MAY 2024 Translation News

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May 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.

May 2024 Challenges we encounter when the focus in Bible translation is on innovation and acceleration - Greg Dekker Translation Training & Development Updates - Phil King Bible Translation Conference Forum of Bible Agencies International Church-Based Bible Translation-Exegetical Resources Community of Practice-Bible Translation Training and Development-30 May 2025 New Consultants Emily Gaddis - Africa Théophile Anzetaka - Africa Karita Obst - Asia Levi Cruz - Asia Interviews with Translation Consultants Olivia Razafinjatoniary (Africa) Richard Brown (Eurasia) News New International Coordinator for Oral Translation Services - Kris Toler Journal of Translation Updates - Freddy Boswell & Drew Maust Next BT Conference 2025 in Thailand - Angie Foo & Reinier de Blois Papua Workshop - Angie Foo Translation of Health Materials - Steve Woolston Coming Events 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 BT Conference 2025 (Oct 2025) Thailand

Useful Links SIL Translation Services International Leadership Team Area Translation Coordinators

Challenges we encounter when the focus in Bible translation is on innovation and acceleration

• Greg Dekker - International Translation Services

Director At the 2023 mid-year face-to-face meeting of the Translation Development Group (TDG), which meets during the Forum of Bible Agencies’ (FOBAI) yearly meeting and also, usually, mid-year, we took up two discussion topics which, by vote, were assigned the highest priority by the participants. At the preceding FOBAI meeting in Athens, TDG participants listed around 20 topics that we thought would be useful for the TDG to discuss in ensuing meetings. This topic was one of two chosen for our discussion at the mid-year meeting. We had a pretty diverse group at the mid-year meeting, with members from Story Runners, Word For The World, Wycliffe Global Alliance, Wycliffe UK & Ireland, DOOR International, Seed Company, SIL, Wycliffe Associates, UBS, and Bible League. Those who took part in this discussion shared concerns around the following issues: We are making every effort in projects to work smarter, but it is sometimes the case that it seems we are more focused on working faster. The group wondered why that might be and whether it worked against quality. The group wondered whether their perception was justified that it seemed that funding was often funneled or directed toward whatever is the current view of what accelerates a project, or what is innovative, and that other equally valuable investment opportunities to support Bible translation may receive little or no attention, such as Scripture engagement or literacy. They wondered if project sustainability could suffer as a result. Some had experienced a situation where projects were being told that their budget will be lowered if they cannot meet new expectations, or sometimes ended if they were not willing to adapt to new models. They wondered if this was justifiable, and how this felt pressure could be mitigated in some way. Some voiced that there may be undue pressure being put on teams who may not yet have had the opportunity for adequate training to produce translations at an accelerated pace. In the end, it was said, these projects often produced very literal translations that are poorly understood and thus, often, not used. In this time of fast change and a desire to accelerate access to God’s Word by those who do not yet have it, there was a strong perception that the BT movement is often caught up in “the next big thing”, and that quite often inter-organizational meetings tend to focus or consist of conversations around “the next new thing.” Some felt that more time and thought c/should be given to quality assurance processes in our efforts for greater efficiency in the BT process. Some felt that there seems to be a tendency, in our efforts to find/birth a more efficient and accelerated BT process, to project what works well in one place and prescribe that context-specific success to many other places. It was felt that what might work well in one place, may not have good success in another. If you’ve read many of my articles, you’ll know that I have given these concerns a lot of thought. It occurs to me that we have a great need at this time in the Bible translation movement to create “spaces” where difficult questions like this can be frankly discussed in a grace-filled environment, and where any conclusions we come to can be shared by all and implemented in a unified way. My mind goes to the passage in Acts 15 where the question of circumcision came up for new believers. In verse 2 we read that there was “great debate”, after which it was determined that the issue should be taken to leaders in the Church. In verse 6 we read that the apostles and elders looked into the matter and again there was “much debate”. Then a letter was sent with the unified decision and with this description of how the conclusion was reached, “...it seemed good to us, having become of one mind…” There was disagreement, then debate, then agreement was reached after unity of mind was achieved. It seems to me that there are some very important, ethical issues that we are currently facing in the BT task that need to be openly discussed, maybe even debated, and efforts made to reach some unified decision on our (collective) Bible translation methods and mission. We may shy away from frank, face-to-face debate on such important issues thinking that we all contribute differently to the Task, and each is important in different ways. That is true, and I would not disagree. However, the methods we choose can have both synergistic and conflicting effects on us as partners, and on the Task in general. We need to approach our collective Task in ways that are mutually enabling, contribute to quality and sustainable local projects, and serve to honor practices which give due consideration to the concerns of others in the Movement. Maybe the Translation Development Group of FOBAI is a good place for this kind of conversation. Or the BT Conference? Maybe together we can develop an alternative forum for this. What do you think?

