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Translation News JULY 2022

BMBrian Migliazza · Jul 5, 2022, 6:39 PM · Last modified: Sep 28, 2026, 11:39 AM
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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.

July 2022

  • Some thoughts on Quality, Urgency, and Value - Greg Dekker
  • Resources Survey - Matthew Harley 
  • Checking Naturalness - Albert Bickford
  • Discourse Digital Training - Stephen Levinsohn 
  • Who Catches What? Contributions from All Sides of the Consultant Desk - Kathy Taber
  • 1 & 2 Kings Photo Companion
  • Recruiting for new Director of Global Consultant Pool

Useful Links
SIL Translation Services

  • International Leadership Team
  • Area Translation Coordinators

Some thoughts on Quality, Urgency, and Value
Greg Dekker

At first look, these appear to be unrelated concepts.

Let’s start with “value”. In his full text of Vision 2025, John Watters makes this statement, “Whenever we propose changes to our current way of working, we need to make sure that value will be added to the end-results of the ministry, and that value will not instead be reduced or destroyed.”

As 2025 quickly approaches, it’s natural for all of us as partners to start thinking that we are not going fast enough; that what we are doing isn’t producing the rate of progress toward realization of the Vision that the theme of Urgency in the Vision calls for. So we may shift our focus to increasing speed. If we’re not careful, that effort to increase the speed of progress can diminish the value of what we aim to achieve.

“Quality” and “value” are linked here. If the value of what we aim to accomplish is linked to the quality of the product, then it follows that quality should be maintained, which, in turn, points to the need to pay close attention to proven methods and best practices in our haste to add methods and practices that serve to speed the end result. To affirm this, Watters, in the same paragraph says, “Clearly the 2025 Vision will require radically new ways of operating. These do not necessarily mean that all current ways of working are no longer valid.” So, the question that we within the BT movement need to wrestle with, and are wrestling with, these days is, “What strategies need to be added to existing proven methods and practices in order to speed the realization of the goal contained in Vision 2025?”

SIL International Translation Services,  in collaboration with the Pike Center for Integrative Scholarship, has recently launched a series of symposia leading up to the BT Conference 2023 which aims to examine this notion of quality in BT by attempting to answer questions like, “What is quality?” “Who is responsible for quality?” and “How is quality to be maintained in BT?” These questions, of course, must be balanced against a sense of urgency. Questions here may include, “What is a reasonable degree of quality?” “How can that degree of quality be determined?” And “How do we as partners in the BT movement compliment one another in achieving both a needed increase in the rate of progress as well as maintenance of a high measure of quality in translation?”

I hope you will join in the discussions culminating at BT Conference 2023.

Resources Survey 
Matthew Harley 

Matthew Harley is asking for participation in this survey (available in English and French) from everyone who is involved in translation or language development projects in any way and who uses linguistics as part of their work. 

  • The purpose of the survey is to help the International Linguistics Department better serve the needs of everyone in SIL, whatever domain they are in, by providing relevant linguistic training opportunities and resources in appropriate formats. 
  • The survey will hopefully also facilitate better interaction between domains and help individual entities provide the best support for new workers on the field.
  • We would like as many of you as possible to complete the survey before the end of July 2022, so that the results can be processed in August and passed on to the Area Coordinators in September. 
  • As more people complete this survey, the more helpful it will be for others. The survey is currently available in English and French, and hopefully soon in Spanish. 
  • Just click on the survey link and select the desired language in the top right-hand corner. 
  • Please also encourage others in your entity and domain to complete the survey. Your participation is greatly appreciated.

Checking Naturalness
Albert Bickford 

In March and April, the Global Sign Languages Team held a joint workshop of linguistic and translation consultants focused on checking naturalness in sign language video translations. It was held entirely online, with 2-hour sessions, once a week for six weeks. The focus was on grammatical constructions that are very common in sign languages but which are uncommon in spoken languages. It could thus serve as a model for a workshop focused on a spoken language family. Since many translators work from a source text in a spoken language, there is a strong tendency to carry over grammatical constructions from the spoken language into the sign language and not taking advantage of constructions that better fit the signed modality. This proved to be a very fruitful interchange of ideas and insights. In each session, after an introduction to the nature of the signed constructions and the known typological variation, we examined actual drafts of translations which contained problems related to the construction, discussed how they could be improved, and viewed the solutions that the translation teams came up with. The goal, which people felt was achieved, was to increase the awareness of these modality-specific devices and discover better ways to incorporate them in translated materials.

Two interesting issues came out of our discussions. The first is the awareness that although there is a lot of similarity in the grammars of different sign languages and the devices they use, there is still more variation than some people have assumed. So, it was very helpful to be reminded of the need for linguistic analysis to pin down exactly how a construction works in a particular sign language and what, in fact, is natural. This is especially important for aspects of discourse structure (participant tracking, information flow, etc.), which appear to vary quite significantly among sign languages. The second issue is that in many deaf communities, there is a sizable number of people who have acquired the language after the ideal age for acquisition, and thus do not have full native-like command of the language. To communicate clearly to these people, it may in fact be necessary to avoid using some very natural grammatical structures that they may not have acquired--thus letting go of some naturalness in order to achieve clarity for at least these signers. Although many times naturalness is necessary for clarity, it isn't always the case that making a translation more natural makes it more clear to the target audience.

