Reading through Genesis in Nzime

Praise the Lord! The two leaders of the Nzime church we hoped to work with are now in Yaounde and we have finished 3 Days of reading and processing GENESIS! We have read and revised chapters 1-43, making lots of decisions about to say about some matters that are new to us, which do not occur in the New Testament (©The Bible League, 1998). I have finished the adaptation of the (checked) text of Genesis from Badwe'e to Nzime. The complete document will now be sent to the translation review committee when ready for them to read and check. These two church-leaders just said that what they need most next are the Psalms, and they want them ALL!

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.)

"Lamentably, regrettably or unfortunately"

If you have to convey to people the sorrow and disappointment underlying a situation, you must use the lexical resources that are language-appropriate.
In Hebrew, it would seem that the pathos ("sadness") of a situation was represented by repetition of the regrettable proposition that is being narrated. This is found at two places in the text of Genesis.
Gen. 11:30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child. (English Standard Version)
Gen. 40:23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. (English Standard Version)
Parallelism is the distinguishing feature of Hebrew poetry, but is also found in narrative discourse, as shown above.
Given our sense that this structure is intended to convey to the Hebrew reader the pathos of the two situations, we look for the comparable expressions in Badwe'e and in Nzime. It turns out that the Nzime have a word, Nzamedwɛha, that lexicalizes the expression "regrettably; unfortunately" whereas the Badwe'e, a closely-related language, have a phrase (A vwa' e) that has the same effect. It can be translated "how lamentable with (or 'for')". They come across very differently when seen side-by-side!

GENESIS in Badwe'e: Checked and Ready for Publication

Patricia Wilkendorf has checked the Badwe'e translation of GENESIS. The work is now ready for the first of an unknown number of adaptations into related, Bantu languages. Everyone wants to preach and hear the Word of God about the great beginnings of the cosmos and of God's redeemed community.

January Ekoalea at Seminary

Our coworker, January Ekoalea, is at seminary now, learning more about biblical languages and all the other subjects. He aspires to graduate in three years with a BA in theology.
One of the joys he has discovered is that Badwe'e believers in Yaounde are eager to see him enter the ministry! They are helping him however they can. Other seminary students have said that they have never seen this kind of spontaneous love before.

Proverbs for the Badwe'e

The Badwe'e love their proverbs, and we have been privileged to live among them and hear them. We saw how impressive it was to people to hear an exhortation and then hear it followed by a proverb. It was a way of saying, "See? This point I am arguing for is in full agreement with everything that the Fathers have left us with! You should believe it as do I, because of my filial devotion to those who taught this to me."

I am doing honor to the memory of people like our host, Azabur Joseph "The Tall One" (Ajaajaa), by producing a volume of proverbs that were taught me. I know that my revision team will feast on the "delectible meal" that they find set before them and correct any errors I make, so earnest is their interest in their proverbs. Anyone wanting to participate in this process by email should contact me.
This publication, like every other one, is produced at the expense of someone of a charitable mindset. We are doing this one as a result of the successful "US government charitable giving campaign".

Publishing goals

This past Thursday we printed 25 copies of Badwe'e GENESIS for reviewers to study. The publisher of this document is CABTAL. They are one of the many members of Wycliffe Bible Translators International.
Another publication in circulation recently is the oral version of the KANDE Story. This is distributed by means of the "Sabre" player.
Soon we will begin printing a collection of works written by new Nzime authors that Francois Medjo trained last week in Lomié. A fund internal to SIL-Cameroon Branch is extending to them the needed money for publication.
We also have funding for the Nzime transition primer, used among Nzimes literate in French. That should go to press in August.
We are still hoping to find sponsors for the following books:

• The Badwe'e transition primer (for Badwe'es literate in French already)
• 300 copies of the Nzime "KANDE Story", which teaches the facts of AIDS and the way communities can survive it.)
• 300 copies of the Badwe'e "KANDE Story".

Orthography guides

On other websites there are some orthography guides that helps speakers of Njyem, Nzime and Badwe'e know where to put accents as he or she writes his/her language. The general rule is "no accents unless they are required by this book." So we hope that someone will find this and make use of it to become an author. The guides require that one have a reading knowledge of French. Here they are: Njyem: http://kulnjyem.blogspot.com/2009/07/aide-memoire-pour-les-ecrivains-njyem.html Badwe'e: http://codylko.blogspot.com/2009/07/guide-pour-les-ecrivains-badwee.html Nzime: http://francoismedardmedjo.blogspot.com/2009/07/guide-pour-lorthographe-nzime-allegee.html