Wycliffe UK blog

Lisa is working with translation projects into various languages in Papua New Guinea. Lately she has been involved in a workshop for seven languages where mother-tongue translators had drafted the book of Mark.

The seven language groups finished translating the book of Mark in the February module and took copies back to their villages for checking between modules. They returned in June with a list of corrections that needed to be made to create a nearly final copy that will be checked by a trained consultant hopefully in the next few months.

So this module has been spent making those final corrections, double checking spelling and key terms and finishing up a “back translation” (translation done from the language into English by someone that didn’t work on the original translation—this is a tool used by the consultants to make sure that meaning is being correctly conveyed). read more

The idea of mother-tongue speakers translating portions of scripture and then meeting up for multi-language checking sessions with linguistics and translation consultants is something that is becoming more and more common throughout the world. Mother-tongue speakers are obviously in the best position to translate into their own language, with the translation consultants then able to use their experience and training in biblical languages to ensure (through the medium of a “back translation” into a language they know) that the translated scriptures accurately reflect the original meaning.

• Back to blog homepage.
• Go to main Wycliffe UK site.