The Translation Beat

From linguistic analysis to computer repair

david — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:49:14 +0000

Last week, I visited a discourse analysis workshop with my friend Jeff Pubols. Jeff works in computer support here in Nairobi, and he was visiting the workshop to perform some basic repair and cleanup on laptops used by Kenyan translation teams.

People with skills like Jeff’s are essential to keep equipment operating so that translators can keep working smoothly and efficiently.

Meanwhile, I was watching linguists working with various translation teams, helping them analyze various features of their language and of the biblical texts that they were translating. (Discourse analysis is concerned with how language works above the sentence level.) It really does take all kinds!

Nairobi home life

david — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:23:29 +0000

Hi from Nairobi, Kenya. I’m living here for several weeks helping out with web and communications projects … which mostly involves sitting in an office staring at a laptop. Life at home is quiet too, but here’s a little bit of what it’s like.

This is the house where, up until today, I have been staying with Tom and Susan. We had to move a few doors down today, but it’s similar enough that you get the idea. (We are staying in the houses of people who are traveling, so we have to move around as people come and go.)

Here’s our (former) front door and the nice little garden inside the gate:

Living room:

My room:

View from my balcony. You can almost see the house into which we moved this morning — all the way down on the right.

We have lots of great fresh fruits available:

And lots of vegetables too. Nairobi’s cool highland climate is conducive to growing a wide range of produce. I made a stir fry with six or eight kinds of veggies:

Another meal — curried potatoes with leftover meats and vegetables. The soft drink in the background is a ginger beer produced by Coca-Cola in East Africa. It’s really good!

Susan saw a display case of camel milk in the grocery store, so of course we had to try it.

The package claimed some remarkable health benefits:

We decided that trying small portions first would be wise:

It turns out that camel milk tastes a lot like hay … or barnyards … or worse. “It’s like licking a camel!” said Tom, who was singularly unimpressed. We decided to share the experience with our friends Jeff and Heather (are we still friends, guys?), who gave it a mixed review. (Incidentally, Heather and Susan are in Togo and Benin now, having adventures. Follow along at Pubols Postscript.)

How big is Africa?

david — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:30:28 +0000

I would venture to say that most of us have no idea how huge the African continent really is. Some commonly used map projections have tended to reinforce the idea that it’s really not all that big. But. It. Is.

Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity

david — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:24:55 +0000

Christianity has very ancient roots in Ethiopia. The New Testament and other sources indicate that Christianity reached Ethiopia during the Church’s earliest days, and in the fourth century, Emperor Ezana converted to Christianity. Oriental Orthodox Churches (which includes today’s Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church) split from other churches in the fifth century (and after another five hundred years, the remaining Church would split again into the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches). The Ethiopian Orthodox Church was part of the Coptic Orthodox Church (Egypt) until 1959.

Because of this long history, the expressions and practices of the church are distinctive. I didn’t have a chance to visit an Orthodox church service, but I did see a couple of churches from the outside.

As you would expect, given the long history of the Church in Ethiopia, Ethiopian religious art is also well developed and distinctive. Simple designs, bright colors, and large eyes are well known elements of the art (read more).

See more examples of Ethiopian religious art, including illuminated manuscripts and crosses.

“Wat’s” for lunch?

david — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:39:05 +0000

Injera is a traditional Ethiopian sourdough flatbread made from a cereal grain called teff. Teff flour is mixed with water and fermented; the resulting bread tastes sour and has a vaguely pancake-like texture.

Injera is served with wat (or wot — there is no standard way of transliterating Amharic into English), a term for various spicy stews. Pictured above (from today’s lunch) are doro wat, which is made with onions, chicken, hard-boiled eggs, and a spice mixture called berbere, and shiro wat, which is made from ground chickpeas (garbanzo beans).

To eat this meal, you tear off pieces of injera with your right hand and use it to grab small portions of the wat. I think your fingers are supposed to stay cleaner than mine usually do, but I haven’t had much practice. There are all sorts of traditions and etiquette rules associated with eating injera, most of which I’ve only just begun to grasp, but thankfully I’ve been eating with forgiving people.

Coffee, according to legend, was discovered first in Ethiopia. It plays a major role in the country today, both culturally and economically. This is macchiato, an Italian invention actually, a combination of espresso, milk, and sugar. The Italians occupied Ethiopia during World War II, leaving behind pizza, pasta, and new ways of treating the coffee bean. There are also traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremonies, which sometimes involve serving coffee with burning incense.