Translation Training & Development Updates

• Phil King Here’s an update on a few things connected to training and development. Bible Translation Conference. All the papers and presentations from last year’s BT Conference (2023) on Quality in Translation have now been processed, and those we have permission to share publicly are available on the btconference.org website. Select ‘past conferences’ > ‘2023’ > ‘proceedings'. At the same time, plans are well underway for the 2025 Conference. The steering committee has been expanded to include the Seed Company and the Word for the World, alongside DIU, SIL and the Nida Institute, and is being co-chaired by Angeline Foo and Reinier de Blois. Together we are planning towards holding the conference at Horizon Village, near Chiang Mai, Thailand, from 21-25 October 2025. Please put the dates in your calendar! We hope to offer online participation of a similar level to 2023, for those who cannot make it in person. FOBAI. (Forum of Bible Agencies International) I had the great privilege of spending a week in Sao Paulo at the start of April, meeting with participants from Bible agencies around the world, but I particularly appreciated hearing more about the Latin American context. The four big topics were translation, minority communities, youth and orality. I also attended the Translation Development Group, at which we celebrated several years’ work on revising the FOBAI Statement of Qualifications for Translation Consultants. This has now been approved by all the CEOs present and is available on the FOBAI website. The new statement has a more explicit competency framework, which can shape the processes used by organisations seeking to develop and certify translation consultants. CBBT-ER. (Church-Based Bible Translation - Exegetical Resources) In my role with the ETEN Innovation Lab, I’ve recently met Stephen and Tricia Stringer (SRV Partners), who are developing Exegetical Resources (and training) for Church-Based Bible Translation, particularly using what is being termed the FIA approach to translation (Familiarisation, Internalisation, Articulation). The emphasis is on helping translators really get to grips with the biblical content they are translating by thinking deeply about the scenes, structure, characters, etc and then using embodied techniques to internalise that content before trying to retell it in their own language. The Stringers have developed materials to support this for several Bible books including the gospels, Acts and Genesis. You can access some of the materials at https://www.cbbt-er.org/ to see what they are like. At this stage they are just beginning to develop resources for the epistles, and would love to find some translation teams willing to test out the materials for Ephesians in order to see what works and what is most useful. This could be through a short focus group conversation about the materials they have currently developed, or through a more extensive trial of the materials, which the Stringers could observe. If this is something that sounds interesting and fits with your project, please email Stephen or Tricia. CoP-BTTD. I have also invited the Stringers to present at the next Community of Practice on Bible Translation Training and Development (on EMDC online), which should be held on 30 May, so come along then if you’d like to engage more. Look out for more info on EMDC.online.

New Translation Consultants Emily Gaddis (Africa), Théophile Anzetaka (Africa), Karita Obst (Asia), and Levi Cruz (Asia

