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The Bible Translator's Assistant Inc. is a faith based, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. We're a group of computational linguists and Bible exegetes who have developed software which enables missionaries and linguists to translate the entire Bible into a new language in a fraction of the time required by manual translation. We believe that every person deserves to have the entire Bible in the language that he or she understands best. Imagine how this world will be impacted when the entire Bible is available in thousands of languages.

 

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Listed below are several of TBTA's current projects:

 

The Philippines There are 175 indigenous languages spoken in the Philippines, but many of them do not yet have any part of the Bible. The most recent statistics indicate that there are complete Bibles in 13 languages, complete New Testaments in 66 additional languages, and work is currently being done in 19 New Testaments and 10 Old Testaments. There is also work being done on a Filipino sign language version of the Bible for the deaf population. Tod Allman, a member of TBTA, is currently living in a suburb of Manila and working with several linguists to build lexicons and grammars for their languages. He spent a year developing a Tagalog lexicon and grammar because Tagalog is the national language. TBTA then produced initial draft translations of Ruth, Esther, Daniel, and Genesis in Tagalog, and additional Old Testament books are currently being translated. Now Tod is working with a missionary from Wycliffe Bible Translators to modify the Tagalog lexicon and grammar in order to accommodate a language called Ayta Mag-Indi. The languages of the Philippines are structurally very similar, so the process of modifying the Tagalog grammar to accommodate Ayta Mag-Indi is going very quickly. TBTA will then produce initial draft translations of the same Old Testament books in Ayta Mag-Indi. Tod hopes to repeat this process with many other languages in the Philippines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vanuatu There are 111 languages spoken in Vanuatu, but most of them do not yet have any part of the Bible. Stephen Beale served in Vanuatu for three years as the translation consultant for the Motalava New Testament project. He is now preparing to return to Vanuatu in order to host a three month workshop on the island of Tanna. There are at least five languages spoken on Tanna, and Steve hopes that several representatives from each language will participate in this workshop. The goal of the workshop is to build lexicons and grammars for each of the represented languages, and then produce initial draft translations of the narrative portions of the Old Testament in those languages. The languages are all somewhat related to one another, so Steve expects the process to go quickly. Steve is presently preparing the workshop materials and methodology, completing the semantic representations for the narrative sections of the Old Testament, and fund raising for the costs associated with travel, food, and lodging for the workshop participants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Anonymous Language - spoken in Asia TBTA Inc. is currently working with two field researchers in Asia who must remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of their work. These researchers are working in a language that has approximately three million speakers. They are working with mother-tongue speakers and TBTA Inc. in order to translate certain books of the Bible and many community development articles into this language.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Listed below are several of TBTA's early experimental projects:

 

Kewa - spoken in Papua New Guinea Dr. Karl and Joice Franklin of Wycliffe Bible Translators Kewa is a clause chaining language with a switch reference system spoken in Papua New Guinea by 100,000 people. In 2001, TBTA worked with Karl Franklin, and they generated the book of Ruth in West Kewa. That draft was edited by the Kewa pastor who was in charge of the translation project, and TBTA's draft increased his productivity by a factor of 6.7. The edited draft was then published with the revised West Kewa New Testament.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jula - spoken in Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, and Mali Randy Groff of Wycliffe Bible Translators Jula is a Mande language in the Niger-Congo family spoken by approximately 1.2 million people in Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, and Mali. In mid 2000, TBTA worked with Randy Groff, and they generated the book of Nahum. Experiments were performed with mother-tongue Jula translators, and TBTA's draft of Nahum increased their productivity by a factor of 4.1. Additional experiments indicated that the edited TBTA draft of Nahum was equal in quality to the manually translated book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

North Tanna - spoken in Vanuatu Greg and Beth Ann Carlson of Wycliffe Bible Translators North Tanna is an Austronesian language spoken in Vanuatu by approximately 5,000 people. In 1999 TBTA worked with Greg Carlson to generate an initial draft translation of Ruth and Genesis 39. Then experiments were performed to determine the quality of the Genesis 39 draft. Those experiments indicated that the draft generated by TBTA approximately quadrupled the productivity of the mother-tongue translators. Additional experiments indicated that the edited TBTA draft was of the same quality and contained the same information as the manually translated text.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Korean JungAe Lee There are already many versions of the Bible in Korean, but in 2008, TBTA worked with JungAe Lee and generated initial draft translations of Luke 1-10, Ruth, Esther, Daniel, Nahum, and three community development texts. When experienced mother-tongue translators used these drafts, their productivity was increased by a factor of 4.6. Experiments indicated that the edited computer drafts were equal in quality to a professionally translated and published version of the Korean Bible intended for junior high students.