

• The will to change: We may have, at times, heard someone say something like this, “The organization needed to change, but lacked the will to do it.” Remember this: age and experience may help to provide the strategies and timing for change, but youth may more often provide the will, determination, and perseverance for needed change. We may need to “employ” the youthful among us who have the will to lead and live needed organizational change!
• If you’re going to do something, do it now: Diane and I have often wondered whether we sometimes lived our lives in the future. That is, was our work so consuming that we did not live in the moment, for today? Our children (all Millennials) have taught us to enjoy and appreciate today, to live and work for today, and enjoy it. We can learn from our younger workplace peers that life is to be lived today, not tomorrow. And this applies to work, too. If it’s worth doing, do it now. Do it today. If change is needed, start down the “change road” and live the change that is needed today. Adopt a new mental model and apply it every day.
• Dare to risk failure!: Our son has told us several times, “Mom and Dad, I can’t believe you took us four little kids into the place you did to do translation! What a risk you took at age 27!” Diane and I have contemplated that, and asked ourselves, “Would we ever consider taking four young children into a difficult and remote location now at age 61?” Answer: Unlikely. Youth has greater capacity for risk and the demands that risk brings. If organizational change is risky, if implementing new ideas is risky, if stepping out into new areas of engagement with new strategies is risky, then let us encourage the younger risk-takers among us to lead it and build it. This kind of risk might better be led and energized by our younger colleagues. Not that us “aged” folks can’t do it, too. But for real change to succeed, there may be a needed ingredient of “naivete”, determination, and vigor to be contributed from the “youthful” among us!
• Does commitment = years?: We (aged folks) in SIL have lived by the principle that “commitment” is the hallmark of our work. We have come to believe that few things in this work can be done with a short-term commitment mentality. Yet increasingly, among our younger colleagues, we see that those who “job-hop”, so to speak, are often very gifted and talented, and that change of work context can be energizing and can be life-changing both for the individual and for the organization they join. Let us be open to bringing on talented, gifted, energized young people to help us grow into the next stage of organizational ministry. Let us welcome the ideas they bring with them. And let us be open to how their worldview and motivations affect the ideas to which we introduce them.
• Immediate and Tangible impact: Finally, in a recent debrief with a number of participants from SIL who attended the global Micah Network consultation, we were discussing the missiology and theology of integral mission, a concept introduced to the Church and to Mission by C. Rene Padilla who passed away this year. Padilla viewed evangelism and social responsibility to be indivisible, like “two wings of a plane”. Interestingly, his idea for misión integral was derived from a bread recipe he developed called pan integral! In our SIL discussion, one of the participants, a Millennial who has served with SIL for a little over a year, said something to this effect, “The whole idea of integral mission is a big motivator for people my age, of my generation. We want to do things that have an immediate and tangible impact on peoples’ lives.” Granted, some impact clearly takes time, and we depend on the Holy Spirit to bring transformation, but we can as an organization respond to community needs in such a way as to affect more immediate and tangible change. 

Our relevance as SIL and our appeal as an organization to those who will be taking our place in the work of language development and Bible translation should be influenced by young people whom God is raising up to take up this work with us, and after us. They will help us develop ideas and strategies that will bring “immediate and tangible impact” to people, and bring us closer to accomplishing our Vision of flourishing communities. 

Translation Resources Update
Paul O'Rear

Here are some updates on Paul O'Rear's SIL International Translation Resources team.

Translator's Workplace (TW) - Paul O'Rear: The latest version of KTOT (Release 4) has been sent to Faithlife and is now available to TW users. We have also recently published 8 Easy Reader Version Bibles from our friends at the Bible League, including: Awadhi, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Nepali, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, and Thai. These are in addition to the 12 other ERV Bibles that have been released earlier. TW is releasing the (1) late Tom Tehan’s brand new Exegetical Summary of Ruth (revised by Jim Pohlig), (2) the SSA of Mark by John Tuggy, and (3) the Kankanaey Back Translation (Philippines – Larry Allen).

