Bible translated into endangered creole language of African slaves (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Bible translated into endangered creole language of African slaves

By BRUCE SMITH
Associated Press Writer
http://www.dhonline.com/articles/2005/11/18/news/religion/religion01.txt

ST. HELENA ISLAND, S.C. — More than a quarter century after the
laborious work began, the New Testament has finally been translated
into Gullah, the creole language spoken by slaves and their descendants
for generations along the sea islands of the Southeast coast.

Gullah is an oral language, so the translation was painstaking,
beginning in 1979 with a team of Gullah speakers who worked with Pat
and Claude Sharpe, translation consultants with Wycliffe Bible
Translators.

Many efforts have been made over the years to preserve Gullah, which
mixed West African languages with English, and experts believe the
translated Bible will be a major contribution toward that goal.

“I think this makes the language universal,’’ said Ervena Faulkner,
co-manager of history and culture at the Penn Center, which is
dedicated to preserving the threatened sea island culture.

“People have done Gullah cookbooks, they have done African-American
sayings, they have done proverbs,’’ Faulkner said. “But for the Bible
to go out with the Gullah sends a message. It means we can speak the
Word.’’

Nestled amid spreading oaks dripping Spanish moss on this island just
east of Beaufort, the center is located on the site of the Penn School,
which was founded in 1862 to educate slaves newly freed by advancing
Union troops. The culture — called Gullah in the Carolinas and Geechee
in Florida and Georgia — remained intact with descendants of slaves
because of the isolation of the region’s sea islands. Now, about
250,000 Gullahs live in the four-state coastal area and about 10,000 of
them speak Gullah as their main language.

“De Nyew Testament,’’ published by the American Bible Society, went on
sale this month. As an example, the verse John 1:1, “In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God,’’ was
translated to read, “Fo God mek de wol, de Wod been dey. De Wod been
dey wid God, an de Wod been God. — De Good Nyews Bout Jedus Christ Wa
John Write 1:1.’’

The Bible is written with the English translation in the margins.

“That’s the beauty of the way it’s written,’’ said Emory Campbell, who
retired three years ago after 22 years as executive director at the
Penn Center. “The non-Gullah speakers can easily translate what the
written Gullah is about. In a way, we are going to be training other
people how to speak Gullah.’’

For generations, the language was something native speakers tried to
abandon, because they feared it would hurt their chances of getting
ahead in the wider world.

“It was a put down,’’ Campbell recalled. “You were looked on as being
ignorant and at a low intelligence level if that’s the language you
spoke. We tried at all costs to avoid speaking it.’’

For that reason, Campbell at first would not help with the translation,
until he spoke with a professor from the University of California who
told him Gullah is indeed a language.

Creole languages develop when speakers of two languages who can’t
understand each other remain in long contact, as the African slaves did
with their masters.

David Frank, a translation consultant who joined the project after Pat
Sharpe died in 2002, said Gullah was frequently dismissed as “broken
English,’’ not a language in its own right.

There are structural differences between Gullah and English which
justify Gullah being recognized as a separate language, Frank said.

The translation was based on several different versions of the New
Testament, along with varied Bible commentaries. Some of the Bible
books were released when they were completed, with the Gospel of Luke
published in 1994 and the Gospel of John released two years ago.

Dolores Pringle, head of the Penn Center board of trustees, said the
Bible can help blacks connect with their heritage.

“It can strengthen our relationship back to West Africa,’’ she said.

“Every group that has emigrated to this country has had a very strong
connection back to their home country whether it’s Italy, Ireland or
whether it’s England,’’ she said. “I’m not sure our African-American
youth have had that kind of connection back to Africa.’’

With the New Testament finished, talk has started of translating the Old
Testament into Gullah — a task that could also take years.

“It would not be beyond us,’’ Campbell said.

“We would be glad to make sure that the Word is in our language
throughout,’’ he said. “I hope that more younger people will join the
team and move forward.’’