Bible To Be Translated to Jamaican Patois?

[shogun]

The Bible is, for the first time, being translated into Jamaican patois. It's a move welcomed by those Jamaicans who want their mother tongue enshrined as the national language - but opposed by others, who think learning and speaking English should be the priority.

In the Spanish Town Tabernacle near the capital, Kingston, the congregation is hearing the word of God in the language of the street.

At the front of the concrete-block church, a young man and woman read alternate lines from the Bible.

This is the Gospel of St Luke in Jamaican patois - or more precisely, "Jiizas - di buk we Luuk rait bout im".

The sound of the creole, developed from English by West African slaves in Jamaica's sugar plantations 400 years ago, has an electrifying effect on those listening.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
The language is what defines us as Jamaicans, it is who we are - patois-speakers”
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The Rev Courtney Stewart
Several women rise to testify, in patois, to what it means to hear the Bible in their mother tongue.

"It's almost as if you are seeing it," says a woman, referring to the moment when Jesus is tempted by the Devil.

"In the blink of an eye, you get the whole notion. It's as though you are watching a movie… it brings excitement to the word of God."

The Rev Courtney Stewart, General Secretary of the West Indies Bible Society, who has managed the translation project, insists the new Bible demonstrates the power of patois, and cites a line from Luke as an example.

'Vulgar' words

It's the moment when the Angel Gabriel goes to Mary to tell her she is going to give birth to Jesus.

English versions read along these lines: "And having come in, the angel said to her, 'Rejoice, highly favoured one, the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women.'"

"Now compare that with our translation of the Bible," says Mr Stewart.

"De angel go to Mary and say to 'er, me have news we going to make you well 'appy. God really, really, bless you and him a walk with you all de time."

Mr Stewart says the project is largely designed to bring scripture alive, but it also has another important function - to rescue patois from its second-class status in Jamaica and to enshrine it as a national language.

"The language is what defines us as Jamaicans," insists Courtney Stewart. It is who we are - patois-speakers."

The patois Bible represents a bold new attempt to standardise the language, with the historically oral tongue written down in a new phonetic form.

For example the passage relating the angel's visit to Mary reads: "Di ienjel go tu Mieri an se tu ar se, 'Mieri, mi av nyuuz we a go mek yu wel api. Gad riili riili bles yu an im a waak wid yu all di taim."

The New Testament has been completed by a team of translators at the Bible Society in Kingston - working from the original Greek - who intend to publish it in time for the 50th anniversary of Jamaica's independence from Britain on 6 August next year.

But some traditionalist Christians say the patois Bible dilutes the word of God, and insist that creole is no substitute for English.

Bishop Alvin Bailey, at the Portmore Holiness Church of God near Kingston, argues that Patois is too limited a language to represent the nuances of Biblical text, and has to resort to coarse expressions to makes its meaning clear.

"I don't think the Patois words can effectively communicate what the English words have communicated," he says.

"Even those (Patois) words that we would want to use to fully explain what was in the original, are words that are vulgar."

Read more here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16285462






Thoughts?

[jusme]

U quick on the draw dan.

I was LMAO with sammy jo

[bonzo.specb]

lolwtf

[foss]

[ruffneck_12]

Jamaicans speak English so bad that it's another language?

[konartis]

well its a book full of stories anyways...re written so many times to please others..another version wudnt hurt!!

[sMASH]

rev. stewart... 0.0 0.0 0.0

but really and truly, that would be no different from translating it into any more common language, as the the hidden meanings in the structure, of the sentences would really be in original writings, and that is the original greek and aramaic and hebrew and what not; every translation looses things.

[r3iXmann]

Jamaicans speak English so bad that it's another language?

an ignorant statement..

every language has dialects

patois is common in the caribbean

also, think of it as being the equivalent of publishing a book in trini speak

[ruffneck_12]

dai choo

*backpeddal*

[- Rovin's car audio -]

they already have some of their dub "music" & d way they speak barely recognizable but now that want to do that too ? , imho that is utter rubbish !

leave the book & all other proper books in PROPER ENGLISH

short stories ,comic strip , poems , posting on a local forum , songs etc is fine by me in "patois" but try to be civilized & leave certain things as it shud be

who vex\disagree loss ....

[BrotherHood]

imho that is utter rubbish !

[Ronaldo95163]

Jamaicans speak English so bad that it's another language?

This.

This was a stupid idea BTW. They should learn proper English first....they would see how easy it is to read then

[Ronaldo95163]

Jamaicans speak English so bad that it's another language?

an ignorant statement..

every language has dialects

patois is common in the caribbean

also, think of it as being the equivalent of publishing a book in trini speak

No it's not...he's quite right. Jamaican English is horrible....already hard to understand what they saying with that dialect...the Bible should not be changed just for them That's disrespectful

[PapaC]

Yeah but this was done like five years ago. Nothing new here.

[r3iXmann]

Jamaicans speak English so bad that it's another language?

an ignorant statement..

every language has dialects

patois is common in the caribbean

also, think of it as being the equivalent of publishing a book in trini speak

No it's not...he's quite right. Jamaican English is horrible....already hard to understand what they saying with that dialect...the Bible should not be changed just for them That's disrespectful

it's actually not that hard..i lived there for a month and change

the patois is near impossible to understand but it's a big part of their culture..dont see anything wrong with them having their own version of it

better to be original than talking with the silly "wuhstmoorings/duh bay" accent that some trinis love to put on

[SUPAstarr]

Me eh know why people here beatin up so, is not like any of allyuh going to read it, or bein forced to read it. So why all the chessburn? Its not for allyuh, is for them

[VexXx Dogg]

The bible has been cross-translated for centuries, why not patois?

[rfari]

creative stuff here man

[Mr_Carz]

is this a joke? 0.o

[foss]

Me eh know why people here beatin up so, is not like any of allyuh going to read it, or bein forced to read it. So why all the chessburn? Its not for allyuh, is for them

this! is not like they reading the bible ever.

[nareshseep]

hyshhs kkskslls lsllsksksus ieiuewiql,s

/patois

[foss]

hyshhs kkskslls lsllsksksus ieiuewiql,s

/patois

that's what she said.

[shogun]

Yeah but this was done like five years ago. Nothing new here.

Won't be completed and published, until 2012.

[Trini Hookah]

Me eh know why people here beatin up so, is not like any of allyuh going to read it, or bein forced to read it. So why all the chessburn? Its not for allyuh, is for them

Exactly.

[RBphoto]

Me eh know why people here beatin up so, is not like any of allyuh going to read it, or bein forced to read it. So why all the chessburn? Its not for allyuh, is for them

Exactly.

^^^THIS....

Next up, the Quoran.

[stev]

well...i guess let there be bomboclat light...

[r3iXmann]

also, fun fact: jamaica has the most number of churches per capita in the world

they are VERY religious..most radio stations play gospel and so forth on a sunday morning

[S_2NR]

well...i guess let there be bomboclat light...

[Country_Bookie]

I like the idea of translating it into something that's easier to understand for Jamaicans, but this seems more difficult to understand than proper english. They should have maintained some more of the simpler english words. Some of those words look like German or something.

[RBphoto]

It is one thing for them to speak like that, but do they actually have propper spelling for those words, and they can read that aloud just as it is written?