New Ireland
Cluster
PA PUA
NEW
GU I NEA
PROJECT UPDATE
AUGUST 2014
theseedcompany.org
Update From the New Ireland NT Cluster*
Progress
Goals
Quick Facts
Team
Teams’ advisors and consultants checked
various New Testament books. Hinsaal Luke
through Colossians was edited. Patpatar
advisor and consultant checked some Psalms.
New Testament or Scripture
portions to serve the local
church
Location: Papua New Guinea
Number of Speakers: 31,850
in 15 people groups
Expected Completion: 2014
1-4 translators in 15 languages
Highlights
01 The Sokarek New Testament
dedication celebration is
planned for October. All New
Ireland Cluster language groups
plan to attend.
02 The Notsi team received
200 published copies of John,
Galatians and 1 Timothy and
plan to hold a dedication in a
Notsi village.
03 The Sokirik team discovered
two new vowels and corrected
spelling in hundreds of words in
the New Testament.
What’s the Most Difficult?
Can’t Be More Specific
Can you guess what’s difficult for the New Ireland teams to
translate in the Book of Revelation? Some of the visions or
images? A theological teaching? Actually, some of the very
hardest concepts are fractions, such as “one third” or “one fourth.”
Traditional speakers of New Ireland languages didn’t break things
into fractions, but just used the generic term “parts.” For example,
in Revelation 8:7 where a third of the earth is burnt up, the Barok
translation said, “one part of the world burned, and two parts did
not.” But during a consultant check in a Barok village, the people
didn’t understand it clearly. After much discussion, they figured
out the best way to say this was “one part of three parts of the
world burned.”
The Nalik team also dealt with issues of generic versus specific
terms. Steve, the team’s advisor, found they used a word meaning
‘tree’ for the Greek word ‘grass’ in their translation of “like the
flower of the grass he will pass away” (James 1:10 RSV). As he
discussed this with the team, he discovered that Nalik has no
word for ‘grass’ and that ‘tree’ is actually a generic word for any
type of plant. This is like the Australian term ‘bush’ for jungle
vegetation. After more discussion, the team decided it was better
to leave the generic term rather than trying to find a specific kind
of plant that withered easily,
especially since nothing in
the tropics withers quickly.
Project director Ed and Barok translators Lucy and Sonia
conducted the check in the village to get more people involved
and increase trust in and enthusiasm for the translation. The
planned time was cut from three days to two days, so they only
finished through Revelation 13, which ends with 666, the number
of the beast. Sonia’s elderly dad wanted to hear the end of the
story and what happened to the beast, so he will help check the
rest of Revelation at the next New Ireland Translation Institute
course in September-October. If nothing else, that was an
indication of the success of the check!
Right:
Nalik team at NITI 16
(L-R Elisabeth, NITI
advisor-consultant
Steve, Mandas, Luai)
Go online for more updates and to join the
community conversation!
theseedcompany.org/projects/new-ireland-nt-cluster
Pray For Your People
01
02
Lord, give comfort and healing to
Notsi-Madak translator Dorcas and
her husband, who were injured in
auto accident on the way to her
brother’s funeral.
Father God, please call more
translators to serve on the Kandas
and Label projects. Thank You that
Cecilia joined the Label team and is
proving to be a help.
03
We praise You, Lord, for Wilson’s
hard work on the glossary and other
supplemental material for the Hinsaal
New Testament, preparing it for
typesetting in Australia by the end
of October.
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*NT Clusters are strategic networks of related language teams translating the New Testament or selections from it.
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