Once the first draft of scripture has been completed in a particular language there are still several steps that need to happen before it can be published and widely used in the community.
One important step is checking that the translation accurately reflects the meaning of the original biblical languages. Sometimes this is done by educated mother-tongue speakers who have studied biblical languages, whereas other times the expertise comes from outside of the language group and is done by means of a back-translation into a language of wider communication.
Another important step is to check the translation in the language community to ensure that the language used by the mother-tongue translator is natural and understandable to all in the community.
Jonathan, working as a Vernacular Media Specialist in Mbeya, Tanzania, has just been helping with this stage of the checking process for the Malila language in the Mbeya-Iringa translation project.
Tat-Yu works with Kimalila and is going to do some community testing on the latest draft of the Mark translation. She asked if I would help put it into audio form for her to allow test groups to listen in order that she may assess comprehension levels. But, of course I would help! She still has a long way to go before Mark is finalized, approved and eventually printed. But I’m glad I can help like this. As of today, I’ve finished editing two chapters and will hopefully have the other two ready for her this week. read more
It’s exciting to see God bringing the Malila one step closer to hearing his word in their mother-tongue.
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Tags: Bible translation, Malila, Tanzania, translation checking
[...] the language community, to check that the translation is natural (see an example of that happening here), and experts in biblical languages to ensure that the meaning is faithful to the original [...]