Paratext - Paul O'Rear: The latest release of KTOT for Paratext is otherwise available here: Download Paratext Extras - Paratext Bible Translation Software. Paratext 9.2 Beta includes the first examples of a new type of XML-based resource, which will enable us to include resources from a variety of sources more easily in the future. These first examples include two Greek lexicons – the Liddell, Scott, Jones (LSJ) “A Greek-English Lexicon” and “A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament” by Abbott-Smith. We anticipate using this for many more resources in the future including KTOT.

Translator's Notes (TN) - Randy Groff: There are now TN drafts available in Paratext for every chapter of the New Testament except Matthew 21-28 and Romans 15-16. There is still a lot of finalizing to do in certain other books, but the end of the TN volumes for the New Testament is in sight. Meanwhile, the main focus of our TN team has turned to helping the Bamboo project effort on the Old Testament.

• Linda Neeley, one of our senior editors, has retired after twenty years of working with TN. She was our most prolific editor, helping to finalize the Song of Songs, Mark, Luke, Hebrews, and many portions of other books in both the OT and NT. She also mentored many of our TN authors and exegetical checkers. She is sorely missed.

KTOT (Key Terms of the Old Testament) - Paul McLarren: Contributors to the KTOT Project continue their work. We had anticipated a release in August but struggled to get enough new articles through the editing process to justify a new release at that time. But we expect a major release of new articles on Old Testament key terms early in November. We’ll use publications like this Translation Newsletter to announce the release and you can expect news of our progress around the time of the BT Conference next month.

• Paul O’Rear’s Translation Resources Team has made KTOT available on the Logos Translator’s Workplace (TW) platform. If you have Translator’s Workplace, just type in KTOT when you bring up the Library window, and double click on Key Terms of the Old Testament.
• Click here to make sure you have the latest KTOT release for Paratext. Scroll to the bottom of the page and follow the directions there for download and installation.

Psalms Project - Katie Frost: The Psalms: Layer by Layer team has been spending many hours in the scholarly "weeds," as it were, exploring nuanced details of the Hebrew text for Psalms 1-6. So far, our work has focused on three primary layers of analysis:

1. Grammatical: What do the grammatical constructions bring out in the text? What constructions remain ambiguous--hopefully to be clarified by study at other layers?
2. Participant Analysis: Who are the participants? How are they distributed throughout the text? How do they relate to each other?
3. Semantics: What are the semantics of the words individually? How do those work together to inform the larger-level semantics? What figures of speech or cultural background information are needed to understand what's being communicated in the text?

In the coming months, we will continue exploring the text on the syntax/discourse and poetic levels before attempting to synthesize everything into useful materials for translators. Please pray that we can have initial resources ready for field testing in early 2022!

Translation Resources of the Future - Mike & Rachel Aubrey: They are working on several  new projects - Prepositions, Conditional Clauses, and Rhetorical Questions.  We will be looking for ways to integrate these projects into existing translation resources, exploring ways to make it more accessible to translators via Translators Workplace and Paratext, as well as integrating it into other comprehensive research tools and environments.

Prepositions - Greek and Hebrew prepositions are often discussed using simple English glosses, such as Greek prepositions ἀπό ‘from’ and ἐκ ‘out of’. But this oversimplifies and misrepresents their function. Consider the use of Greek ἐκ and ἀπό in (a) in contrast to (b). If ἐκ and ἀπό mean ‘out of’ and ‘from’ as they are translated in (a), then what are they doing in (b)? 

• (a) ἠγέρθη δὲ Σαῦλος ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ‘Saul got up from the ground’ (Acts 9:8) and ἐξελθε ἐν τάχει ἐξ Ἰερουσαλήμ ‘Get out of Jerusalem in haste’ (Acts 22:18)
• (b) ἔχιδνα ἀπὸ τῆς θέρμης ἐξελθοῦσα ‘a viper came out because of the heat’ (Acts 28:3) and χρυσίον πεπυρωμένον ἐκ πυρὸς ‘gold refined by fire’ (Rev 3:18)

With this prepositions project, we hope to elaborate on these kinds of semantic relationships, describing not just how prepositions function, but how a variety of senses are related to one another. We delve into both the concrete uses of prepositions as they encode basic spatio-physical relationships as well as the more abstract, metaphorical senses. In doing so, we aim to bring to light some of the implicit information about the use of Greek prepositions in the NT, with an extension of the same principles to Hebrew prepositions in the OT.  

