APRIL 2024 Translation News

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Apr 2024 Translation News

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International Translation Services (ITS)

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.

April 2024 In celebration of Resurrection Day…He calls us “friends" - Greg Dekker Open Translator’s Notes (OpenTN) - Paul O’Rear New Consultants Fabé Traoré - Africa Alice Reed - GCP Mats Eriksson - GCP Americas Area - 10 New Consultants Interviews with Translation Consultants Feruza Krason (Eurasia) Bonifacio Paulo (Africa) News and Updates FLExTrans Success in the Philippines - Tim Stirtz Global Publishing Services Needs You - Dustin Wilson Exegetical Summaries Survey Follow Up - Jim Clarke Taste of Translation - Jim Roberts Biblical Hebrew for Consultant Training - Bob Carter Coming Events Global Missional AI Summit (April 2024) Orlando Anglo-Lusophone Africa TCDW (AFTRACT) (May 2024) Kenya Francophone Grammar for Translation (May 2024) Cameroon EMDC (May 2024) Thailand TCDW (Jun - July 2024) Asia Literacy and Education Global Gathering (July 2024) Kenya OBT Global Gathering (July 2024) Bali, Indonesia Indonesian TCDW (LPKP) (Jun - Sep 2024) FLEx Parser Workshop (Dallas) Aug 2024 Narrative Discourse Analysis for Translation Workshop (Oct 2024) Kenya

Useful Links SIL Translation Services International Leadership Team Area Translation Coordinators

In celebration of Resurrection Day…He calls us “friends”

• Greg Dekker - International Translation Services

Director I am remembering that in many places around the world, this week is Passion Week or "Holy Week", a week in which people take time to remember and even imitate the suffering that our Savior, Jesus, endured to "purchase" our redemption through suffering and death. In the Philippines, two events during Holy Week are striking to me. First, the "flagelantes" whip themselves and even crucify themselves as an act of penance for sin and as a way of earning favor with God. Second is that Saturday in the Philippines is called "Black Saturday" because many consider that is the day when "God is dead" and there is the belief by some that if you are in an accident on Black Saturday, and die, that your soul will be eternally lost (because God is dead, the resurrection has not yet happened.) So, very, very few people travel and move about on Black Saturday, out of fear. Some may view these traditions and practices as uninformed. And, indeed, based on what we know from Scripture, Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection eliminates the need for such practices and traditions. I'm reminded of the words of the hymn, "Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow." I'm amazed at the level of self-imposed suffering of the Flagelantes in the Philippines, their dedication and self-imposed suffering to earn God's favor and appease His wrath over their sin. But in my heart I know it's unnecessary. Our Father is not angry with us! And He is not looking for a self-imposed payment! Jesus took on himself the wrath of God, that by faith we might be his children and joint heirs with Him of eternal life. Indeed, John 15 tells us he calls us friends! Let us take time to offer our praise and thanksgiving to God for what he suffered to accomplish our salvation. Thanks be to God!

Open Translator’s Notes (OpenTN)

• Paul O’Rear Last October at the ETEN Summit it was announced that SIL would take on the effort to enable our Translator’s Notes series to be more openly available. SIL’s commitment here has been to remove our dependency on proxy publishers that have the potential of inhibiting broad access to this valuable SIL resource, as well as to make them available in such a way that partners in the Bible Translation (BT) movement can help with translation into other languages of wider communication, and to facilitate their use in ever-wider types of software scenarios. In this process and transition, SIL will maintain quality control and ownership. With the support of XRI, the Innovation Lab, and unfoldingWord, we have been making rapid progress on ‘rebasing’ the TNs to an open source Bible, the Berean Standard Bible (BSB). The BSB was chosen at the recommendation of the Innovation Lab who are funding the project. At this stage we are only making the adaptations necessary for the notes to work well with the BSB version. I am happy to report that we are approximately 60% of the way through the project already. I attribute that to the excellent work of several of our partners – 1) XRI did the initial work with the aid of AI to find the equivalent BSB phrases and insert them where we had other versions; 2) several colleagues from unfoldingWord have provided the bulk of the evaluation and adaptation work needed, and 3) the fantastic management that our OpenTN Manager Anna Marie Ghantous has provided overseeing the project. We anticipate the initial adaptation work to be completed in the early-May timeframe. Over the next month we are looking forward to unveiling a public website where the OpenTNs will be available to the public as well as to developers looking to incorporate this content into tooling supporting Bible translation. Please join us in giving thanks to the Lord for enabling and equipping us to take on this ambitious project, and also for the great work of Anna Marie and all our colleagues at XRI, the Innovation Lab, and unfoldingWord.

