The hook brings you back

If you would like to hear this article read aloud, click on Captain Hook. Arrr!

Icebreakers, like kale, are initially repulsive but ultimately end up doing something good for you. I once was begrudgingly involved in one where each person in the group (who knew nothing about each other) had to secretly write a fact about themselves on a slip of paper and then put it in a box. Then one fact would be drawn at a time and read to the group and then everyone would come to a consensus to correctly match each person with their fact.

The strategy all comes down to what fact you present about yourself to stump the others.  Usually everyone has something about them that breaks the mold.  A good strategy is to write something like that.  Like if you are a petite fashion-conscious female who can field dress a deer…then that’s what you want to put on your card.  Or if you’re a large bearded male with neck tattoos who winds down after a tough day by cross stitching Precious Moments babies….then you know what to write.

The strategies can go deeper.  Do you try the bluff method as described above?  Or do you, like a Sicilian with death on the line, decide whether to double or triple bluff?  The plot was thickening.  I’ll admit, I was no longer a begrudging participant at this point.

I ultimately decided on something unusual, something they could guess if they knew I was a missionary.  But since I look like a normal chubby American guy (and that I forgot my sun helmet in the car) I went full-Monty missionary.  I wrote,

“I once helped create a spelling rule in which African tribal leaders rejoiced.”

Now, in the end I was successful, no one had any idea who to choose and ended up blindly guessing wrong. 

There was unfortunately no time to explain properly when I inevitably had to reveal myself and some people wanted more information.

So, what they never got… I give to you.  And this is, as Paul Harvey used to say, “the rest of the story.”

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While I disagree with the adage, “Everything’s political.”, any problem that involves human interaction tends to involve politics.

And it’s no exception when a minority language community teams up with linguists to create a writing system for their language.

First of all, minority language communities tend to want a writing system that looks and acts like their national language.  This makes good sense as it is hard enough for people to learn one writing system in school, much more two! French is the official language in CAR where the Bhogoto live.  In turn, Bhogoto kids are taught exclusively to read and write in French in their local schools.  So, if people want to go further and learn to read and write in their language Bhogoto, it would be great if they have a writing system that is like French to smooth the transition.

Linguists usually, trained in phonology, (a course I’m currently teaching students at Dallas International University) desire to have the writing system perfectly reflect the sound system of the minority language.

Herein lies the conflict.  Good writing systems should reflect the way a language works.

But if you try to force one language’s writing system on another then it quickly gets wonky.  It’s the proverbial square peg in a round hole.  For example, one language has more consonants or vowels than the other.  Sometimes they’re different kinds of consonant and vowels, etc.  If you, with brute force, try to make it fit, you can have a writing system that, on the surface looks like French, but in the end is a system that is very difficult (or in some case impossible) to read for the minority language.

Politics…

But sometimes, the tables are turned, and the linguist finds a solution that perfectly fits the desires of both groups.

This is one of those cases.

Gettin’ all Nasal

Our problem revolved around what is called nasal vowels and how to represent them in the Bhogoto writing system.

Bhogoto, like French, has what is called contrastive nasal vowels. That is just a fancy way of saying that Bhogoto’s vowel system has nasalized vowels that make a difference in meaning between words.  Because of this, it is important to somehow mark the difference between nasal and oral vowels. To show this difference look at the two Bhogoto words below, the only way that these two vowels are different is that one is oral and one is nasalized. Check out the video below to hear them pronounced.

gara - "hangar" (oral vowels)

ga̧ra̧ - "sardine" (nasal vowels)

You can see that each of the nasalized vowels in the word ga̧ra̧ have two little hooks underneath the ‘a’s. These hooks (called cédilles in French) are the way nasalized vowels are written in Bhogoto.  While this is not the way that French marks their nasal vowels (as their way of doing that didn’t work well with the Bhogoto sound system) the little hooks are a part of the French writing system and look French. Initially this seems like a great solution, the linguist gets nasalized vowels marked and the Bhogoto community gets something that looks French!  Win-win, right?

Well...yes and no.

The hook appears rarely in French, nasalized vowels in Bhogoto, however, occur very frequently in Bhogoto.  And once you write out a text in Bhogoto, it looks as if the cédille monster sneezed all over the page. The text is littered with hooks.

Now we have a problem, a problem that wasn’t initially voiced once the community saw their writing system in translated Biblical texts…namely….it looked funny.

