Adaptation of New Testament

Terese Noumabouk and I are done adapting Matthew from Badwe'e into Njyem. This means
that we are now 26.5% done with the preparation of a first draft of the Njyem New Testament.
One of the problems we run into is that the Njyem language seems more rich than the Badwe'e in some respects, which means that more distinctions in meaning have to be made as adaptation proceeds.
Three examples will help prove the point: 1.) In Badwe'e, all crowds are the same. One refers to a crowd as "emɛl e bʉr". In Njyem, it is necessary to know if a crowd has a collective purpose and
identity. If it has a collective identity, it is called "nyee bʉr". If it is simply a mass of people, it is "mwa bʉr".
2.) In Badwe'e, actions that are either promptly-initiated or quickly-executed are all described by the adverb "kpahbe". In Njyem, an earlier distinction continues to be maintained, with promptly-initiated events being characterized by the adverb "kula" and quickly-executed events being described by "kwɛh".
3.) In Badwe'e, all things that "surprise" you (twɨra) are the same, but in Njyem, if one is "scared and surprised", the verb is "letwɨra", while if you are caught off-guard and surprised, the verb is "lesɔga".

Parsing Genesis

In trying to get a high quality publishable text for Genesis in Badwe'e, Mary and I have been using a nifty program called Fieldworks Language Explorer. Produced by SIL programmers, it is now going into its seventh version. What we are doing with this program is called "parsing", which means analyzing every word in Genesis, to see that its spelling and meaning conform to a dictionary that we have been building up. This program is also helping us to prepare a document that can be adapted into other languages. At the same time, we are making a French back-translation that gives a reader of French a global view of the text and allows us to spot any parts of the message that might be missing. Here in Cameroon we receive help from our computer department in making good use of this program. Jenni Beadle and Matthew Lee are available to help us with this resource and teach us aspects of the program that are difficult. Please pray for these programmers and software trainers who "speak fluent Geek", as Matthew describes it, so that we can translate the Scriptures better into Badwe'e and other languages.

What Happens Next? The Adaptation of Genesis

We have helped the Badwe'e translators complete and test a translation of Genesis, and on Sept 20 it was finally checked and approved for publication. The exegetical consultant for this task was Patricia Wilkendorf, who says she never has enjoyed a checking assignment so much. The text will next be adapted into Nzime, where the Christian community is eagerly awaiting it. The interchurch committee has picked two community leaders for this task: Rev. Ernest Njyelo, a Presbyterian pastor, and Jean-Marie Koonzo', a lay leader in the Roman Catholic Church. Keith will support the adaptation process. Pray for us that this process of adaptation which will produce a first draft will go smoothly. The dates for this work are Sept. 28 to Oct. 2. It will be at the SIL center in Yaounde. We are using Adapt It, a program developed and supported by SIL. It is in use world-wide, and it has proven its worth many places, assisting bilinguals to produce first-drafts of a high quality from documents in related languages. Badwe'e is related to Nzime, and this makes Nzime a good candidate for receiving an adapted form of Genesis. When Genesis is adapted into Nzime, the texts in Nzime and Badwe'e will then be published at our expense and distributed among these two people-groups at a small fraction of the true cost. (They are economically very disadvantaged.)

Beginning a New Phase of the Njyem Work

From Jan. 13 to Feb 5 I worked with a speaker of Njyem, Colette NKOM. We were limited to spending the mornings together. We have made significant progress on the adaptation of the Scriptures from Badwe'e, finishing Mark's Gospel in first draft. Rufine ADJOWA, her older sister, participated with us on the reading of the first 4 chapters.
The Badwe'e Bible portions include the New Testament, Genesis, Ruth, and Jonah.
I am doing this in the expectation that it will be an offering to the Lord Jesus which he will accept and bless as a means of bringing new life to the Njyem.
Other than doing the first draft of Mark's Gospel, we have adapted the AIDS book ("Kande's Story") into Njyem. We also transcribed natural texts and analyzed them. For us to have an adequate knowledge of the unique features of the Njyem language, we must do this analysis.

Last updated: Feb. 8

How Long to Create a Draft of a New Testament?

I've been adapting the Nzime New Testament into Njyem, and 92.35% of the New Testament remains to be adapted. The last time I was able to work on this was in March. I had about 2 days' worth of time with Jean Bart KUL and Etienne AMFANGNSO', and we completed Mark 1-6 and Luke 22-24. The program we used was "Adapt-It", which worked like a gem.
In my experience, 1.9% of the New Testament can be done every day. This means that the remainder of the Njyem New Testament should require only 48 more days of work.