Conditional Clauses - We are collaborating with Steve Nicolle (Associate Professor of Linguistics, Canada Institute of Linguistics) who has led a team of graduate students in compiling a database of all the conditional clauses in the NT. The database categorizes the function of each conditional and provides notes for translators. We hope to help Steve and his team bring this project to fruition by checking and reviewing the database, as well as providing any helpful feedback that might clarify and improve this resource. Steve describes his initial motivation for the project: 

• In 2013, I was facilitating a workshop on hortatory and expository discourse analysis for translation teams in Ethiopia. During the workshop, we discussed 1 Thessalonians 3:6-8 (ESV), "But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you – for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord."
• Many of the translators were puzzled by this. In verses 6-7, Paul twice mentions the faith of the Thessalonian believers. Why, then does he express doubt as to whether they are standing fast in the Lord in v.8? It became clear that in some of the translators’ languages, a direct translation of the if-conditional expressed doubt or uncertainty. The translators then realized that using a conditional construction in their translations would convey a wrong impression, and one of them asked whether there was a checklist of conditional sentences in the New Testament, similar to the checklist of rhetorical questions in SIL's Translators Workplace. There wasn’t. But a number of translators and consultants said that a checklist of conditionals would be a helpful resource.

Rhetorical Questions - Randy Groff approached us regarding rhetorical questions in the Hebrew OT. SIL's Translators Workplace has a checklist of rhetorical questions in the Greek NT, but a similar resource does not yet exist for the OT. To fill in this gap, we hope to compile a list of questions in the OT, with a helpful categorization for how they function in the discourse.

A New Sign Language Consultant
CW

Harry Harm announced that GSLT (Global Sign Languages Team), Asia-Pacific Region has approved CW as a new Sign Language Consultant. In August 2021, CW completed the requirements to be named a sign language translation consultant. During her time with SIL she has worked with several of the sign language translation projects in the GSLT Asia-Pacific Region, providing exegetical support for both every verse translation and chronological Bible translations. She has also provided both formal and informal training in translation and linguistics. While in Asia she has worked with APSDA (Asia Pacific Sign Language Development Association), one of SIL's Deaf partners, in various fields, including ethnoarts and trauma healing. CW completed her graduate work in linguistics in 2020. She is continuing her Hebrew studies and is currently comfortable conversing in several of the sign languages used in the region.

Ancient Translation Techniques Research
Theo van der Louw

The Pike Center announced that Theo van der Louw (SIL Translation Consultant, Global Consultant Pool) has been awarded a small grant of $1,975 for a project on “Translation Theory and Translation Techniques in the Septuagint and Their Relevance for the Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible.” This research addresses a problem faced by translators of the Old Testament, namely, evaluating variants in the manuscript source texts to help identify the probable original text.  The research hypothesis is that a better understanding of the translation techniques of the Septuagint translators will help us to better explain the “deviant” renderings in the Septuagint—helping to identify when they reflect translation techniques versus when they give evidence for an actual variant in the Hebrew source text. Theo has a Doctor of Theology (2006) from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.

Through its Small Grants Program, the Pike Center sponsors research and publications that address issues faced by language communities on the margins of society. 

Now With The Lord

Bob Gunn (1941-2021)
SIL Americas

Our fellow laborer in this translation ministry, Robert Dean Gunn, arrived in heaven on 24 Aug 2021, at the age of 80, after battling cancer. He was born in California and then moved to Kansas where he graduated from High School. He then attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, where he met his wife, Mary. Together they joined Wycliffe Bible Translators and served 55 years in the Americas (Mexico, Colombia, and Panama).

