In many, if not most of the languages in the Philippines, proper nouns, such as personal names, are tagged with a marker that signals their grammatical role within a sentence. For Tagalog and the Visayan languages , this typically includes si to mark the proper noun as the actor or subject (nominative case), ni to mark the proper noun as an owner (genitive case), and kay to mark the proper noun as as an indirect object, i.e. the one to or toward whom an action is directed (dative case). All of these also have plural forms — sina, nina and kina respectively — and unlike in the biblical languages or in English, the plural form has to be used when only a single proper name is mentioned but implicitly that proper name includes more than just one.
In this verse, where English translates “Bezalel (made the ark),” the Tagalog translation translates “nina Bezalel” because the context of the text makes clear that Bezalel did not work on the ark by himself (see Exodus 36:2). (Source: Kermit Titrud and Steve Quakenbush)
Lloyd Peckham explains the Mairasi translation: “In secret stories, not knowable to women nor children, there was a magical fruit of life. If referred to vaguely, without specifying the specific ‘fruit,’ it can be an expression for eternity.”
The phrase that is translated in some English versions with “gentle and quiet in spirit” was translated into Kahua with the idiom that verbatim says “be beautiful in your belly.” (Source: Daniel Clark)
The Hebrew that is translated as “deeply distressed” or similar in English is translated in Tagalog as “his inner being got hot” (Common Language Translation) (source: Daniel Arichea in The Bible Translator 1983, p. 209ff. )
Samson’s riddle in the form of a Hebrew poem is translated in the TagalogMagandang Balita Biblia (rev. 2005) into a form of a traditional Tagalog riddle of two lines with internal rhymes (-kain and –kain; –kas and –bas) and an (almost) identical number of syllables (6+7, 7+7):
Mula sa kumakain ay lumabas ang pagkain;
at mula sa malakas, matamis ay lumabas.
It back-translates as:
“From the eater came out the food;
and from the strong, sweet came out”
In many, if not most of the languages in the Philippines, proper nouns, such as personal names, are tagged with a marker that signals their grammatical role within a sentence. For Tagalog and the Visayan languages , this typically includes si to mark the proper noun as the actor or subject (nominative case), ni to mark the proper noun as an owner (genitive case), and kay to mark the proper noun as as an indirect object, i.e. the one to or toward whom an action is directed (dative case). All of these also have plural forms — sina, nina and kina respectively — and unlike in the biblical languages or in English, the plural form has to be used when only a single proper name is mentioned but implicitly that proper name includes more than just one.
In this verse, where English translates “he (went through),” the Tagalog translation translates “sina Pablo” because the context of the text makes clear that Paul was with Barnabas. (Source: Kermit Titrud and Steve Quakenbush)
In many, if not most of the languages in the Philippines, proper nouns, such as personal names, are tagged with a marker that signals their grammatical role within a sentence. For Tagalog and the Visayan languages , this typically includes si to mark the proper noun as the actor or subject (nominative case), ni to mark the proper noun as an owner (genitive case), and kay to mark the proper noun as as an indirect object, i.e. the one to or toward whom an action is directed (dative case). All of these also have plural forms — sina, nina and kina respectively — and unlike in the biblical languages or in English, the plural form has to be used when only a single proper name is mentioned but implicitly that proper name includes more than just one.
In this verse, where English translates “Joshua (defeated),” the Tagalog translation translates “nina Josue” because the context of the text makes clear that Joshua and his men defeated Amalek and his people. (Source: Kermit Titrud and Steve Quakenbush)
In many, if not most of the languages in the Philippines, proper nouns, such as personal names, are tagged with a marker that signals their grammatical role within a sentence. For Tagalog and the Visayan languages , this typically includes si to mark the proper noun as the actor or subject (nominative case), ni to mark the proper noun as an owner (genitive case), and kay to mark the proper noun as as an indirect object, i.e. the one to or toward whom an action is directed (dative case). All of these also have plural forms — sina, nina and kina respectively — and unlike in the biblical languages or in English, the plural form has to be used when only a single proper name is mentioned but implicitly that proper name includes more than just one.
In this verse, where English translates “he (approached),” the Tagalog translation translates “sina Jesus” because the context of the text makes clear that Jesus approached together with his disciples. (Source: Kermit Titrud and Steve Quakenbush)