New Translation Consultants Fabé Traoré (Africa), Alice Reed (GCP), Mats Eriksson (GCP), and ten consultants in America's Area

New Consultant

• Fabé Traoré (Africa) Congratulations to Fabé Traoré (SIL Burkina Faso) on completing all the requirements for certification as a Translation Consultant. Drew Maust (Translation Domain Team Leader for Francophone Africa) announced that the SIL Africa Area accreditation committee for translation consultants has examined the dossier submitted for Fabé, and they are pleased to say that the committee formally recognize him as a Translation Consultant. Martine Solomiac has been his primary mentor since the beginning of his CiT program in

Fabé was born in Samogohiri, the province of Kénédougou, in Burkina Faso. In 1993, even though he was still part of the majority religion, he began working with the Bible translation program (New Testament and portions of the Old Testament) for his own language community, Dzùùngoo. Then in 1997 he became a believer after having translated Luke and OT Bible stories. The following year he collaborated with Pastor Traoré Siaka to establish a local Mennonite evangelical church in Samogohiri. After obtaining his baccalaureate (2006) he attended FATEAC (Faculty of Theology of the Christian Alliance of Abidjan) completing his Master's degree in Theology (Bible translation option) in 2011. Currently he is a doctoral student in organizational sociology with a transformational leadership and holistic development option at the University of the Christian Alliance of Abidjan (UACA). He also pastors the Samogohiri Evangelical Mennonite Church.

New Consultant

• Alice Reed (GCP) Congratulations to Alice Reed, of the SIL Global Consultant Pool (GCP) on completing all the requirements for certification as a Translation Consultant, under the guidance of her supervising mentor, Meg Billingsley. Bill Bivin supervised her CiT progress. She began serving in Bible translation in 2017 with SIL Americas North as a Language Program Facilitator, first in Naskapi (northern Quebec) and then Western Swampy Cree (northern Manitoba). In 2022 she joined the SIL Global Consultant Pool as a CiT and also began consulting for the Blackfoot (southern Alberta) helping them begin a translation project in their community through facilitated discussions and training. She participated in a number of mentored checks for translation projects in Canada, South Asia, Nigeria, and the DRC. In 2021 she successfully completed the Asia TCDW. Alice is currently finishing a PhD (Intercultural Studies) at Fuller Theological Seminary, with a research focus at the intersection of Bible translation, translation studies, and missiology. She has an M.A. (Biblical Exegesis and Linguistics) from Dallas Theological Seminary (2015) and a B.A. (Anthropology and French & Francophone Studies) from Columbia University (2009).

New Consultant

• Mats Eriksson (GCP) Congratulations to Mats Eriksson, of the SIL Global Consultant Pool (GCP) on completing all the requirements for certification as a Translation Consultant, under the guidance of his supervising mentor, Theo van der Louw. Mats lives in Uppsala, Sweden, and his first contact with Bible translation was when he attended the 1989 High Wycombe, UK, SIL General Course. Back home at university he studied Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, linguistics, and Mandarin Chinese, completing a PhD in Greek (2012) at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. In 2018, he got into contact with Wycliffe Sweden and was able to attend checking sessions of a Eurasia language community. In 2020 he became a member of Wycliffe Sweden and then joined GCP 2023. Mats successfully completed the TCDW in 2022. In addition to further checking with other Eurasia translation programs, he has also translated two books from Chinese into Swedish, which taught him a lot about translation and provided valuable experience.