Talking with Ethiopian church leaders

david — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:38:11 +0000

Over the last couple few days, we’ve been talking with Ethiopian church and mission leaders about their vision for Bible translation and language-related ministry. Above, my colleague Heather Pubols conducts an interview.

The Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church, one of Ethiopia’s largest evangelical denominations, is actively involved in Bible translation projects within Ethiopia. In the last few years, the church has started sending missionaries to Asia and to other parts of Africa. This banner demonstrates their desire to be a light not only within Ethiopia but also to the whole world.

The Evangelical Churches Fellowship of Ethiopia represents over 12 million Christians in Ethiopia. “Community transformation will come by the power of the Word of God,” says an ECFE representative. “The hope of our country lies in the Gospel.” But he and everyone else we’ve spoken with agrees: The Bible has to be available in a language that people understand.

And to that end, the churches of Ethiopia are committing their resources and their personnel. They know they can’t do it alone, though, and they’re asking for your prayers and even for some of you to come and serve alongside them.

Ethiopia’s Ge’ez script: An ancient alphasyllabary

david — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:46:41 +0000

One of Ethiopia’s major languages is Amharic, which is written in a script called Ge’ez or Ethiopic. It’s quite common to see signs and lettering on buildings in both English and Amharic. Amharic is a Semitic language; that is, it is related to Hebrew and Arabic.

The Ge’ez script is ancient. It was in use in Ethiopia centuries before the birth of Christ and probably developed from even more ancient scripts originating in the Middle East.

The script is an abugida or alphasyllabary, which means that each consonant in the language is represented by a particular symbol, and that symbol is modified depending on which vowel follows it.

I received this mug as a gift last night, and it’s an excellent illustration of this concept. In the two photos below, you can see the base consonant on the left side of each row, and then as you read across the row from left to right, you can see the various modifications to it as each vowel is added. If you read the columns from top to bottom, you can see that many of the vowels have similar effects on the consonants with which they occur (e.g., a similarly placed dot or hook).

Here’s a newspaper article to show you the script in action. (Disclaimer: I don’t know what the article says, and I’m posting it only to illustrate the script.) Unlike writing systems for some other Semitic languages (e.g., Arabic), the Ge’ez script is read from left to right.

The Ge’ez script is just one manifestation of Ethiopia’s long, rich, and unique history. We’ll look at some others in the coming days.

Welcome to Ethiopia!

david — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:16:28 +0000

I awoke as the sun brightened the haze over Addis Ababa, a busy city of over 2.7 million people, the capital of Ethiopia, and the seat of the African Union. Soothing chants from a nearby Orthodox church slipped through my window, and a generator roared seven stories below.

Ethiopia traces its roots back to about 1000 B.C. The nation is situated in eastern Africa and spans an area as large as New Mexico, Texas, and most of Louisiana combined. It’s an ancient and fascinating place, one I’m looking forward to getting to know over the next couple of weeks.

Yesterday, leaders from from six organizations in Ethiopia (two Christian denominations, a interdenominational fellowship, an NGO, and two Bible organizations) met to continue discussions about the future of Bible translation and related ministries in their nation. They have committed to coordinating their activities over the next 15 years in massive joint project to address the needs of all of Ethiopia’s ethnolinguistic communities (there are about 85 in all).

The Church has a very, very long history in Ethiopia (more on that later), and Christians in this country are ready to make new strides in reaching the people of their country. As one denominational leader put it yesterday, the needs are overwhelming, but Christians should dream big.

Here’s a view over Addis Ababa from my seventh-story room. It’s just a quick snapshot, but it captures so many of my first impressions of this city. Notice the goats in the lower left. It’s a bit like the lobster tanks at a supermarket in the States — you pick one that looks good and take it home for dinner. The blue taxis lining the street are Ladas, a Russian brand. They, and matching blue Toyota vans, are everywhere. A new building is going up in the vacant lot, and ambitious construction projects abound throughout the city.

Global movement

david — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:46:24 +0000

Well, it’s been awhile since I managed to get a post in. I recently finished up an hectic assignment as conference photographer in an undisclosed part of Asia, so I’ve now visited all six permanently inhabited continents. In celebration, here are a few faces from around the world:

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Language without words

david — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:17:39 +0000