New Consultant

• Emily Gaddis (Africa) Congratulations to Emily Gaddis (SIL Nigeria) on completing all the requirements for certification as a Translation Consultant. Jonathan van den Broek (Translation Domain Team Leader for AngloLusophone Africa) announced that the SIL Africa Area accreditation committee for translation consultants has examined the dossier submitted for Emily, and they are pleased to say that the committee has formally recognized her as a Translation Consultant. Bryan Harmelink was her primary mentor and Mark Gaddis was her CiT administrator. After attending a Bible dedication in 2011, Emily decided to pursue a ministry in Bible translation. She completed a BA in Religion and French and then her Masters in Linguistics with a concentration in Bible translation. She was recruited for the first Convergence consultant training cohort and was mentored by Bryan Harmelink and Olivia Razafinjatoniary. She studied under them and others in Italy, Madagascar, and the Hopi Native American homeland in Arizona. These included two separate two-week consultant trainings at the Nida Institute in Italy. She developed a keen interest in Oral Bible Translation (OBT) and the Psalms. She was assigned to Nigeria where she served as a Translation Technical Advisor for the ut-Hun language program for three years. She attended the Nigeria Consultant Training (NITRACT) workshop in 2020 giving a presentation on Oral Bible Translation. She completed her Translation Consultant Growth Plan doing supervised consultant checking for several different language projects from multiple Bible translation organizations. At the Tajti people’s request, she hopes to continue working closely with them on their Old Testament. She plans to further develop her OBT and Psalms consulting skills as well and is excited to help SIL Nigeria (NRG) start their first OBT projects as part of the Mark Road Initiative in Nigeria (40 languages in 4 years).

New Consultant

• Théophile Anzetaka (Africa) Congratulations to Théophile Anzetaka (CITBA DRC) 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 Théophile, and they are pleased to say that the committee has formally recognized him as a Translation Consultant. His primary mentors were Liz Raymond and the late Londroma Bangoy. Théophile has been involved in translation ministry since early 1987 in Ibambi DRC. He received basic translation skills under the tutelage of translation consultants Loren Koehler and Fred Frieke. He then received further consultant training in Kenya at Ruiru in 2007 and also in 2008. Théophile also attended other workshops in Bunia and Isiro DRC, providing further professional development. He has extensive experience from his work as a Bible translator (New Testament) in his mother tongue, the Budu language. The Budu NT was dedicated in February 2023.

New Consultant

• Karita Obst (Asia) Congratulations to Karita Obst (SIL Asia) on completing all the requirements for certification as a Translation Consultant. She has been mentored and trained by translation consultants from Asia, Europe, and the USA. Dr. Steve Doty (SIL Asia) highly recommends her for the role of translation consultant and trainer. Dr. George Payton (DIU Professor) says: Karita has demonstrated the range of skills consultants need to have, and her experience in translation provides a good foundation for her growth as a consultant. Karita was born in Lapland, Finland. She completed an MA in German language and culture with teacher’s qualifications (2001) at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She worked as a German lecturer at the LUT University, Finland (2002–2008). She did her initial SIL training at SIL Equip (now SILA) in Australia and joined SIL in 2009. She has since gained experience in translation advising, Scripture engagement and training. Karita hopes to be a "Galatians 3:12 Consultant" and clothe herself in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience as she serves translation teams. She loves to read and is currently reading books and articles on shepherding in Biblical times. In addition to Finnish, some of the languages she speaks are English, German, Mandarin and Swedish. Karita and her husband, Steven, currently live in Alamo, Texas, on a fruit and vegetable farm.

New Consultant

• Levi Cruz (Asia) Congratulations to Levi Cruz , Translator's Association of the Philippines (TAP), on completing all the requirements for certification as a Translation Consultant for both Narrative and NonNarrative texts under the guidance of his supervising mentor, Lani Mallorca (TAP Senior Translation Consultant). He has also been mentored by Margie Lumawan, Roger Stone, and Carol Pebley. Levi completed a Bachelor's Degree in Translation Studies in 2003 at De La Salle University in Manila. Afterward, he felt the Lord's calling to serve in Bible translation when he heard about the ministry of Bible translation through a church friend and after attending a New Testament dedication. He joined the Translators Association of the Philippines (TAP) and in 2005, completed a certificate in Applied Linguistics in Manila. Levi speaks Filipino, English, Spanish and Cebuano.

A few years later, Levi helped in a series of translation workshops for the Ayta Bible Translation (BT) projects and worked with the Language Assessment and Documentation team of SIL Philippines, where he served as a Language Documentation Specialist. After obtaining his MA in Linguistics from Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2016, he then received his certification as a Linguistics Consultant. He then became involved in some language development activities of SIL, such as orthography and materials development and Community-Based Language Development workshops. In 2017, Levi took on the role of a translation facilitator for the Eastern Subanen BT project, and in 2021, due to the increasing need for translation consultants in the Philippines, Levi attended the TCDW and started his CiT program, where he began a series of mentored checking assignments of Philippine language translation programs. Levi particularly enjoys learning about new cultures and helping other translation teams improve their translations through linguistics.