Americas Area Consultants

• 10 New Translation Consultants Rick Floyd announced that SILTEC-4, an Americas Area workshop for translation consultants which utilizes the Competency Based Certification system (CBC), took place in Lima, Peru, and finished on 14 March 2024. For two weeks, 20 Consultants-inTraining along with 13 mentors and facilitators (plus five members of the technology and logistics areas) focused on the relationship between linguistic knowledge and translation, as well as on the practice of consulting. They are thankful to the Lord not only for the learning and the fellowship, but also that 10 people are now certified as translation consultants. Antonio Pop (Guatemala - Tzutujil speaker). AECM (Asociación Educativa y Cultural Maya) Benito Fernández (Mexico - Mazatec speaker). Sociedad Bíblica de México Felix Cayco (Peru - Huánuco Quechua speaker). Pacha Waray Misael Herández (Guatemala - Achi speaker). AECM Oscar Sánchez (Peru - Apurimac Quechua speaker). AIDIA (Asociación Interdenominacional para el Desarrollo Integral de Apurímac) Pedro Samuc (Guatemala - Tzutujil speaker). AECM Jaqueline Morales (Colombia). SC (Seed Company) Eliset Gómez (Colombia). SC Diana Molina:(Colombia). SC Alex Larkin (US). SIL (not pictured)

Top Row Left to Right: Antonio Pop, Benito Fernández, Felix Cayco, Misael Herández, Oscar Sánchez, Pedro Samuc (kneeling) Bottom Row: Jaqueline Fuenmayor, Eliset Gómez, Diana Molina, Alex Larkin (not pictured)

Interviews with Translation Consultants We asked two experienced Translation Consultants, Feruza Krason and Bonifacio Paulo, to share their thoughts concerning their work and philosophy of ministry.

Feruza Krason-

Eurasia

How did you get interested in Bible translation? It was God who brought me into Bible translation work. By his grace I had gotten to know an American woman who was getting involved in Bible translation herself before I was even a follower of Jesus. Soon after I became a Christian in 1994, I was invited to become a part of the Uzbek Bible translation team by her. She said that she realized the potential I had when she saw how quickly I learned English. At first, I did not think I could translate the Bible, because I was afraid of changing it. But, God in His grace assured me that He would protect His word as He had been doing for thousands of years and that He would give me the strength, the wisdom and the knowledge to translate the Bible. My journey of 22 years of translating the Bible into my mother tongue began in 1994 and culminated in 2016 when the whole Bible was published. I became a translation consultant in 2018 and now work with several groups that are translating the Bible into their languages. What gets you excited when you work with others in Bible translation? As I work with translation teams, seeing the understanding of the love of God and His character come upon those who are working with His Word never ceases to amaze me. I truly see the power of the the Word of God that is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, doing just this. People who encounter the Scriptures are convicted of their own sin, see the need for repentance for them and truly start understanding that fellowship with God is possible. A majority-religion translator once asked me: “How can I have the love that I see in the eyes of my Christian brothers and sisters?” I had the answer, and he knew that I had the answer. This answer is in the Bible. I was able to tell him that when one loves Jesus, one knows how to love sacrificially and the only way to be able to love this way is to have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus and made new in Him and through Him. What is your consulting philosophy? I see my role as a consultant primarily as a representative of Christ to those who don't know him yet, and as an example of being a follower of Jesus to those who do. Yes, our work involves a lot of technical details, checking the text, making sure that everything is accurate, natural and acceptable, however if we do not live out the words we are translating, nothing we do or say will have an effect. I'd like to think that I am discipling the future disciples of Jesus Christ in my work of consulting. What translation resources do you really value? I love that I have access to many translations through programs like Paratext, Logos, Bibleworks, etc. However, what I value the most is being able to communicate and share with my fellow consultants, translation advisors and translators via community of practice meetings, seminars and workshops. How do you share your translation discoveries with others? I try to present during translation conferences, seminars and community of practice meetings. Can you share about a time when you realized you were wrong and what you learned from it? Of course, there are many times that I am wrong and it's not easy to admit mistakes or wrongdoings. Something that sticks out is a couple instances when someone asked a question and instead of answering those questions with patience and understanding or giving someone else an opportunity to answer those questions and concerns, I was brisk and made them feel foolish for asking a question. I regret those moments and I have learned that no matter how tired I might be, no matter how tight the time might be, I still need to be sensitive and considerate towards those who are working with me. What are your top tips for someone starting on a career path in Bible translation? Stay humble no matter how gifted you are, ask for help wherever you may be, learn how to ask questions, but most of all know that God is sovereign and he will lead you and show you the way. Share something that you learned from a mentor or from a mentee. I work with some really, really smart people. I learned countless things from my mentor on my path to becoming a consultant, but two key takeaways were the importance of communication and being humble. What do you see as the place of the church in Bible translation? Body of Christ is who we are, and the Bible says that we are all gifted by the Holy Spirit to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. If one part of the body does not do what it needs to do then the other part will not be able to function properly. I know that without the prayer and the financial support of the church none of my work would be possible. I rely on the prayers of my brothers and sisters on my daily walk with Christ, on my relationships with my family members and friends, and on my work of bringing the word of God to those who don't yet have it yet in their heart languages. What would you say to young/aspiring translators? Don't be afraid to tell God what you would like to do. Don't be afraid to be vulnerable, God has prepared the way, the hearts and the team or the teams that you will be working with, He is preparing you to do His will therefore trust your Father in heaven and keep learning what you need to learn so you can become part of the team that is bringing the Word of God to people who've never heard Him say that He loves them.