Yep, it looked really weird. One translator said, “It looks like someone who isn’t educated wrote out our language.”  They didn’t like it.

Now, you need to really understand, while the Bhogoto people are proud of their language, the written form of it is just getting started.  To have a bad initial showing is not helping the momentum of people accepting it.  If people think their writing system looks weird or silly, then they are much less likely to use it.  And since the Bible is the main book that the community wants to interact with, then that’s not good news.

Sometimes what holds entire peoples back from reading the Scriptures are things like this, problems that have linguistic solutions.  Problems that aren't (for a host of cultural reasons) often expressed outwardly in the community.

The team and the community leaders assumed that the plethora of hooks was just a tough pill they had to swallow.  So, they went ahead and marked every nasal vowel that appeared in every word.

A little while later, during one of our linguistic workshops where we were looking at revamping the writing systems, the issue of marking nasal vowels came up with the Bhogoto translation team.

Now, since the initial design of the orthography, one of the linguists had done a thorough study of the phonology of Bhogoto. Phonology is the study of sound systems in languages, its main application is creating writing systems.

In her study she observed and found in previous research a cool phenomenon in Bhogoto that came and saved the day.

It’s called nasal vowel harmony.

Bhogoto, it turns out, has nasal vowel harmony phenomena in its sound system.

It’s a pretty simple idea.  Sounds in a language, like people, tend to influence each other.  As far as people, in the book of Proverbs, God warns us not to hang around angry people because if you do then you start to become an angry person.

Sounds are very much the same.  One sound, if put in a certain environment, can share its characteristics with the sounds around it.

In Bhogoto, if you have one nasal vowel in the word, it makes all of the other vowels in the word nasal.  All the other vowels ‘harmonize’ the nasal characteristic within that word. There’s not a word in Bhogoto where oral and nasal vowels coexist.

So, as far as the writing system goes, if in a word, one of the vowels are marked nasal, then it is technically redundant to write the other vowels in that same word as nasal.  So if we made a spelling rule to just mark the first one as nasal and the rest can be assumed to be nasal and not put the hook on them.  

So, ga̧ra̧ could be written with one less hook like this... ga̧ra.

After talking with the team about it, they thought it was a good idea, so we tested out this spelling rule.

And that rule got rid of a ton of hooks!

After a statistical analysis, it reduced the number of hooks by 40%.

But, of course, the proof is in the pudding. What would the translators and community think how it looked?

The translators gasped when they saw a side by side comparison of a text without the new spelling rule and the same one with the new spelling rule.  They said, “That looks SO much better!”

We found out later that the Bhogoto language committee thought the exact same thing, approved the new spelling rule, and further told us that they were glad for the linguists’ advice and encouraged us to tell them of any other ideas we had.

A community satisfied with how their precious language looks on the page...that's amazing.

Removing a stumbling block for people to read of how God reigns in redemptive love… that's priceless.

I’m currently helping teach a group of students phonology at Dallas International University.

Our vision, before we return to Central Africa, is to multiply these kinds of breakthrough moments in Bible translation projects through the students I train who will be working in some of the most challenging places in the world. We’re thankful to be part of this work in the meantime, and we’re deeply thankful for your prayers and support that make it happen.

second advent sunday

The kids and I have been noticing, while reading through the Gospel accounts of Jesus' life, how very often it was the Gentiles, the poor and the "sinners" who came to him in faith, and how - to the contrary - it was the most educated and respected religious leaders who wanted to do away with him (and for whom he had the harshest words and warnings).

On the second Sunday of Advent season, it's worth pondering this amazing time recorded in Luke chapter 4, when Jesus announced himself in the Nazareth synagogue as the prophesied Messiah (shortly after which, predictably, those listening to him ran him out of the synagogue and to the edge of a cliff which they intended to throw him off).

"And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

    and recovering of sight to the blind,

    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.'

"And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, 'Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'"

Not all who see him will receive him, but we still work and pray for the "advent" of Jesus in hearts of those who will believe him once they hear and understand his message of "good news to the poor" and "recovering of sight to the blind." What news could be better?

In that vein (playing a bit of blog catch-up since it's been...too long since I last posted), we are back in Bangui. We didn't to move back here because it's the most luxurious place on earth (although there really is an astounding amount of natural beauty here in the flowers, butterflies and trees that thrive in this climate). Nor did we move back because we just couldn't stay away from our friends here (though I have to say that the friends we have here are truly some of our closest and dearest). The real reason we came back was to work side-by-side with the incredible ACATBA translation teams as they translate God's word into their languages - to help them make the message of Jesus clear to those who have yet to hear.