Interviews with Translation Consultants We asked two experienced Translation Consultants, Olivia Razafinjatoniary and Richard Brown, to share their thoughts concerning their work and philosophy of ministry.

Olivia Razafinjationary- Africa How did you get interested in Bible translation? My background is translation studies but I started interpreting and translating for the missionaries coming to my church when I was in high school. In 2000, while attending a Bible Study retreat in Nairobi, in a bus to the retreat center, I was sitting next to Nancy Bagge, an SIL member. She was asking me what I was doing in life. At that time, I was preparing my MA in Translation studies. She went on asking me a number of questions leading to the most important one, asking me if I am interested in Bible Translation. I couldn’t believe what I heard since it never came to my mind that Bible Translation still existed because the Bible was translated in my language in 1835. A few days later, Nancy took me to the BTL center in Upper Hill, Nairobi, and I met with two SIL leaders. God opened the way for me to fulfill my heart’s desire: to give back to Him what He has given me. And that was God’s timing as Katy Barnwell, through Luke Partnership, launched BT in local languages in Madagascar. She invited me to attend the first workshop, as an observer, and from that very time, I fell in love with Bible Translation. What gets you excited when you work with others in Bible translation? I love being with the translators, to get to know them, their language, their family, their culture, and to share life with them. I am so excited when I see that the translation flows so natural and clear in the target language and yet still faithful to the original language, to see the joy in the translators’ faces, and to hear them exclaiming: “It's really our language! We understand it!” What is your consulting philosophy? I am to serve and to help the translators to provide the best rendering in their language. I am helping them improve the quality of their work through my questions. We are to produce a beautiful translation that is accurate and clear that our audience would love to read and use as they grow in the knowledge of God and His Word. What translation resources do you really value? Every resource is valuable and complimentary to help us in our task. We are blessed with the increasing number of available resources nowadays. It is also a blessing to be able to choose between resources in English and in French, depending on the language I’m working on. For exegesis and translation suggestions, I’m using mainly the UBS Handbook for Translators (English or French), the SIL Translators’ Notes (English or French), ESV16 or NBS11 Enhanced resources, and of course 6 to 8 Bible versions, including Traduction Française de Modèle, when available, in my Text collection. When dealing with hard to explain expressions in a target language, I read Bible commentaries. Can you share about a time when you realized you were wrong and what you learned from it? Accepting to be wrong is an act of humility, a character that I, as a consultant, greatly value when being with the translators. Just recently when checking on 1Cor 15:3. The translation of the Greek “first of all” was ambiguous as there are two different interpretations: “first of all” and “most important” or “of a great importance”. The team chose the first interpretation. As I slept on it, I re-checked and studied it more with exegetical helps, I was convinced that the second interpretation would be the best option here. I wrote back to the team and explained my opinion. I apologized and asked them to change the translation. What I learned from that experience is that different Bible versions may lead us to a less better interpretation if we are not careful in studying the source language. What are your top tips for someone starting on a career path in Bible translation? In everything, walk with God. People first: build trust in order to gain the best. Humility, teachability, and perseverance. Keep learning and have wisdom and discernment. What do you see as the place of the church in Bible translation? The church is the central point in Bible Translation: the work starts with them and at the same time, they are the end-users. What would you say to young/aspiring translators? Translating the Bible is like climbing a high mountain. When you start, you are full of energy because you are starting a journey with your friends although none of you are fully equipped but what you have all together will take you to the top. Along the way, some of you may need to be pulled, some may need to be pushed, some may need to rest. Some other friends may join you on the way, others may decide to stop. Yet, you are helping each other to reach your goal. The more you progress in your journey, the more beautiful scenery you see around you despite your fatigue. And when you reach the top, you all will be tired but you will celebrate together.