Bonifacio Paulo-

Africa

How did you get interested in Bible translation? In the early 1990s, when I was in my second year at the Evangelical Seminary, an SIL staff was invited to come and offer a three-month module named ‘Introduction to Bible Translation’. One of the requirements for this module was to read the Bible in one’s mother language. During this module, I realized that for many years of attending church services and now in the Seminary, I had been reading the Bible in Portuguese, but it never spoke to me. Now reading the Bible in my mother language, I began to understand it much better than when I read the Portuguese translation. At the end of this module, one thing remained in my heart: like me, there are thousands and thousands of people who read the Bible and don’t understand it, simply because they read in a language they do not understand. This became a strong motivation for me to get involved in Bible translation. What gets you excited when you work with others in Bible translation? What gets me excited is when I work with others in Bible translation for the same end goal - “eradication of Bible poverty” which does not remain a concept but a life, when lives are transformed. What is your consulting philosophy? The Bible is not for the eye but for the ear. When I do consultant checking, I imagine being in a community of believers where one person reads and many people listen. How do you share your translation discoveries with others? At the moment, my main platform where I share my translation discoveries are translation workshops and conferences. Can you share about a time when you realized you were wrong and what you learned from it? Being wrong is not my choice, it is my nature. It is only by God’s grace that I am right. I have no specific time that I can say I learned because of the wrong I did. Learning for me is a lifestyle and most of my learning opportunities come out of the wrong I do. What are your top tips for someone starting on a career path in Bible translation? Humbleness; respect for others; the consultant has no final say, the language group does; ongoing learning; every context is unique and therefore different from other contexts. Share something that you learned from a mentor or from a mentee. I learned from one of my mentees that, although he had not shown some of the key competences for a translation consultant, I needed to trust him to lead some checking sessions, and it turned out that he proved to be more capable than I thought. What do you see as the place of the church in Bible translation? In my personal view, Bible translation is an integral part of the Great Commission, and the church plays a key role. This is why when I look for an impact partner in any translation project, the church is priority number one on my list. Who identifies the need for a Bible translation? Who makes the decision to start the translation? Where are the translators from? Where are the consultants from? Who owns the language? Who distributes the Bibles? Who uses the Bible? Who benefits from the Bible? My answer to these and other related questions is one – the church. What would you say to young/aspiring translators? Always have in mind that you are translating an ancient yet living text into a present and living language for a real language group that needs to experience a life transformation.

