R. Anthony Lewis, Contributor

The perennial 'patois' debate is on again, triggered this time by a Jamaica Observer news report on June 16, of a $60 million project to translate the Bible into the Jamaican vernacular. As one of the few who have studied and written on translation and creolisation, with an emphasis on Jamaican Creole, I feel impelled to enter this debate.

Among the many voices that have been raised for, or against, the project are those expressing elation that their besieged language may now have a chance to emerge from darkness and claim its rightful place alongside the respected languages of the world. Others have spoken out against the project, either claiming that it is too expensive a venture or that translating the Bible into Jamaican, a backward and broken language, is a complete and utter waste of time. Still others have argued that the attempt would negatively affect the 'sacredness' of biblical texts.

Waste of money

On examination of the different sides of the argument, one might be favourably inclined to the view that in a context where so many things need fixing, $60 million could be used in more productive ways than to translate the Bible into what, according to Chester Burgess, writing in The Gleaner of November 26, 2003, "is not a language ... [but] merely degenerate English". Indeed, there are a lot of social projects that that have gaps that this money could fill. So, on that count, I agree, the project is expensive. Yet, other arguments against the project, as seductive as they are, misperceive the real stakes of the attempt to place an important piece of literature in the Jamaican language.

One of the consequences of translation on a language is its standardisation. Because of the history of European Christian colonisation of much of the world, this process has been achieved primarily through biblical texts. Notwithstanding the necessary and apropos post-colonial critique of the evangelising-cum-civilising mission of colonial Christianity, in many developing countries, particularly in Africa, Bible translation has played a significant role in transforming hitherto unwritten languages into tools of literacy and education.

Long history

The mid to latter 20th century, the period of rapid decolonisation, saw a rapid increase in Bible translation, as Bible societies and institutes capitalised on the unprecedented opportunity to "spread the good news to the ends of the Earth". One spinoff of this missionary activity was the strengthening of local languages.

Because of the variety of text types present in the Bible - from poetry and song to wisdom sayings and dream narratives - its translation into any language provided a point of reference for language use in a variety of text contexts. These and the wide range of vocabulary necessary for translation stretched the language, forcing it to convey a wider range of ideas and concepts.

This link between translation and language standardisation has a long history. One has only to look at the work of the Reformation translators, particularly that of Martin Luther, chief reformer and, according to Daniel Baggioni, 'language maker'.

Luther's work was an essential departure point in a Europe-wide quest to break free from the stranglehold of Catholic Latin over people whose first languages were vernaculars akin to our Creole. According to Luther scholar Heinrich Bornkamm, by translating the Bible from Latin into the dialect of the Saxon Chancellery, Luther helped to standardise the language that has today come to be called High German. German-Jewish theologian and philosopher Franz Rosenzweig argued that Luther's translation was part of an attempt to make the Bible truly German, in opposition to the clericalism and elitism that surrounded the Catholic Latin-only text.

Luther's translation may, therefore, be seen as opposition to the dominance of Rome and Latin; it was, however, more than that. Rosenzweig described it as the coming forth of a people to meet a foreign work in their "own utterance". Thus, as remarkable as Luther's contribution to the Reformation was, his mark on the process of language standardisa-tion, through translation into a vernacular, was immeasurable.

Fascinating irony

It is for this reason that Baggioni describes him as the individual who played the foremost role in determining the norm of a vernacular language.

It is a fascinating irony that in a 'Christian' country with a patrimony rooted in Protestantism, there is not much support for a project designed to bring the 'Word of God' closer to the people. The more strongly adversarial views against the translation project, based on concerns about language (and not cost), seem thoroughly ignorant of the history of Bible translation and its influence on the status and functionality of languages.

There is a whole lot that we can, and need to, do with our language before others beat us to it. Its appearance as biblical text presents us with an invaluable opportunity to capitalise on. The Jamaican music industry, which is Creole-dominated, is one area that has recently been increasing in importance in translation circles. The presence of a standardised text facilitates the kind of work that can make the Jamaican language more than what Gleaner letter writer (June 19) Kevin K .O. Sangster calls "a largely unrecognised or such a narrowly restricted 'language'."

Shed cultural prejudices

It is time that, as a people, we shed the cultural prejudices and begin to look more steadfastly at the wonderful possibilities that our language can provide. If we can learn anything from our success in music, cuisine and sports, it should be that it is the 'small' and 'insignificant' that have made us recognisable internationally. As for the importance of any language, let's not forget the history of English.

As Myra Jehlen and Michael Warner point out, insightfully, "in 1500, English was written by a small class of people in an island kingdom on the margin of Europe. By 1800, it was the language of a colonial system that stretched around the earth, from India and Australia to the Caribbean and Newfoundland."

If we continue to devalue Jamaican Creole, we do so to our own peril.

R. Anthony Lewis is head of the Foreign Languages Division at the University of Technology, Jamaica. He holds a PhD in Linguistics (Translation) specialising in translation and creolisation.