This first offering of the workshop was limited to SIL members and just a couple others. We hope to offer it again in October-November, with some improvements, and invite consultants from partner organizations that are also involved in sign language Bible translation.

Discourse Digital Training
Stephen Levinsohn 

Stephen Levinsohn, Tim Stirtz, Steve Nicole and Binzy George have been working on an online discourse certificate that will  be integrated into the Digital Training Library. Stephen writes:

  • The course is supposed to be in simple enough English that mother tongue translators who studied English at High School can follow it.
  • So, we need to avoid technical terms whenever possible, illustrate every point several times, and set questions for them to answer so that we can be sure that they really have understood the contents.
  • Quite a challenge!
  • Please continue to pray for us as we revise each module again and again until everything is as clear as possible.

Who Catches What? Contributions from All Sides of the Consultant Desk
Kathy Taber 

Kathy Taber gave a presentation at the June 2022 Dallas Translation Consultancy Brown Bag Lunch on the contributions by various parties in the translation consultant checking process. Email Kathy for the Word document and PowerPoint slides for her presentation.

This presentation looks at statistics taken from consultant checks done in a variety of different languages and situations by a number of different consultants checking a variety of books of the Bible. The purpose for this analysis is to see whether careful statistics taken from these consultant checks can reveal anything regarding how each different role can contribute valuable input, resulting in a more accurate, clear and natural translation.

There are five charts - four of these represent data from a consultant check done in a different language. One of the charts represents the data from consultant checks done in a variety of languages by a number of different consultants. Included with each chart is some explanation about the process of the check and analysis of its data. Also included is background information about the participants involved in each check.

The amount and the variety of each participants’ ability to contribute to the check varied based on the differences of the situation and the consultant’s style of checking. However, some common conclusions can be drawn from all five of these charts. Even with a variety of situations and differences in years of experience and training, each of the people involved in a consultant check have important roles to play toward producing a translation that is clear, accurate and natural. Leaving any of these roles out of the checking process risks producing a translation that is less accurate, clear and natural.

Each participant in the consultant check looks at the translation from a different vantage point and can recognize or cause valuable information to be revealed which otherwise might be missed. As a result, the text is adjusted and so results in a better product which has potential for even greater impact.

In any given situation those in different roles (consultant, facilitator, MTT, UNS etc.) may have more or less to contribute in different areas based on their experience, knowledge and training and what roles they are needing to fill, while others are still getting up to speed in those roles.

A consultant’s style will affect the amount of contribution from the various participants. The consultant can facilitate participation of all parties, based on who he/she directs questions to and how.

1 & 2 Kings Photo Companion

Todd Bolen (BiblePlaces.com) now has available the Photo Companion to 1 & 2 Kings with more than 7,400 PowerPoint slides illustrating the Books of 1 & 2 Kings by chapter and verse. You can also download a free small selection of photos for 1 Kings 9 PowerPoint (200 slides) and for 2 Kings 8 PowerPoint (170 slides).

First Kings begins with Solomon ascending the throne and continues through the reigns of Ahab and Jehoshaphat. The photo collection has more than 3,400 slides. Highlights include:

  • Photos of the capital cities of Judah and Israel--Jerusalem, Shechem, Penuel, Tirzah and Samaria.
  • Models of Solomon's temple, palace and the city of Jerusalem.
  • Artifacts illustrating the food, clothing, weapons, vessels and material culture of the early monarchy.
  • Archaeological remains of the cities fortified by Solomon and the high places of Jeroboam.
  • Cultic objects including altars, standing stones, bulls and Baal and Asherah figurines from the land of Israel and the ancient Near East.
  • Reliefs and inscriptions of Shishak's invasion of Judah and Israel.
  • The setting of Elijah's confrontation with the false prophets on Mount Carmel.
  • Scenes of Jezreel, vineyards and winepresses reminiscent of Ahab's encounter with Naboth.
  • Locations of major battles, including Ramah, Mizpah, Gibbethon, Aphek and Ramoth Gilead. 

Second Kings continues with the dynasty of Ahab, celebrates the faithful reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah, and then comes crashing down with the Babylonian conquest. The photo collection has nearly 4,000 slides. Highlights include:

  • Hundreds of reliefs, inscriptions and seal impressions of various individuals and events, including the Tel Dan Inscription, the Mesha Stele, the Lachish Reliefs and the Babylonian Chronicles.
  • Numerous aerial photos with labels identifying significant locations.
  • Imagery related to Israel's and Judah's wars with the Moabites, Edomites, Arameans, Assyrians and Babylonians.
  • Setting of events in Elisha's ministry, including Dothan, Shunem, Jericho and the Jordan River.
  • Scenes from the reign of Jehu--his wild ride, his assassination of two kings and his depiction on the Black Obelisk.
  • Archaeological evidence from Hezekiah's reign, including his religious purges, his administration, his fortifying of Jerusalem and his famous tunnel.
  • Artifacts and discoveries related to the fall of the northern kingdom and the conquest of Jerusalem.

Recruiting for new Director of Global Consultant Pool

Seeking new Director for Global Consultant Pool: Bill Bivin is concluding his term as Director of the Global Consultant Pool. If you are interested in this position, or someone you know is interested, or you can make a recommendation, please contact Ian Hollman (Associate Executive Director, International Language Services), or Greg Dekker.

Useful Links

SIL Translation Services

International 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 - Operations Manager

Area Translation Coordinators

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Copyright © 2022 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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