Yorke (left) and Popjes
Mark Dawes, Religion Editor
The people at the Bible Society of the West Indies and Wycliffe Bible Translators Caribbean have been beside themselves with glee. Why? They have never had it so good. Their Patois Bible project is getting a lot of publicity in the news media. That's publicity these faith-based organisations could never pay for.
The Patois Bible project began in the early 1990s. It was spearheaded by the Bible Society of the West Indies. Partners in the project included Wycliffe Bible Translators Caribbean and the University of the West Indies.
To date, the project has produced two audio recordings in compact disc format.
The first is 'A Who Run Tings' - a selection of readings from the gospels. The second is 'De Kristmos Story' - a selection of readings related to the birth of Jesus Christ. The project hopes to have the gospel of Luke available in both print and audio format by year-end.
First draft completed
The project team has completed a first draft for 52 per cent of the New Testament. With the substantive work for this project having been completed, the existing draft is undergoing review by a team of translation experts.
The main concern of opponents of the project is that there has been a severe deterioration in the average Jamaican's ability to speak proper English, and the promotion of Patois will not help that process. Some of those opposed to the Patois Bible project feel that there are enough understandable English translations of the Bible - accordingly, there is no need for another version - especially the scriptures in Patois.
The Rev Jack Popjes, former director of both Wycliffe Bible Translators Canada and Wycliffe Bible Translators Caribbean, in an interview with this reporter in 2002, said "Patois is a separate language. It is not just broken English. We have studied it. It has its own set of grammar. It has a lot of words that are the same as English ... If in the Jamaican education system children hear nothing but patois all their lives until age six, when for the first time they are intensively instructed in English - they simply don't (won't) understand it. I am convinced there are grown-ups in churches (in Jamaica) just looking (they don't understand standard English.) Patois is a real language.
"It is a Creole language. A Creole language is a language made up in parts from different other languages and it has developed its own grammatical rules different from any of the languages from which it has taken portions. English was a Creole back in Shakespeare's time. English needs to be taught to the little six-year-olds as a foreign language. Teachers speaking in Patois will say: 'We are going to learn a new language called English, but guess what, there are a lot of words that you already know from speaking Patois'," Popjes said.
A major motivation of the Bible Society of the West Indies and Wycliffe Bible Translators Caribbean is to see the scriptures in the 'heart language' of the people - that is the everyday, common language spoken by a people.
When the scriptures are read and/or heard in the heart language it resonates more meaningfully with its audience.
Popjes told this reporter a story about the effect of the heart language on a group of Spanish-speaking Latin American men. These men would normally keep their hats on during the worship services, which was conducted in standard Spanish. However, when a Bible translation was created utilising their own Spanish Creole, the men, on hearing the scriptures read in their heart language, instinctively took off their hats as an act of deep reverence. Thereafter, they never wore their hats again in church.
Heart language
Professor Aloo Osotsi Mojola, Africa Area translation coordinator for the United Bible Societies (the parent body of the Bible Society of the West Indies), on a visit to Jamaica in September 2003, told this reporter, "Everybody needs to read the Bible in their own heart language. If Christ came to Jamaica, which language would He speak? If He were relating to the common man in their homes and villages, which language would He speak? Christ starts out with the common man."
He told the story of the Basoga people of Uganda who speak Lusago. The Basoga use the Bible of the neighbouring Baganda people of Kampala, the capital of Uganda.
The Basoga people speak their own language when they are at home, but when they go to church they worship God in the language of their neighbour. This prompted some of the children of Basoga to ask their parents why it was that when they spoke to God they had to use the language of their neighbour. The kids asked if God did not understand Lusago.
According to Mojola, "If they (Jamaicans) learn to read in the Mother Tongue (Patois) it will be easier for them to learn English."
Dr Gosnell L. Yorke, professor of religion in the School of Religion and Theology at Northern Caribbean University and a former translation consultant with the Africa Area of the United Bible Societies, is a strong supporter of Patois Bible project. In an interview with this reporter last October, he said the learning of Patois as a language will not detract from one's ability to grasp standard English. He stressed that empirical evidence does not validate that fear.
He emphasised that the way forward should involve the promotion of the learning of patois and Standard English. In fact, he disclosed that one of his NCU colleagues is about to embark on a study to show that "Jamaican Patois does have a place in the academic formation of young people, and can be used as a medium of discourse, a medium of construction at a certain level, without negating English."
He said in that interview that Caribbean people should embrace their indigenous languages "like a badge of honour. We must affirm the language as an integral part of what it means to be Caribbean people".
Send feedback to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com.
