Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-31
BIBLE IN MANY TONGUES
HAS BEEN TRANSLATED INTO
FIVE HUNDRED LANGUAGES.
Book Of Books Printed for Guam
Natives-Testament for Pleasant
Island People.

Today the Bible exists in 800 languages.
says writer In the New York Sun. At
the beginning of the last century 1t ex-
| listed only in fifty different tongues at the
most "It went into more languages dur
| ing the nineteenth century than In the
/ eighteen previous centuries In some
| cases the Bible Is the means of creating
| the first written form of language. and
| in others the only method of preserving
them The following presents some in
| stances:
| "A few weeks ago an item appeared In
| the papers to the effect that the Ameri-
can Bible Society had completed the pub
| LEGATION of the Bible In Chamorro. the
chief language of the Island OF Guam.
Thus the natives got their first printed
| book. their first alphabet. written Ian
guage and literature all in one.
"All over the world men are doing the
same thing. Scores of the worlds Ian
guages have been supplied with an AL
| phabet and a written form by the trans
| lators of the Bible.
islanders Get Bible.
Last year, for instance. the society
printed a Bible for Pleasant Island. Few
persons would know WHERE to find Pleas
ant Island on the map. 1t is a mere dot
| in the Pacific, 300 miles south of the Caro-
| line Islands, with q population of 1.5OO;
| the sort of island one reads about In
shfpwreck stories.
For ten years one lone missionary and
his wife have been living there. He
learned the language by ear and then set
it on paper Theoretically. Then he trans
lated the New Testament into 1t. Then
he begged and entreated the Bible So
| ciety to publish his Bible. The society re-
piled: We can't afford to publish the
Bible in a language spoken only by l, 800
people
Then the tribe pledged itself to pay
for the work if 1t could have time. So the
society sent the missionary a printing
press and he and his native helpers set
up and printed the work. Then he sent
it to San Francisco, the society paid for
binding 1t, and one more little South Sea
island has a written language and liter
ature.
Psychologists Of the future will study
extinct languages by means of these
| Bibles. Already it is said that Mime. Mat
teo de Turner's version of the Gospels in
Quichuea is the only key to the language
of the Incas."
Americans, it is said. have translated
the Bible or portions Of 1t into 80 Euro
pean tongues. AZ Asiatic, IL African. .
Oceanic and 12 American. We read con-
ca rning Bibles in the various Indian
tongues:
In Indian Tongues.
"In many cases the Bible Is all that will
preserve native American languages from
extinction. Only last year the society
published the four Gospels in the Winnie
bago tongue. There are only 1900 Winnie
bagos left. Their children are all learn
ing to read English. In another gen.
Grafton the tribe will be extinct or assimi-
lated. But some one offered to pay for
the work for the sake of a few old In
dams who could never learn to read Eng
lish
Two copies of the Gospels in the SEN
eca language were sold within the past
year, / in Arapahoe, 4 in Dakota, Ii in
Muskogee. % in Ojibway. 146 in Chero-
kee and 242 in Choctaw.
Down in Oklahoma the rich Indians,
the Cherokees and Choctaws, take a ra-
cial pride in preserving their language
from oblivion through the use OF it in
their church life. Although most Of the
adults read English now, they prefer to use
the Bibles in their tribal tongues. and only
a few weeks ago letter reached the Bible
house asking If new edition of the
Cherokee hymn book could not be got
out uniform with the Bible.
"A notable instance of this tribal pride
came within the past year in an order
to print the Creek Bible, the expenses to
be paid by the Creek Indians of Okla
honla and some of their white neighbors.
tiOnal missionary, made a version Of the
Scriptures in the Creek or Muskogee Ian
suage, the labor of many years. The Or
der came to publish it after her death.
The board wrote. Why do you go to
such an@expense this when your chill
dren all read English? It is foolish The
reply came back. We want 1t as monu-
ment to Mrs. Robertson and the Creek
language
"Often the translator has had to cre-
ate words well as alphabets How
shall the dweller in some low-lying atoll
know the word mountain? How write
Lamb Of God, for Eskimo who know
no lambs? Little seal the translator
had to put it at last.
Bad to eat was as near as the trans
lator into Mosquito could get to sin.
Nice smell had to serve as native Aus
tralian for frankincense. In Uganda the
translator had to wait five years before
he could catch a word that meant plague
Then one day he heard a man bewailing
| the influx of rats, such 'dibebu they
were. Out came the notebook, down went
the long-sought word.
How translate the Gospel into a Ian
guage that has no words for city, mar
riage. wheat. barley; In which, pig, rat
and dog exhaust the geological terms; in
which the word for five is my hand for
six my hand and one.' and so onc'
r.