One evening after teaching, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” … A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t …
While studying Bible translation and mission in Kenya, I came across some stories of one young linguist missionary to Uganda called Pilkington. There’s a great out-of-print book called ‘Pilkington of Uganda’ which is well worth a read and it seems the Internet Archive have made it available. He was a remarkable young man much loved …
I enjoy reading about software development (and rocketry) and often find something that makes me think a little more about Bible Translation and how we do it. The last few years several of us have been thinking seriously about the quality and processes of what we work on, developing and thinking through implementing ‘Best Practices’ …
The Greek word σαρξ (sarx) gets a variety of translations. Sometimes it means meat or flesh. In Luke chapter 3 verse 6 the message from Isaiah (40:5) is a promise that after the way is cleared, all σαρξ will see the God’s salvation. The Hebrew word was בָּשָׂר֙ ‘basar’, which has a similar (but not …
Reading Ezekiel with my daughter Rebekah is very interesting. The other day we had a chapter (2) that reminded her of Taffy Tegumai in Rudyard Kipling’s Just so stories. (“For they are a rebellious people.”) All the way through it’s been mildly disconcerting to have Ezekiel addressed as “Son of Man” if you’re used to …
There are many conundrums in writing the Ishɛ language that I’ve been aware of for some years. One is how to write a verb that pops up in natural speech sounding like ‘aguna‘, or ‘ugunu‘ or ‘egune‘, often explained as meaning ‘again’. (In the negative the construction doesn’t mean ‘again’ so much as ‘no longer’ …
After 2 weeks of hard work some improved text is available in the latest Ashɛ scripture test app for Android phones. (Let me know if there’s any interest in an iOS version.) Some suggestions and bug reports have led to an updated Naija Type Android keyboard app and Keyman keyboard (usable in iOS with Keyman).
The excellent Keyboard App Builder helps you build keyboards for Android devices, wrapping the very clever Keyman Android Engine. I’ve been working on a keyboard for the Nigerian languages I know and one feature I’ve been experimenting with is predictive text, where the keyboard suggests what it thinks you may be saying so you can …
Can you type the ₦ Naira symbol correctly and easily? The Koro Ashɛ team and many others have asked me about the best way of typing their languages correctly on phones, I’ve been putting together an Android App and a KeyMan keyboard. It includes the ₦ symbol and all kinds of letters like ə ɛ …
‘…the “Sword of the Spirit” [the Bible], placed in the hands of the congregations, in their own tongue, will do more… than all our preaching, teaching and meetings of so many years put together’ – Samuel Ajayi Crowther “Dr Samuel Ajayi Crowther was the first African bishop in the Anglican Church and the first African Bible …