On Monday 3rd March we attended a meeting in MaeSai to discuss the current status of the Wa Bible.
We previously reported in December that the typesetting of the Wa Bible was completed following a sustained period of work by ourselves and a small number of Wa translators.
The initial plan was to print 5000 copies, then to work on further revision and print a further 5000. Because each print-run would effectively be a new Bible, this would result in additional costs. The price per Bible for 5000 copies would be $6.23, whilst for 10000 copies, the price would come down to $4.55 per copy.
As a result of this and other factors, it was decided that it would be wise to combine the two rounds of revision and checking with the aim to printing a single batch of 10,000 copies, thereby bringing the cost per Bible down.
To this end, a new team of four educated Wa pastors has been assembled to begin re-reviewing the complete Wa Bible. This process began in January 2008. One contentious issue has been the very strong desire to have this new Wa Bible printed and ready for the 100 Year Celebration of the first Wa Christian around 16th-18th April 2008. They have wisely decided not to allow this deadline to result in a rushed job. Their main concern is producing a good quality and accurate Bible using modern and up-to-date Wa language.
This decision has understandably caused some upset and disappointment among some of the Wa pastors and translators.
The original Wa New Testament was translated and first published in 1938 by Vincent Young and his Wa pastors. The Old Testament was translated at a later date by a different person.
We understand that a Chinese government survey estimates a total of some 300 different Wa dialects in China alone. It is believed that only one third of the Wa people group actually live in China; the remaining 2/3 live inside Burma. This implies that there could be as many as 900 different Wa dialects in total.
(Language groups distribution in Burma & China – Wa people are labeled as “Parauk” and “Vo” - see
here)
The Wa language belongs to the Palaungic branch of the Mon-Khmer language family, to which the Lahu also belongs. Lahu was the language that Vincent Young had originally learned and worked with. He later started to work with the Wa.
The four new Wa pastors began this latest review process this January. It emerged that the language used in the Wa Bible contained too many old Wa and Lahu words, spellings and grammar. It was also realised that the word used to describe God was the same word used to describe earthly government officials and rulers. Since the original publication in 1938, a new higher word has been found or created in the Wa language. Following a meeting last month with all those involved in the translation work it was decided to perform a complete word change throughout the entire Wa Bible to use this new word.
Another issue discovered by the new Wa pastors was that some of the language used was overly complex. Their desire is to produce a Bible in Wa that is easy to understand for the average Wa person while maintaining accuracy.
As of Monday 3rd March 2008, two Wa pastors had reviewed and listed corrections to the first six books of the New Testament. This took them two weeks. The team has now been increased to four Wa pastors. It is expected/estimated that they will take another four weeks to complete the New Testament.
The Old Testament will then be addressed. It is estimated that they will take at least two months to complete.
As they complete each book, they will provide to us the list of corrections and changes for us to integrate into the electronic sources.
At the end of the meeting, we posed for the team photograph. When we got home, we realised that with a small bit of editing, we could make the image resemble the old photograph of the Wa Head-Hunter warriors:
Original Wa Head Hunters...
Modern day Wa Head Hunters? 2 Heads!
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