A Concise Summary of the Proceedings of the

International Conference for Roma Bible Translators

Bucharest, May 10-16, 2003

(Several people were able to attend only part of the Conference.)

Participants included 2 representatives of the UBS; 1 of the BS of Romania; 1 of the Ministry of Religious Affairs of Romania; 2 of the Orthodox Church in Romania; 1 of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; 3 of the Baptist Church of Bucharest, Romania; 1 of the Baptist Church of Moldavia; 1 of the Brethren Church in London, England; 1 of the Pentecostal Church in Germany; and 6 of WBT International.

Currently listed on our website www.romani-bible.org

- a draft of the entire New Testament in Sinti was completed early 2003;

- work on a first draft of Matthew. in Moldavian Kalderash is in progress

- a draft version of the whole O.T. in Baltic Romany was completed in 2001.

1. survey urgently needed to determine needs

Two situations stand out:

1. The dialect situation of Ursari Romany in Romania, and of
2. Russian Kalderash in Russia.

(For further information see our website www.romani-bible.org)

The Romanian government has taken the initiative of developing an attractive Pan-Roma series of Educational materials, which are reportedly used by 14,000 school children. This is an interesting experiment. The question is whether this method can be successfully used by itself, or bridge materials between the various Roma dialects and the Pan-Roma "language" will be necessary.

Dialectical differences are a knotty problem in Roma language development. Differences are often caused by loanwords taken from surrounding languages that can be quite remote, like French and Russian. Another cause may be dialectical developments, where a sub-dialect has in the course of time replaced an older word by a new one. In written productions it often suffices to write a gloss in the margin. (Writing in the margin is generally preferred over footnotes.)

Philosophy of translation

News of organizations involved in Bible translation

The United Bible Societies (UBS) have over the past several years changed their approach in some ways. One change is that UBS is less involved in Romani translation projects, but is seeking to work entirely through the national Bible Societies. They have also felt a concern about the Bible's relevance in today's society, especially in the West and are trying to make the Biblical message relevant again to the general public by producing high quality Biblical television productions involving professional actors. In giving guidance to translation projects they have found it helpful to do extensive target audience research, and have a clear mental picture of the 'person' for whom the translation is intended, before even starting the translation phase. (For more information see www.biblesociety.org

Wycliffe Bible Translators has recently developed the Vision 2025 approach, meaning that by the year 2025 a translation project should have been started in every language for which a definite need has been determined. To achieve this goal they have seen the importance of cooperating much more closely with other Bible translation agencies, missions, and national churches. The practical outworking of this new emphasis involves first of all partnership, and also training of potential translators, making consultant help available, facilitating teambuilding and funding. (For more information see: www.wycliffe.org

It was generally recognized that there is a whole spectrum of translation styles possible, varying from 'ultra literal' to 'ultra dynamic'. The translator has a choice of 'taking the reader to the text', or 'taking the text to the reader', but should do so with moderation and wisdom, bearing the results of the target audience research in mind. Functional dynamic translation should aim for the CLOSEST NATURAL EQUIVALENT. Changes between the source text and the target language normally involve phonological, lexical and (text)grammatical features, including complex rearrangements of word order. A special category of translation problems are concepts that are unknown to the culture of the new translation (like 'sheep/lamb' in Papua New Guinea). Another important area is the choice of the so-called 'key terms' like the words for 'God', 'LORD', 'devil', 'angel', 'apostle', 'disciple', 'prophet', 'holy', 'sin', 'forgiveness', 'pure', 'unclean', etc.

Nowadays the basic steps of the Bible translation process involve: audience research, team selection, team training, trial translation, first draft of translation, feedback (with diplomacy!), second draft of translation. internal review, external review, feedback, revision, preliminary publication. All this is based on the principle that TRANSLATION should always be followed by CHECKING & TESTING, followed again by REVISION.

It is only little over ten years now that virtually every Bible translator has been working with his or her personal computer. In the mean time specialized tools for translation work have gone through a gigantic development. Some of the most helpful software are:

Orthographies

To do any translation work (even oral translation) one needs some kind of an orthography, even if it is just an 'in-house orthography' used to write scripts to be read aloud. In the case of Roma languages the question of special characters like those used in the Cyrillic alphabet often comes up. Fortunately much progress has been made lately in providing the special symbols needed on computers.

Audience research is also needed to determine which spelling system to follow, especially if a Roma language is used across international borders.

Many Roma communities show the characteristics of an oral society as contrasted with the literate society of neighbouring communities. This is both a challenge and an opportunity. It seems that the use of non-print media can be very effective among the Roma.

Recent studies have shown that many peoples from oral societies are best served with what is called a 'chronological storying approach' in Bible translation. This means that priority is given to a number of basic stories from the Old Testament (like the Creation story,

Flood story, the stories of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Daniel, etc.) followed by stories about the birth of Jesus, parables, the Easter story, etc. These are often used in audio-visual materials. Texts have been selected that together make up what is now called a 'Panorama Bible', which can be used as a framework for priorities in Bible translation in new languages.

The participants agreed to keep each other informed of new developments. A useful clearing-house for information is the above-mentioned website www.romani-bible.org It was decided to form a 'Roma Bible Network' meant primarily for the dissemination of information. A coordinating committee was chosen, consisting of K. Holmes, V. Kalinin, and M.Wiering (names in alphabetical order). Draft mission statements for both the network and the committee follow below:

Mission statement 1)

" ROMANI BIBLE NETWORK

By the grace of God we will contribute to the establishment of Christ's Church among the Roma (Gypsy) peoples by promoting and facilitating the translation of the Holy Scriptures in every Roma language group for which there is a definite need.

We view ourselves as a fellowship of Roma and Gaje, individuals and organizations, who pursue the above-stated goal, as well as the dissemination and use of the translated scriptures in a culturally sensitive and relevant way."

Mission Statement 2)

" COORDINATING COMMITTEE OF THE R.B.N.

As Coordinating Committee of the R.B.N. we purpose to:

1) disseminate information on Roma languages and dialects, Bible translation plans, activities, and publications in Roma languages;

2) plan Roma translation conferences, workshops, training events, etc.;

3) seek funding for events, activities and publications;

4) where possible, assist in preparing Roma translations or supervise Roma translation projects (including audio-visual productions) of the Word of God;

5) promote the accumulation of a Romani Language Library in a variety of media."

Looking back, we are very grateful to God for allowing this conference to happen and bringing in all who came. Some had to overcome quite adverse circumstances. We would also express our warm appreciation to the Management of the Ruth Center for their cooperation in accommodating us. Thanks to all who contributed from their knowledge and experience. Thanks also to those who prayed for the whole project of the Conference and those who by their financial assistance made it possible to subsidize the participants' travel costs.