Why so long?

    There are several reasons why things take a long time. First I needed to learn the language, or rather, two languages. When we went to Oreo land, I learned the trade language in quick time. It happens to be a very easy language. I was able to get around town well after only a month, and at the end of six months I gave a lecture to a college-level class on the subject of language learning using that language. There were still lots of subjects for which I didn't know the vocabulary, and I still made plenty of mistakes, but I could function on a professional level. So when it came time to learn Oreo, I thought I would be translating Scripture in six months. No way! It took me a year and a half to get to the point where I was able to start, but even then I was making many more mistakes in my speaking than after six months in the trade language. A lot of the difference had to do with Oreo being a much more difficult language, and that there was no dictionary, and no one could explain how the grammar worked. I was learning a language that no outsider had ever learned before, and the people didn't know how to help me.

    Actually, Chief Lukas (who is pictured in the Brothers and Sisters gallery) told me right away that the best way to learn would be if I would marry one of their women. Then I would eat their food, and natually pick up the language. He had two wives, so he didn't see why that would be a problem for me.

People tried to be helpful, but even when I finally learned how to say, “Please say that again. I want to write it down,” the people would still not repeat it just like they said it before. Oreo is a language where variety is valued, and people just don't repeat themselves. So I seldom got a good translation for what people said. Once, sitting on a porch, my pencil rolled off my notebook and fell through a crack. The lady of the house said, “Em gul irin.” Then she helpfully told me in the trade language, “That means, ‘It fell through.’” So once I retrieved my pencil from under the house, I wrote in my notebook, “Em gul irin. = It fell through.” But that was wrong. I later figured out that what she told me in Oreo means, “Go down and get it.”

Pinihas really dedicated himself to teaching me to speak good Oreo.
(He is also mentioned in Brothers and Sisters.)

One of the first technical steps was to analyze how the sound system worked in the language. This is the study of phonology, and a technical paper on this topic is required before a translator can start to translate. In Oreo I found lots of things like the fluctuation of ‘l’ and ‘r’ in certain environments, and that ‘gu’ might change to just ‘u’ when occuring after certain sounds. One practical application of this is that all the sounds in the language are classified. It is in this way that we determine which sounds are used to make differences in meaning, and then we can create an alphabet for the language. In Oreo, the alphabet of the trade language needed two more vowels, and we chose to use ‘ë’ and ‘ï’.

All during our first three years, I spent every spare minute creating a dictionary of Oreo. I tape recorded the people's traditional stories, and labored with language helpers to figure out what each little particle meant. Now if Bible translation could be done by simply substituting a word from the Greek with a similar word from Oreo, the computer could do that, and we might finish in five years. Unfortunately, a word-for-word translation like that would make no sense at all. That's why we needed to study Oreo grammar, as well as some other topics.

Boy was the screen small on that Osborne computer!
Just 4 inches wide, as I recall.
That was the computer I used for our first term for transcribing texts,
dictionary making, phonology analysis, and the translation of the Gospel of Mark.

In our second term, I did work on grammar, and we developed a literacy curriculum, and started a few pilot courses to teach people to read. Another requirement is to analyze the kinship structure of the tribe, and to learn about how they define the spirit world. I published two papers that show background to wars among the Oreo and the background to the Oreo's search for the prosperity of paradise. Knowledge of such anthropological issues is necessary for translating the Bible in a meaningful way. Translating without being aware of the these things could easily reinforce false teaching.

I won't go into all the tasks that are associated with the task of bringing God's Word to a completely undeveloped language, but here's a chart that gives the major points. The main goal in all of this is not to translate a book that will sit on the shelf, but one that will be used and appreciated as God's Word.

If the people are going to be able to use the Word, they will need to know how to read. In our case, we were helped significantly in this area by Isaak, a local missionary who administered the Oreo literacy program. Beginning in 1997, our main community development project was to teach health classes in Oreo villages and help the people to get the needed hospital care. A significant part of this was helping people with Tuberculosis get diagnosis and treatment. The health work, I think, factored in significantly when we confronted the people involved in the prosperity cult in 2001. (See Overcoming Error. More details can be found under the 2002 link on our Oreo Background page.) I think that the health ministry showed the people that I loved them and was not likely to lie to them. From 2002-2005 we focused on promoting the use of the Scriptures in the retreats that were held in various villages.

How many times have you said something and found yourself totally misunderstood? Well, it happens in Bible Translation too. Time and time again Boas and I would think that a section was perfectly clear, only to discover that it wasn't. That's why checking translated Scripture is so important. So when we do our best to produce an accurate draft, we would gather a group of four or more Oreo speakers together and go through verse by verse asking questions. The most helpful question often was, “Please retell that in your own words.” That often revealed if they got it wrong. Or sometimes they said it better than we did, and we improved our draft. Or, if they were silent, and just scratched their heads, we knew it was not clear enough for them to retell. Then we would revise the draft, and gather another group of people, and again go through verse by verse. In many ways it is like an in-depth Bible study, and what a privilege it is to be able to expose many people to the Word in this way.

Once we were happy with our draft, we prepared for the consultant check. I translated the draft in English, and the consultant compared the English with the Greek, checking for faithfulness and trying to spot areas of potential misunderstanding. Then we would gather another group of Oreo speakers, and the consultant would ask the questions. I translated the questions for the group, and translated the answers back to the consultant. On good days, we would cover two chapters in a day with the consultant.

Once we had a consultant-approved draft for the whole New Testament, we spent a year in final revisions, including unifying parallel passages and making sure key terms were translated consistently. The last chapters of the final read-through were completed in one of the villages at the table above, in May 2004.

So our first project took 21 years. BUT the exciting good news is that the Double Stuff project, Lord willing, can be finished in much less time. First, I already know the language. And not only I, but many other outsiders (including other Bible translators and missionaries) know the language and can help. The national language has already been the subject of linguistic research and there are published dictionaries. And there are many native speakers who have seminary degrees and other helpful advanced training. We can train these people to be involved in all areas of producing and checking the translation.

The Double Stuff translation will hopefully reach at least a hundred times as many people than the Oreo. Please pray as we assemble and train a team of national partners. Please also pray that we can avoid controversy, so that our team and coworkers don't become divided on sensitive issues and so this translation is readily accepted by all denominations.