Richard Brown- Eurasia How did you get interested in Bible translation? As a college student I was seeking for answers to eternal questions and looking everywhere except the Bible and Christianity. In my third year, while studying in England, I told God that if he would guide me, I would follow him no matter what he asked of me. Shortly after that, two young Christians visited me and prayed for me. I had a spiritual experience in which I believe God revealed to me that he sent Jesus to be our guide and the Bible to be our guidebook for faith and practice. I believed in Jesus and the Bible and experienced a rebirth in the Spirit. A Christian gave me a Bible (Amplified Version), and I began studying it carefully. It was so enlightening! When I returned to Duke for my fourth year, I arranged to start studying Greek, even while finishing my degree in physics, so I could read the original text. Then I enrolled in Duke Divinity School, which let me focus for three years on biblical languages (Greek, Hebrew, and Biblical Aramaic, along with Syriac and Targumic Aramaic) and on Exegesis of the Greek text of various New Testament books. The Divinity School was quite liberal at that time, but because of my trust in the Bible and my careful study, the theology that formed in me was evangelical. I absolutely loved the Bible and the light it provided, and my heart ached for people who lacked the Bible in their language. One day I saw a poster for Wycliffe, and the Lord seemed to affirm to me that I should apply, so I did. The next day the poster was gone. Not long afterwards a friend pointed to a new female student he had met, and the Lord said clearly, “This will be your life partner.” She could have been a Buddhist for all I knew, but in fact she was an evangelical Christian hoping to serve with Wycliffe! We got married in May 1973 and attended SIL that summer. What gets you excited when you work with others in Bible translation? No one comes to the Bible with a full understanding of its depth, especially less experienced translators, so it is exciting when I can help them apply exegetical principles to a text and see them come to understand it in a more complete way. Then there is the challenge of translating that text. Quality Bible translation is like finding solutions to an endless series of puzzles. It is exciting to help people find solutions, or at least possible solutions, that they can submit to community testing. And if community testing shows people can finally understand the passage and can discuss how it applies to their own lives, values, and beliefs, then that is very exciting. What is your consulting philosophy? Philosophy: I believe a translation consultant should bring to the table a deep knowledge of the books of Scripture being translated and the translation issues common to these books, as well as the biblical language involved. This means the consultant should generally limit their services to those books or genres or languages they know well. For example, although I can work with Hebrew, I don’t know enough about translating Hebrew poetry to qualify as a consultant. I leave that to people better qualified than me. Ideally the consultant should focus on one language family and be familiar with the grammar and lexical semantics of that language family and the commonalities of culture that inform the semantics, and the translation problems that that language and culture present. The experienced consultant will then bring to the table a knowledge of the issues that other translators have faced in similar languages, the solutions they tried that didn’t work, and the solutions that did work. I liken a consultant to a bee that visits many flowers, collecting pollen from one and sharing it with another. Much of my expertise comes from what I’ve learned and observed from working with translators, and I can share their insights with other translators who face similar challenges. A key method is asking the translators insightful questions. This leads them to recognize problems in the translation and discuss solutions that might be better. But the goal is not just improving the translation during the consultant session. My chief goal is to train the translators to ask those same questions of themselves as they do the work of translation. We begin with prayer. And when it’s difficult to find a solution or decide between multiple wordings, we ask the Lord to guide us. Sometimes I put a chair for Jesus at the table as a reminder that we’re dependent on Him for guidance. We don’t need to pray formally all the time; we only need to ask the Lord to help us with whatever thorny issue we’re discussing. Practical philosophy: I also recommend to translators that they put chairs at their translation table for people they know and want to reach with the Scriptures, like a mother or grandmother, a sibling or friend, a son or niece. I sometimes do this at a consultant session as well. Then I sometimes ask the translators whether those people can understand a particular wording correctly. And if there are naïve speakers available, we ask them, but there is also a need to see the results of community testing. What translation resources do you really value? Paratext, BibleWorks (no longer available for sale), BibleGateway for its wealth of translations and study Bibles, and my own library of reference works, both digital and in print. How do you share your translation discoveries with others? I published articles in the past, and now I make presentations where appropriate. But most of my sharing is via email, usually in response to questions from translators or consultants. A senior translation consultant should not only be a researcher and trainer but also a person to whom other consultants can bring their questions and disputes. What are your top tips for someone starting on a career path in Bible translation? Work with translation consultants from the beginning, as well as engagement consultants. The consultants can help you get started on the right path, and they are available via email to answer questions or discuss issues that arise. What do you see as the place of the church in Bible translation? Looking at history, we see that with only a few exceptions, translations have been done by individuals. An early exception is AD 382, when Pope Damasus asked Jerome to revise the Latin Gospels, for which there were multiple versions by unknown translators, and also the Psalms. Then Jerome went on to translate the Hebrew Bible into Latin. But the Pope didn’t pay him; his translation work was financed by private supporters, particularly Paula of Rome. As happens with most new versions, people were hesitant to abandon their traditional version in favor of the new one, and the Roman Catholic church didn’t make Jerome’s Vulgate their official translation until the 16th century. As for Luther, he had to hide his location while translating, and so did Tyndale. The King James Version is one of the first translations that was undertaken and approved by an institutional church. Today, however, the Roman Catholic Church is active in translations, while most Protestant translations involve parachurch organizations. These organizations are essential to facilitating quality translation, but the language belongs to the believers in the community that speaks that language. It is their language, their community, and their friends and relatives whose eternal destinies are at stake. So the ideal is to work with respectable and well-motivated believers in the language community who want to produce a comprehensible translation in their own language for the purpose of edifying themselves and reaching their community. If churches of other language communities can work together to this end, that is ideal, but the translation is for the target language community and should ideally be owned and guided by the believers in that community who speak that language. What would you say to young/aspiring translators? First of all, acquire a good knowledge of the Bible, basic linguistics (especially cognitive semantics), and basic cultural anthropology, because lexical meanings are concepts that are constructed and shared by members of a culture. And plan on getting further training in these fields whenever opportunity allows. Then learn the features of the target language’s cultural and linguistic features to the extent possible. Remember that they are the ones who best know their own language and culture, but some of that knowledge is subconscious and needs to be drawn out or simply observed. Hopefully you can help them do that. Any other comments? In selecting people to train as translators, in addition to the spiritual, intellectual, educational, and moral qualifications needed for God’s servants, there are some cognitive traits that are particularly needed for this role. The person needs to have a good grasp of cultural relativism and be as free as possible of its opposite, which is ethnocentrism. To some extent this can be learned. It enables a person with Theory-of-Mind (ToM) skills to learn other cultures and ways of thinking and then construct a realistic ToM for people in those cultures and interpret them accordingly. This combination of abilities is needed for good cross-cultural communication and for effective cooperation in a diverse team. More importantly for translation, these abilities are needed in order to exegete Scripture accurately and translate it accurately and comprehensibly. Consultants need this for evaluating a translation. The need for abilities like these led Eugene Nida to say that “Good translators are not made, they are born.” But that’s an overstatement, because they need training, mentoring, and experience, in addition to these cognitive abilities, along with humility and a receptivity to guidance from the Holy Spirit.