A few photos from today: the kids sharpening handmade spears and throwing them at fruits in our jackfruit tree...and my desk which prompted me to think this morning about different times and places (a globe inherited from I-don't-remember-who, sitting on a little carpet I bought in Turkey in September 2001, colored pencils a daily-used gift from a partner church in SC, coffee mug bought at Aldi last year sitting on a coaster I bought Adam from the Brussels airport when flying through there six years ago).

To be good-ified (and not of the ‘two-shoes’ variety)

Papa Samedi, the back translator, translated the Bhogoto draft of Titus 3:7 from Bhogoto into French so I could check it:

“Ainsi, par le bon cœur de Dieu, il a fait que nous soyons des gens qui agissent dans la droiture… »

Thus, by God’s good heart, He made it so that we are people who live in a just way.

So after he’d translated, I asked him, “Put your pastor’s hat on: what does that mean? Could you say it in different words?”

 (I then had the verse read again in his language, Bhogoto).

He quickly responded, “Yes, that means that God’s favor is shown to us in that he makes us people who live our lives in a good and righteous way.”

I had anticipated the problem in my preparation the day before.  I thanked Papa Samedi and turned to the translators and discussed how we could change this. Something had gone wrong…

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Well…I’ve got to stop here to explain a little bit where we are in this passage for the rest to make sense.  My job is to do the final quality check for translated Scripture.  A back-translator (in this case he's Papa Samedi, a native Bhogoto speaker who wasn't involved in any part of the translation of this text). Bear with me; you’ve come this far already…

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You see, the book of Titus is a pastoral epistle.  Thus, this book is a letter that Paul is writing to one of his pastoral proteges, Titus. In it Titus is instructed to return to the Island of Crete (a rise of land south-east of Italy in the Mediterranean) His task there is to put the newly-started churches in order by appointing qualified leaders.  A good and noble task, for sure.

The problem is the people in the congregations.  The congregations are made up of Cretans (no, really, people from Crete).  And they are, in Paul’s citation of a prominent Cretan, "…evil beasts and lazy bellies (aka lazy gluttons)." The kind that today would be that unemployed guy in his late twenties who has permanent orange stains on his finger tips from continually grubbing the bottoms of Dorito bags for that last taste of powdery ambrosia. The kind that would then toss the used bag behind the couch/bed in his parent’s basement where he lives. The kind that if you kindly suggest he seek gainful employment and soon a place of his own (and maybe give those fingers a good scrub before the job interview), might pull a knife so he could set you and your meddling ways aright.  Congratulations Titus, you’re their pastor! It’s your job to lead these new Christians in how to humbly love God and their neighbors.

The way one might naturally lead a bunch like this is with a heavy hand. And no doubt Paul encourages Titus to strongly rebuke people if they need it. But there is a type of strong rebuke that’s prideful and condescending, and thus repulsive to anyone.  It only invites further arguments or quiet resentment.  But there is also a type of serious, yet humble, rebuke that comes from someone that you know loves and accepts you and wants your best interest.  Unless you’re a complete fool, you can listen to almost any tough thing about yourself from a person like that and really take it to heart.

This is the kind of impact that Paul wants from Titus to God’s people on Crete.  But that kind of love can’t be faked.  You can’t just first say, “Well you know I love you but….” and then continue talking like a Pharisee.  Most people (children included) have a prideful-self-righteous sniffer that can detect accurately at two parts per million.  While most of us Pharisees correct at roughly your standard 1 to 4 canned OJ concentrate ratio.  In other words, our self-righteous criticism won't impact people (at least not for their good).

But how can this tough humility be produced in Titus?  As always, Paul encourages Christian people not by telling them to grit their teeth and just start doing what’s right. No, never.  He brings their minds and hearts to truth, doctrines if you prefer.  Paul never expects people’s feet to move down a different path unless their heart and mind were first convinced. Neither should we.  As a master of Biblical reality, Paul encourages Titus to kick his pride in the teeth in two ways. 

