In less than four months, the first draft was done!
Among the innovative software tools that support the Bible translation movement is a computer program called "Adapt It." Adapt It allows a bilingual translator to take advantage of the work already done on one translation to produce a second translation in a closely related language. And the speed at which it is accomplished is amazing.
The East Kewa New Testament in Papua New Guinea is a good example. It was adapted from the West Kewa New Testament by Rose Poto and several other bilingual East Kewa/ West Kewa speakers. Though Rose could read the West Kewa New Testament, she knew that many in her dialect could not, and she could not rest until God's Word was in her language. She asked -- no, insisted -- that the West Kewa project leader help her get the Scriptures translated for the East Kewa speaking people.
In September 2003, the project leader started using Adapt it, feeding the West Kewa translation into the computer program. Then Rose and an East Kewa pastor worked through the text word-by-word and phrase-by-phrase. Whenever they came to a word or phrase that didn't sound like East Kewa, they replaced it with the appropriate East Kewa expression, and the program added that item to its databank. The next time the expression appeared in the text, the program offered them the choice of accepting the memorized expression or entering another one. At first nearly every word or phrase had to be converted to East Kewa and progress was slow, but as the program's databank filled with East Kewa words and phrases, they moved faster and faster. In less than four months, the entire first draft was done!
Like any first draft, the East Kewa translation had to be carefully checked with mother tongue speakers and consultants. Rose and her East Kewa co-workers sent many corrections to the project manager, who entered them into the computer and guided the translation through typesetting and printing. The dedication of the completed East Kewa New Testament was celebrated in July 2005 -- just 22 months from the day it was begun. Now 40,000 East Kewa speakers have access to the Scriptures.
Similar stories could be told about the use of Adapt It for other translations in Papua New Guinea and around the world, including the African countries where Bantu languages are spoken. Wherever there are two closely related languages, a few people who speak both languages well, and a good-quality translation in one of them, then there is the potential for using Adapt It for the second translation. Adapt It greatly reduces the amount of time needed to produce rough drafts, and thus completed translations, by building on the quality work that went into one translation to produce another one.
An interesting piece of information is how Adapt It came about. A software engineer Bruce Waters woke up one morning in November 1999 with an idea that seemed like a half-dream, but as he gradually became alert, he realized that God had given him a significant key to accelerating the task of Bible translation. Bruce says, "To me it is more than a coincidence that in the year that the Lord was guiding our leadership to formulate the Vision 2025, he led someone to develop a bit of technology that could significantly help in achieving the vision."
God has also led in the development of a number of other software programs that are being used to produce new translations by modifying completed ones. Vision 2025 is huge -- all the partners wrestle with that. But so is God's ability to realise it. As we look at tools like Adapt It ...and at capable, motivated mother tongue speakers like Rose...and at faithful, gifted, Wycliffe co-workers, we are tremendously encouraged!
God loves the speakers of those last 2,286 languages, and he's going to see that they get his Word -- by whatever creative means he chooses.
