7 x Sunday

February 09, 2012, 01:31:53 AM
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
*
Pages: [1]
« previous next »
  Print  
Author Topic: Translations in Guatemala...  (Read 6171 times)
In Christ
Adept

Posts: 262
« on: October 23, 2008, 05:37:14 PM »
I didn't realize this but now I am bothered by something...apparently there can be so many different dialects in one country that even the neighboring villages cannot communicate very well with each other.  Plus many languages aren't even written down.

A very dear Pastor friend just went to Guatemala and had to have interpreters to translate so he could speak to his own family.  He left at a pretty young age and once in US taught himself to read and write using a Hispanic Bible.

I really don't even know my question, is this common around the world?

How can we possibly reach all of these people when they are so cut off by communication problems?

I don't even know if this one particular dialect is even written down, or not much...I think it comes from Mayan and not Spanish, it's all new to me.

Any thoughts, ideas, encouragement, answers?
Logged
CHAN
Learning

Posts: 45
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2008, 09:21:20 PM »
Quote from: In Christ on October 23, 2008, 05:37:14 PM
I didn't realize this but now I am bothered by something...apparently there can be so many different dialects in one country that even the neighboring villages cannot communicate very well with each other.
 ...
I really don't even know my question, is this common around the world?

That is the case in a few areas of the world.  According to Ethnologue, Guatemala has 54 living languages.  Some other countries with a lot of languages as well as high linguistic diversity (i.e. they not only have many languages, but the speakers are distributed among the languages, as opposed to having a main language that just about everyone speaks, and some tiny minority languages) are:

Papua New Guinea   820
Indonesia 742
Nigeria 516
India 427
Cameroon 280
Democratic Republic of the Congo 216
Philippines 180
Chad 133
Tanzania 128
Vanuatu 115 (a tiny island nation with only about 120,000 people!)

Quote from: In Christ on October 23, 2008, 05:37:14 PM
How can we possibly reach all of these people when they are so cut off by communication problems?

Christ told us: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matt 28:18-20)

Many have gone to unfamiliar far off places, learned the language and the culture, and over periods of time managed to communicate the Word of God.  Many more need to go.

I don't think language is the main issue though -- if it were, one would expect the majority of English speakers to be believers by now...
Logged
In Christ
Adept

Posts: 262
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2008, 07:29:57 PM »
A friend of mine told me this in regards to some of my concerns:

It's very common.  There are several areas in Mexico that use ancient languages and few people know Spanish.  Spain itself has different dialects in each of its 13 regions.  Here are the main ones in Guatemala http://www.larutamayaonline.com/history/idiomas2.html .


I'm so frustrated and wish I could go, everywhere and tell everyone and do everything...of course for now dh is my only ministry or so I feel like that, but I pray one day he surrenders everything to our LORD and drags me all over the world spreading the Gospel. 

(I Know, you better watch what you pray for huh?)
Logged
AndysDad
Scholar
Adept

Posts: 713


My 5th cousin.
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2011, 02:14:20 PM »
It's often said that the Bible has been translated into less than half of the languages of the world.
Actually the breakdown is something like this (numbers rounded to the nearest hundred as figures are constantly changing):
# of languages: 6600
# with any published Scripture: 2500 (38%)
# with the entire New Testament: 1200 (18%)
# with the entire Bible: 500 (7%)

But to put it another way, 95% of the people of the world live near a school where a language is taught in which the Bible is available. In other words, if they go to school, they will be able to read and understand the Bible. Only 5% of the world's people don't know how to speak a language in which the Bible (at least the full NT) is available, but those 5% speak most of the world's languages.

Most of the world's languages are spoken by less than 5000 people. They live in isolated areas where there isn't much communication with the outside world. It's highly unlikely that the Bible will ever be translated into more than 1000 languages, because as isolated areas open up to the outside world, the small languages rapidly go extinct.

Just take North America for example. At one time about 1000 different languages were spoken there. That number has fallen to about 200, with only 20 still being learned as first languages. John Eliot translated the entire Bible into Massachusett in the 1660's, but within 200 years there was no one left who could read it; although descendents of the Wampanoag tribe still existed, their language had gone completely extinct. Well, except for words which they would no longer recognize, but we pronounce as moose, chipmunk, raccoon, opossum, skunk, squash, succotash, moccasin, tomahawk, powwow, squaw, and wigwam.

Andy'sDad
« Last Edit: October 31, 2011, 07:59:24 PM by AndysDad » Logged
"The thing that separates the praying Christian from every other person on earth is the fact that he would rather live on his knees than die on his feet"  --Andy'sDad (with apologies to G. Washington)
A sample anonymous blog
Cherika Four Seasons
Adept

Posts: 218


imagine-nations......
« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2011, 03:08:04 PM »
Oh, this is interesting!

I agree w/Andy's dad. I've been to several Pacific Island and African nations, and altho numerous dialects are spoken, they generally have a common language to get by. Almost every pacific Islander, for example, speaks Pigin, & although that varies a little too, it's incredibly easy to understand and make out the differences.

There might be 115 languages in Vanuatu, but almost all of them speak Bislama, French, English, or all three.

We don't need the bible in every language (ideal though that would be),, b/c the smaller people groups are rapidly learning the key languages they need to get by in this world.

I have never come across neighbouring villages who couldn't communicate effectively with a third party language, but then, I've never been to South America and maybe it's different there.
Logged
two are better than one
www.allaboutlife.com.au
AndysDad
Scholar
Adept

Posts: 713


My 5th cousin.
« Reply #5 on: October 12, 2011, 07:18:13 AM »
There's another interesting thing. According to the Ethnologue, there are 70 different language families in the world--several of them now consisting of only one living language. Around 1000 years ago it was thought that there were only 70 languages in the world at the time that the Hebrews left Egypt.  Guess how many different nations are listed in Genesis 10 as resulting from the dispersion at Babel?

Seventy.

Andy'sDad
Logged
"The thing that separates the praying Christian from every other person on earth is the fact that he would rather live on his knees than die on his feet"  --Andy'sDad (with apologies to G. Washington)
A sample anonymous blog
Pages: [1]
  Print  
« previous next »
 
Jump to:  

Search




Advanced search

Bible Study

General

User

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

February 09, 2012, 01:31:53 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Stats

Members
Stats
  • Total Posts: 243886
  • Total Topics: 21906
  • Online Today: 26
  • Online Ever: 437
  • (April 01, 2008, 03:09:36 PM)
Users Online
  • Users: 0
  • Guests: 22
  • Total: 22
TinyPortal v.1.0.6 beta 2 © Bloc
Powered by SMF 1.1.7 | SMF © 2006-2008, Simple Machines LLC
Manuscript design by Bloc