News New International Coordinator for Oral Translation Services

• Kris Toler SIL International Translation Services announces that Nathan Payne will be stepping down from his role as International Coordinator for Oral Translation Services. Nathan will be focusing full time on the Spoken English Bible + Resources (SEB+R) project, an ambitious project currently funded by The Seed Company and Faith Comes By Hearing which will be the first ever oral translation of the English Bible. Our hope is that the SEB+R will serve as a model for oral translations worldwide and will include resources for translators who are engaged in oral translations of the Bible in other languages. Our sincere thanks and appreciation to Nathan who has provided much needed guidance for ITS's contribution to oral Bible translation, oral storying, and oral translation strategies and training. I am pleased to announce that Kris Toler will be joining SIL International Translation Services, succeeding Nathan Payne as the International Coordinator for Oral Translation Services. Kris has been serving with SIL Mexico for 12 years with his wife Susan and their two children, Kieran and Elyse. They serve in an oral Bible translation project with the Central Pame. Kris has also served as the Director of Language Program Services for the Mexico branch for the past three years. Kris's 2020 Master's thesis focused on the process of internalization and its importance in Oral Bible Translation. Kris is passionate about serving oral communities and encouraging the use of oral methodologies in translation projects. Kris will be transitioning to his position over the next five months. Please join ITS in welcoming Kris!

