Language-specific Insights

equality

The Greek that is often translated as “equality” in English is translated in Kele as likelemba, “which denotes the equal and alternate sharing of one’s share of food, wages or ration. When one has none or lacks a fair share, then a friend gives his share so that your abundance may supply their want at the present time, so that their abundance (on another occasion) may supply your need.” (source: William Ford in The Bible Translator 1957, p. 203ff. ).

complete verse (1 John 2:10)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 John 2:10:

  • Uma: “People who love their relatives, they stay in the light, and there isn’t anything that causes-their-downfall.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “But the one loving his fellow truster in Isa Almasi, he lives already in the light and there is nothing that causes him to sin.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The person, by contrast, who loves his companion, he is the one whose mind has been illuminated by God, and his behaviour will not cause him to sin.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “But the one who loves his fellow-men, that’s the one who remains in the light, so there is no cause-for-sinning in him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “But as for the person who values his sibling in believing, he is the one who is truly living in the light/enlightenment. Really if it’s like that, there’s no longer anything in/with him which can-lead-him-to-fall(fig.) into sin.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “He who loves his brother, then he is living good. There cannot be said of him that he is responsible if another person should sin.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “If we love our fellows we are constantly present where there is light because we are doing good, and no more will we fall doing evil.”
  • Eastern Highland Otomi: “He who loves his sibling, habitually lives in God’s light and nowhere will he fall into sin.”
  • Tzotzil: “If we love our Christian brethren, we are in the sunlight. Thus there is nothing now in our hearts to cause us to become evil (to do evil).” (Source for this and two above: John Beekman in Notes on Translation 12, November 1964, p. 1ff.)
  • Kele: “He who loves his brother basks in the sunshine and thus is no root in the ground over which his brother might stumble.” (Source: William Ford in The Bible Translator 1957, p. 203ff. )

cardinal directions

The cardinal directions “east” and “west” are easy to translate into Maan here since the language uses “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down.” For “north” the translator had “facing toward the sun rising to the left,” and for “south” she had “facing toward the sun rising to the right.” So the listener had to think hard before knowing what direction was in view when translating “to the north and south, to the east and west.” So, in case all four directions are mentioned, it was shortened by saying simply “all directions.” Manya uses a similar nomenclature for the cardinal directions. (Source: Don Slager)

Likewise, Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) or Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).

Kankanaey is “from the coming-out and the going-away of the sun and the north and the south” (source: Kankanaey back-translation), Northern Emberá “from where the sun comes up, from where it falls, from the looking [left] hand, from the real [right] hand” (source: Charles Mortensen), Amele “from the direction of the sun going up, from the direction of the sun going down, from the north and from the south” (source: John Roberts), Ejamat “look up to see the side where the sun comes from, and the side where it sets, and look on your right side, and on your left” (source: David Frank in this blog post ).

In Lamba, only umutulesuŵa, “where the sun rises” and imbonsi, “where the sun sets” were available as cardinal directions that were not tied to the local area of language speakers (“north” is kumausi — “to the Aushi country” — and “south” kumalenje — “to the Lenje country”). So “north” and “south” were introduced as loanwords, nofu and saufu respectively. The whole phrase is kunofu nakusaufu nakumutulesuŵa nakumbonsi. (Source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff. )

“West” is translated in Tzeltal as “where the sun pours-out” and in Kele as “down-river” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel).

In Morelos Nahuatl, “north” is translated as “from above” and “south” as “from below.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

In Matumbi cardinal directions are defined as in relation to another place. “East” for instance typically is “toward the beach” since the coast is in the eastern direction in Matumbi-speaking areas. “North” and “south” can be defined as above or below another place. (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)

The Hebrew text that gives instructions where to place items in the tabernacle with the help of cardinal directions (north and south) had to be approached in the Bambam translation specific to spacial concepts of that culture.

Phil Campbell explains: “There are no words in Bambam for north and south. In Exodus 26:35, God instructs that the table is to be placed on the north side and the lamp on the south side inside the tabernacle. The team wants to use right and left to tell where the lamp and table are located. In many languages we would say that the table is on the right and the lampstand is on the left based on the view of someone entering the tabernacle. However, that is not how Bambam people view it. They view the placement of things and rooms in a building according to the orientation of someone standing inside the building facing the front of the building. So that means the table is on the left side and the lampstand is on the right side.”

See also cardinal directions / left and right and people of the East.