TOTAL it up! Taste Of Translation And Linguistics with Wycliffe Bible Translators

While I was in college, I had the opportunity to attend a week-long seminar put on by Wycliffe Bible Translators that was exactly what its title proclaimed: a Taste Of Translation And Linguistics. We spent the week learning about how languages work, down to the nitty-grittiness of phonemes and morphemes, as well as the things translators of the Bible have to consider in translating scripture into a new language and cultural context: should we translate “daily bread” as “bread” when bread is seldom eaten in this culture? does this language have a written form? We heard stories from translators that had been in the field long-term about the challenges they had faced and the rich relationships that were built in communities where they worked and with their native speaker colleagues.

The work of Bible translation throughout the world has often been a great advocate for language preservation, and for empowering speakers of minority languages by helping them produce material even outside of scripture written in their mother tongues. These translation projects often lead to greater literacy and education projects in the communities where they are based as well. Though Bible translation has a different focus than language and peace education, it has many overlapping goals, and is an asset to both of those fields.

If you’re interested in learning more about it, check here to find out more about the session dates for the Taste Of Translation And Linguistic programs this year.