Journal of Translation Updates

• Freddy Boswell & Drew Maust We are pleased to announce the release of the first issue of the 20th anniversary year of SIL’s Journal of Translation. You can peruse the Editor’s Foreword for an overview of the contents. We are delighted with the continued high quality of submissions to JOT. This issue, 20.1, marks the end of our historic and usual publication release protocol, in that JOT will now begin a rolling release of articles. That is, rather than waiting for a batch of approved articles to be published in a single issue, once an article has successfully gone through the publication process, it will now be released immediately onto the Web. All subsequent articles published this year will thus be considered part of JOT issue 20.2. This follows a new publishing standard we are commonly witnessing in the online journal world. We welcome submissions of your translation scholarship! We the editors are more than happy to give you a response as to whether we believe your submission is a fit for JOT, what perhaps needs to be done to ready it for publication, and assist you as necessary in the submission process that we use in our Scholastica platform. Articles are welcomed in languages other than English. Here is a link to our recent MAP post which gives a comprehensive list of JOT articles published to date. Perhaps in your perusal, ideas will be generated and you will be inspired to submit your current research. You will notice in 20.1, a type of article that we label a short note, authored by Stephen Levinsohn on the Hebrew particle gam. Do you have similar type short studies that you wish to present to the world? We need to beef up our book reviews, as we believe this could be a better utilized avenue for sharing knowledge. What recently published books are you reading that would benefit fellow translation practitioners? Check out this recent one from Ernst Wendland for ideas as to content. We look forward to hearing from you. Please email us for further information.

Next BT Conference 2025 in Thailand

• Angie Foo and Reinier de Blois The next Bible Translation Conference will be held at Horizon Village, Chiangmai, Thailand on 21-25 October 2025, with Angie Foo and Reinier de Blois as co-Chairs. The steering committee includes Seed Company (James Maxey), The Word for the World (Regine Koroma), Nida Institute, DIU, and SIL.

Papua Workshop

• Angie Foo The first ever mother-tongue translator training workshop (MTTW) was held in Papua on 08-12 April, with some twenty language teams, and around 80-90 people. As 8:00am drew closer on Monday morning 8 April, the small group gathering outside the multipurpose room of Hillcrest School in Sentani, Papua (the easternmost province of Indonesia) grew significantly larger. This date had been keenly anticipated by these mother-tongue translators, and the excitement was palpable. The workshop was intended as a “taster” – to gauge interest and to understand where the teams were in terms of translation progress and skill levels. This kick starter event was organized under the auspices of the Evangelical Church of Indonesia (Gereja Injili di Indonesia - GIDI) and attended by language teams working with other denominations and different organisations that had Wycliffe, Pioneers, Ethnos360 and Kartidaya personnel. For the few MTTs who have been around for a while, the last time they had attended such a workshop was a decade ago. For many others, this was new and exciting. In all, there were 2 trainers, 59 MTTs, 23 facilitators (a mix of expatriates and Indonesians) and 3 Indonesian translation interns representing 20 language teams from all over the island - from the Bird’s Head to the Mamberamo swamplands to the Central highlands – and supported by a team of 3 administrative and IT staff members. The spirit of camaraderie grew stronger with each passing day, as did the sense of pride in their own language and culture. Teams were eager to lead songs in their own language during morning devotions and break times. During group discussions they seized opportunities to talk about their translation choices for key terms and they were keen to know how other languages solved the difficult translation issues that they were struggling with. The five days flew by quickly and for all intents and purposes, the goals of the workshop were realised, the feedback has been positive, and the move to hold this event annually was met with enthusiasm.

Translation of Health Materials

• Steve Woolston Steven Woolston (SIL Portfolio Director, Innovation/ Development/ Experimentation - IDX) announces SIL's Health and Language Initiative. While language projects that support health and wellbeing are not new for SIL, IDX is incubating a more cohesive and integrated approach in partnership with others in SIL that seeks to provide global support for local health related projects. This support may come in the form of language engagement funding (as available), partnership development, marketing and communications, and access to global health networks. Oftentimes, translation of health materials into local languages is a critical need for minority communities and SIL is frequently approached to provide translation services for various partners. If you are currently involved in a health and language related project, aware of such a project, or even just want to learn more, we’d love to hear from you! Please email us with any thoughts or questions.

Coming Events 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. 2025 - 21-25 October. Bible Translation Conference 2025. Horizon Village, Chiangmai, Thailand.

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 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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