News and Updates FLExTrans Success in the Philippines

• Tim Stirtz When the Ayta Mag-Antsi translation team of the Philippines used FLExTrans to produce a first draft of Ruth, their response about revising it was “Oh, this work will be very light”. The draft was already so engaging that five widows became deeply engrossed in the story as they excitedly discussed the details with one another. This SIL Blog article includes the full story: Connecting the Dots. FLExTrans is a new tool for translating between related languages. Not only does FLExTrans enable translation projects that were not otherwise possible, but it also speeds up the process of drafting without introducing human error. Other parts of the process also go more quickly.

Maybe you know of a situation that would benefit from related language adaptation. A limited trial of FLExTrans can help you evaluate, see this FLExTrans Field Trial Invitation. FLExTrans training is happening at EMDC in May and online in October. For more information, contact Tim Stirtz. Note also the upcoming 12-23 Aug 2024 FLEx Parser Workshop, in Dallas, Texas. The translation quality of any language is greatly improved when parsers are used, since they point out inconsistent writing, help determine word breaks, check words for grammatical consistencies, and contribute in many ways to the grammatical analysis of the language. When Paratext is integrated with FLEx, the quality of translation can dramatically increase through the rigorous application of these parsers.

Global Publishing Services Needs You

• Dustin Wilson Are you a keen editor or skilled proofreader? Do you enjoy book layouts, graphic design, or composition? Do you enjoy completing a project start to finish? Do you know XML or HTML? GPS is recruiting future leaders and team members to join our department. We value experienced staff who have SIL domain knowledge and experience, but also seek staff who have backgrounds in project management, proofreading and editing, desktop publishing and composition, or the creation of digital publications. We work closely with incoming personnel to match them to available openings and mentor them in the publishing process. We have openings for Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editors, Copy Editors, Proofreaders, Composition Specialists and Graphic Designers. For a complete list and more information, please visit our Career Page. For inquiries, please email Global Publishing Services.

Exegetical Summaries Survey Follow Up

• Jim Clarke First, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of you who responded to our Exegetical Summaries (ES) Series survey. We appreciate all of you who took the time to respond. Your answers are proving invaluable in helping us to know how ES is helping and where it potentially can be improved. We also want to let you know that we have selected the three most helpful responses and awarded each of the respondents a gift card. If you were not one of those top three, please know that your responses were still extremely helpful. And if you did not get a chance to respond earlier, the survey is still active and we welcome your answers. You can use the following link; ES Survey. (Please note that all three gift cards have already been awarded.) We also have created a document to reflect what we heard in your responses and to address some of the concerns expressed. In addition, this document gives some background and history of the ES series. Here is a link to that document. We encourage all of you who responded, as well as those interested in ES, to take a few minutes to look at this write-up. Thanks again for all of your assistance in helping us know what is working, what could be improved, and how we can better get the word out about Exegetical Summaries.