First, he reminds Titus that both he and Titus were like Cretans themselves once before their conversion:

"For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another." (chapter 3 verse 3)

It’s funny that no matter how bad another culture’s sins are, it is only a mirror to how we in our culture do similar or worse things.  To humbly lead brutal people, the leader must see their own former brutal selves.  An honest self-assessment goes a long way in helping to remove a condescending attitude.

Paul then goes on saying in the following verses (including the verse we were talking about above verse 7),

"But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,  so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

Paul here goes on by pulling out the most enriched weapons-grade pride-slayer there is: the Christian message itself, the Gospel.  The Gospel is the message that changed former polytheist Titus and former Pharisee Paul. It is what unites different peoples, making them one people.  It is the message that tells of how our deserved shame can be taken away. This was accomplished by the immortal Author of the universe's story, as He took on flesh and becoming the main protagonist in His story and dying for His creation. Taking away a guilt, declaring them just people, and even uniting Himself to His redeemed people by placing His own Spirit in them.  This way these changed people can live in this damned and dying world with a sure hope until He returns and makes the earth new again.

And all of this divine favor is given to those who didn't earn it.  This is a wonder for anyone comparing religions.

It has been said that all the religions in the world are like building a bridge. How does one build a bridge?  You build a pile-on and connect a bridge to it until step by step you arrive to the other side.  Thus with religion,  each religious system you are always in process of doing and trying step by step to achieve what you want from the God or force (be it salvation, or heaven, or to stop the miscarriages, money, enlightenment, meaning, etc.) Biblical Christianity is different from all other religions in that you simply trust in it and your status is changed. No step by step building.  You've crossed over immediately because your status has changed.  All this was accomplished by the God and not by you.

This reality, when it reaches the level of one's imagination, is profoundly humbling and freeing.  It makes you talk different. If Titus' imagination is filled with these realities he can then pastor these congregations on Crete with both tenderness and power, with grace and truth.

Now STOP.

Back to Bangui and the translation desk...

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The Bhogoto translators and I then discussed their interpretation in chapter 3 verse 7 that the French phrase that they translated from, "nous rende justes" could in isolation be interpreted as "God makes us to be people who act justly."

However, in the broader context, the one word that Paul translated 'making just' (δικαιωθέντες) does not mean that God makes us people who do good stuff, but rather that he judicially declares us righteous.  That God treated Jesus on the cross as if He lived my shameful and sinful life so that I might be treated as if I lived His righteous life!  In other words...we've crossed over.  Legally, my status before God is instantly changed.  My status was "guilty," but has now been changed to "innocent and right." As Jesus said, "I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness." In other words...to be good-ified.

The translators are very capable interpreters, and understood this concept immediately when I explained it.

I suggested an alternate translation that another related language chose and they thought that it was perfect in leading the reader to the correct interpretation.  They reworked the verse with the new interpretation into natural Bhogoto.

 hɔ̧gɔ, nɛ waatɛ desɛɛ kɔ Sɔ̧ , a̧ dɛɛ ende arɛ doo o nɛ riwarɛɛ rii,

Thus, by the path of God's good heart, He made it so that we sit as righteous before his eyes.

 All of us, including Papa Samedi who was listening to the discussion, smiled as he back-translated the changes the translators made.

Amen, Papa...it's worth smiling about.

Liturgy For a Translation Consultant Preparing For a Scripture Checking Session.

Lord, meet me in this time as I open books and programs to prepare for this sacred task.

Fill me with wonder that you have breathed out this passage of Scripture for my instruction, my correction, and my everlasting joy.

May your words grip my mind through this careful study and analysis, but only if this rigor of thought leads to an equally rigorous love of you and of my neighbor.

Give me both of these, this light and this heat, for lacking either will produce, at best, a correct (yet cold) heart or a flaming (yet ignorant) zeal.

Guard me from cynicism in seeing the patterns of sin in the people that I serve, knowing that they are but a mirror showing my own divided heart and revealing how your words and Spirit will lead us both to our only hope, Jesus Christ.

Help me also to see the the clear evidences of your grace in the people that I serve. Let them be an example to me of how I should repent and follow you.

As I think and read, help me even beyond my natural capacity to see ways that will improve this text, while helping me to rejoice in the translators’ strengths as much as I carefully search for their errors. 

May I have wisdom to help improve the translation such that the translation team, at the end, is encouraged rather than disheartened by me speaking hasty and critical words.

Beat my mouth’s swords into plowshares, its spears into pruning hooks.

When I feel incompetent for this task may I humbly seek advice.