In Panama they were joined by Bob's sister, Judy Gunn, and together they assisted the Buglere people in completing the New Testament in 1987. Judy has continued working on the Buglere OT. Bob also served in various administrative capacities - Vice-President at Wycliffe USA (1989-1993), the Central America Regional Director for SIL and Wycliffe Americas, and at various times serving on the SIL and Wycliffe USA Boards. In recent years, Bob’s ministry focus was in support of the Panamanian Wycliffe Global Alliance organization (PAAM), until his retirement in December 2020. Additionally, for the past 23 years, Bob was one of the pastors at Crossroads Bible Church in Panama City, Panama (1998-2021). A fund has been set up in Bob’s memory to be used for the third reprint of the Buglere New Testament, and for the printing of Genesis and the Old Testament Summary. Email Judy Gunn for further information about this fund. 

Marilyn Laszlo (1933-2021)
SIL Pacific

A true inspiration, our colleague, Marilyn Joyce Laszlo passed away on 9 September 2021 at the age of 88, from Alzheimer's. Marilyn was passionate about her work in the Hauna village of Papua New Guinea, the importance of missionary work, helping young people discover their career path, her family, her Hungarian heritage, and her upbringing in Indiana. Today, thousands of people are serving in missions worldwide because of the impact of hearing Marilyn speak, from reading her books, and watching her films. John Chesnut, president/CEO of Wycliffe USA says: "Marilyn's legacy is still touching lives in Hauna Village and across the world. Praise God that this faithful servant is now in the presence of her Savior."

Marilyn was born on 20 July 1933, in Gary, Indiana, the daughter of Martin and Lois (Jewell) Laszlo. She was raised on the family farm and loved helping her dad in the fields. In 1959, she graduated from Bryan College (History) and then in 1961 received her M.A. in Education from Indiana University. Marilyn started her professional career as a high school teacher in Michigan and Indiana. Then in 1965, she joined Wycliffe Bible Translators and studied linguistics at SIL Oklahoma. In 1968, she arrived in Papua New Guinea and was allocated to the Hauna village on the East Sepik River. She worked with the community on translation, and the New Testament was dedicated in 1990.

Marilyn then returned to the U.S. to take care of aging parents and spent the next twenty years sharing her story of God's faithfulness as a speaker, and through books and videos. One of her most memorable moments was bringing a team of six Hauna men to the United States for a speaking tour, which even included speaking at a Billy Graham Crusade.

During her lifetime, she recorded four record albums, with her singing partner Beverly Entz, at Pinebrook Recording Studios (owned by Gaither Music Group and now called Gaither Studios) in Alexandria, Indiana. In addition, she had three books written about her work in Hauna: Miracle in Cannibal Country; Mission Possible; and A is for Airstrip. She also had three movies created about her work: Mountain of Light, Come By Here (Angel Award winner), and Return to Hauna (Angel Award winner). 

• Obituary link Chesterton, Indiana. A Celebration of Life service was held 5 October 2021, at 6:00 p.m. (EST) at Liberty Bible Church.
• Click here for information about the livestream of the service.
• Christianity Today article - Died: Marilyn Laszlo, Bible Translator Who Inspired Missionaries to ‘Come By Here’

Useful Links

• Online Bible Translation 2021 Conference - held virtually, online 15-19 October
• Email the SIL International Translation Resources Office
• International Translation Services ILS Google page
• Join/visit the SIL Translation Resources Google Group
• Visit the public SIL.org/Translation site
• Purchase Translation Resources at SIL.org/Resources/Publications 
• Mentoring Matters website 
• Consultant Development and Management Team

SIL International Translation Services Leadership Team

• Greg Dekker - ITS Director
• Dick Kroneman - International Coordinator for Translation Research and Practice 
• Paul O'Rear - International Coordinator for Translation Resources
• Phil King - International Coordinator for Translation Training and Development
• Nathan Payne - International Coordinator for Oral Translation Services
• Bill Bivin - Global Consultant Pool Director
• Brian Migliazza - Bamboo Project Manager

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Copyright © 2021 SIL International Translation Services. All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because of your interest in translation updates.

This newsletter is produced by SIL International Translation Services. Editors are Tuula O'Rear and Brian Migliazza. It contains items of interest for translation personnel within SIL and related organizations. It includes notices of upcoming conferences and workshops, announcements of recent dissertations and journal articles, and pointers to useful information related to translation.
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