Taste of Translation

• Jim Roberts - Global Partnerships Taste of Translation (ToT) is a two-day participatory exploration designed to be held with church entities who represent a particular language community. While the primary beneficiaries of these workshops are the local church entities themselves, outside agencies are also able to observe the results of the workshop and make their own program decisions accordingly. The goals of the exploration: Help church entities become more aware of their local language dynamics: dialects, boundaries, attitudes, and vitality. (Day 1) Allow church entities to ‘taste’ the process of Bible translation through translating a short Gospel story into their language orally and written. (Day 2) Based on 1 and 2, help church entities decide on their need for and commitment to local language Bible translation. ToT was developed by Bible translation agencies in Indonesia and is also being deployed in Nigeria, Sudan, the Caribbean, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Nicaragua. The ToT modules have been adapted from proven tools used in Planning the Future of your Language. ToT has proven particularly effective in contexts where multilingualism is prevalent, where languages are shifting, and where language vitality is decreasing. The ToT exploration places the church entities at the center of the Bible translation conversation, guiding them to analyze their language context, consider the languages used in church entity ministries, and define how local language materials might enhance the ministries of the church entities. Often ToT is a first step that positions the local church entity at the center of the decision making and enhances ownership of subsequent decisions and projects. In the months ahead, Global Partnerships is facilitating the use of ToT to explore the need for and desire for translation in languages where no Scripture is currently available. The first catalytic event to expand the use of ToT will be held in the Democratic Republic of Congo later this year..

Biblical Hebrew for Consultant Training

• Bob Carter You can sign up now for the next Biblical Hebrew for Consultant Training session which will start this October 2024. This program is part-time, specifically focused on enabling working translation consultants to improve their Hebrew with just an investment of part-time study. Email Bob Carter for further information. The course consists of three parts: (1) ten months of online immersive Hebrew learning, (2) a one-month intensive Hebrew course in Israel, and (3) a follow-up year of online training in Hebrew syntax, discourse, and translation issues.

Coming Events 2024 - 09-11 April. Global Missional AI Summit. Orlando, Florida. Click here to register. Speakers: Spence Green, James Poulter, Daniel Whitenack. 2024 - 18-31 May. Anglo-Lusophone Africa TCDW (AFTRACT). CiT training, Ruiru, Nairobi Kenya. Contact Jonathan van den Broek. Jointly organised by SC, SIL and BTL. 2024 - 1-28 May. Francophone Grammar for Translation. Cameroon. Registration form. 2024 - 27-30 May. EMDC. Registration is Open. Chiangmai, Thailand. 2024 - 10 June - 19 July. TCDW (Translation Consultant Development Workshop). Hybrid. For information email Angeline Foo. 2024 - 01-05 July. Literacy and Education Global Gathering , Nairobi, Kenya. Registration information. Contact Diane Dekker or Elizabeth Roettele. 2024 - 15-19 July. OBT Global Gathering, Bali, Indonesia 2024 - 24 June - 06 September. Indonesian TCDW (LPKP). For information email the Director. 2024 - 12-23 Aug: FLEx Parser Workshop, Dallas, Texas. The translation quality of any language is greatly improved when parsers are used, since they point out inconsistent writing, help determine word breaks, check words for grammatical consistencies, and contribute in many ways to the grammatical analysis of the language. When Paratext is integrated with FLEx, the quality of translation can dramatically increase through the rigorous application of these parsers. 2024 - 09-29 October. Narrative Discourse Analysis for Translation Workshop. Nairobi, Kenya.

Useful Links Bible Translation Consultant Competencies / YouTube channel for BT Competencies Journal of Translation SIL Senior Translation Consultants Email the SIL International Translation Office International Translation Services ILS Google page Join/visit the SIL Translation Resources Google Group Visit the public SIL.org/Translation site Find Translation Resources (both free download and for purchase) SIL.org/Resources/Publications Bamboo Project website Mentoring Matters website - Mentor Training Courses Consultant Development and Management Team Progress.Bible Information Memoriam website

SIL Translation Services International Leadership Team Greg Dekker - ITS Director Angeline Foo - 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 Viji Mathew - Director, Global Consultant Pool Brian Migliazza - ITS Operations and Project Management

Area Translation Coordinators Angeline Foo & Amber Jasa - Asia Greg Carlson - Pacific Drew Maust - Francophone Africa Jonathan van den Broek - Anglo-Lusophone Africa Tim Robinson (interim) - Eurasia Rick Floyd & Dwight Shaver - Americas Yuki Yamada - Global Sign Languages Team (GSLT)

Copyright © 2024 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. Tuula O'Rear and Brian Migliazza are the editors 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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