If lazy, may I add diligent effort.

And may I remember that it is ultimately you that makes me competent as a minister of the New Covenant.

When I feel that my natural abilities are equal to this serious task, turn my eyes away from my supposed shining self and remind me that you oppose the proud but give grace to the humble.

Turn all the many advantages I’ve had in my life from subtle pride to joyful service.

Only then may I work with such honor and diligence that I will not be ashamed at my work years from now nor on the Great Day.

Help me to realize that this translation will impact a limited amount of people in a limited period of time, so I pray now for those people who will be directly and indirectly affected by this text. 

May these, our humble efforts, be a vessel of your grace to them.

May your Son—his words, his ways, and his work—be clearly understood and treasured through a quality translation of your Scripture,

So that, one day, we will together with them take up the festal shout at the table in your Kingdom.

For the Bible are your words, Father,

speaking of the living word, your Son,

words made alive by your Spirit.

Amen.

Place at the Table

Here's a song that Ruth wrote a couple of days ago for her Uncle Bill who just passed away.  He died a believer.  This simple recording off the computer has been very encouraging to us all during this time.  I'm also proud as punch of my wife and son.

John sings background vocals during the chorus and bridge.  He also helped a bit with the crafting of the lyrics.  He said to Ruth who had written "Things are not what they seem".  He suggested that "Some things are what they seem and some aren't so we should add 'some'."  She did.  Be encouraged believer....the stories are true!

Place at the table

v. 1                         Haven’t the years been too short?

Haven’t the days grown so dim?

If life was a flower, it fades in your hand.

The hourglass has run out of sand.

v. 2                         Hasn’t the work been so hard?

                                Hasn’t the trusting come slow?

                                Now in this valley, the shadows are falling:

You’re losing the life that you know.

Chorus:                 So lay this heavy life down:

Some things are not what they seem.

Lay it down in the dust:

You’ll open your eyes and you’ll find you were dreaming.

Cause he’s set a place at the table for you,

And all that he promised is true,

There’s a book with your name in it, too.

There’s a place at the table for you.

Verse 3:                As we sit quietly here,

                                Watching the shapes on the wall,

                                All of the colors are turning to grey,

                                Waiting for evening to fall.

                               

Bridge:                  He has redeemed the days,

                                He has put sin away,

                                He has been waiting to throw the door open,

                                He has a home for you  

                                He has been working on,

                                He will come running when He sees you coming.

                                

                                {This is the mystery, This is the mystery, This is the mystery,

                                Painful but beautiful.} x2

reformation day reflection

Today marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther presenting his 95 theses against the selling of indulgences by the official Church. It's a day to remember and thank God for not just Luther, but for many remarkable men and women who, over the course of what has come to be called the Protestant Reformation, lived and died for their faith. We owe much to them for their boldness in living by, and in many cases dying for, their conviction that God's great grace is extended to us through no work or merit of our own.

It makes sense that some of the great reformers were some of the great Bible translators! They wanted people to read the simple and beautiful Gospel truth in their own languages, that people could see past the roadblocks that representatives of the Church were putting in their way, and could find joy in a simple faith in Christ and all He had done for them.

May we continue in their footsteps: sharing the word of God with people in their heart language, trusting the Spirit to do His work: everything is from Him, through Him, and to His glory!

autumn nature walks & the transcendent class

If you ever get the chance (if you haven't taken the chance yet), you should take Theory & Practice of Translation at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics. Adam's the associate instructor for the course this time around, so he will get to lecture for some of the sessions and help out the course head in other ways.

As Adam has headed off for class in the mornings, I've reminisced about my experience taking the Translation course some eleven years ago. Some days the sense of the seriousness of the Bible translation task, the awe at the content of Scriptures and at the thought of how much wisdom is needed to translate it beautifully, clearly, accurately...sometimes that and more would leave the whole class sitting in a hushed silence at the end of the class hour.

And I hope those who take it now feel that same sense of joy and responsibility I felt then, and still feel, about being part of translating the word of God into languages around the world. A solemn, yet wonderful, task!

Meanwhile, our autumn days of homeschooling in cooling-down Dallas are now including plentiful nature walks through the Texas woods. These are favorite activities of mine and, I think, of my students as well. The leaf colors in Texas are not as fiery and impressive as those of northern trees, but when we look hard enough we still find some pretty red and yellow ones.