Bible translations into Oceanic languages have a relatively closely related and recent history.
34-475: The Oceanic languages tree also encompasses other languages, such as Fijian . Various Australian Aboriginal languages in the Pama-Nyungan family have partial Bible translations. Some have complete New Testaments and partially-complete Old Testaments too, including Arrernte , Pitjantjatjara , Warlpiri , Pintupi-Luritja , Tiwi , Torres Strait Creole and Yolŋgu Matha . However, only one of them has
68-767: A Methodist minister for eleven years. His translation is still in use today. Oceanic languages The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages . The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia , as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia . Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages are spoken by only two million people. The largest individual Oceanic languages are Eastern Fijian with over 600,000 speakers, and Samoan with an estimated 400,000 speakers. The Gilbertese (Kiribati), Tongan , Tahitian , Māori and Tolai ( Gazelle Peninsula ) languages each have over 100,000 speakers. The common ancestor which
102-528: A complete Bible translation (Old and New Testaments); Australian Kriol , a creole language spoken by almost 40,000 people in parts of the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region of Western Australia , which took 25 years to complete. It was completed in 2019. The following is a simplified version of the language tree of Polynesian languages showing only the major languages: Futunan
136-726: A new translation of the Bible into modern colloquial Māori. Rev. John Williams with the support of Rev. Aaron Buzzacott and Rev. Charles Pittman translated the New Testament in the late 1820s through to the early 1830s. He left Rarotonga, Cook Islands in 1834 for England to conduct a series of fundraising lectures, publish his book Missionary Enterprises in the South Seas and to publish the Rarotongan Bible - New Testament. He came back to Rarotonga soon after, and left for
170-606: A remarkably large amount of Austronesian vocabulary. According to Lynch, Ross, & Crowley (2002), Oceanic languages often form linkages with each other. Linkages are formed when languages emerged historically from an earlier dialect continuum . The linguistic innovations shared by adjacent languages define a chain of intersecting subgroups (a linkage ), for which no distinct proto-language can be reconstructed. Lynch, Ross, & Crowley (2002) propose three primary groups of Oceanic languages: The "residues" (as they are called by Lynch, Ross, & Crowley), which do not fit into
204-460: Is a geographic rather than genetic grouping), including Utupua and Vanikoro . Blench doubts that Utupua and Vanikoro are closely related, and thus should not be grouped together. Since each of the three Utupua and three Vanikoro languages are highly distinct from each other, Blench doubts that these languages had diversified on the islands of Utupua and Vanikoro, but had rather migrated to the islands from elsewhere. According to him, historically this
238-626: Is now the Scottish Bible Society . This and another similar 1831 controversy about Unitarians holding significant Society offices resulted in a minority separating to form the Trinitarian Bible Society . The Bible Society extended its work to England, India, Europe and beyond. Protestant communities in many European countries (such as Croatia and Albania ) date back to the work of nineteenth-century BFBS Bible salesmen. Auxiliary branches were set up all over
272-460: Is reconstructed for this group of languages is called Proto-Oceanic (abbr. "POc"). The Oceanic languages were first shown to be a language family by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1896 and, besides Malayo-Polynesian , they are the only established large branch of Austronesian languages . Grammatically, they have been strongly influenced by the Papuan languages of northern New Guinea , but they retain
306-475: Is the language of Futuna Island . The first portions of the Bible on Aniwa Island was Mark and Matthew, translated by John Gibson Paton . These were published in Melbourne in 1877. In 1880 Acts was printed at Melbourne under the care of Mr. Paton's sons. In 1882-3 John, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, Philemon, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John and Jude were printed at Melbourne. Paton's translation of the complete New Testament
340-641: The Bible Society , is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world. The Society was formed on 7 March 1804 by a group of people including William Wilberforce and Thomas Charles to encourage the "wider circulation and use" of the Scriptures. Bibles published by the BFBS have on their front page as publisher's name
374-744: The Buffalo Emporium and General Advertiser (NY) , stated that the BFBS "since its establishment, has distributed 1,723,251 Bibles, and 2,529,114 Testaments — making a total of 4,252,365." From the early days, the Society sought to be ecumenical and non-sectarian. The Controversy in 1825–26 about the Apocrypha and the Metrical Psalms resulted in the secession of the Glasgow and Edinburgh Bible Societies, which later formed what
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#1732766312267408-519: The BFBS "has been 82,000,000...during the last seventy-five years" (since 1804). By 1909 it had issued 215,000,000 copies of the Bible. During World War One the Bible Society distributed more than nine million copies of Scripture, in over 80 languages, to combatants and prisoners of war on all sides of the war. The Bible Society managed this despite immense challenges – supply shortages, rising paper costs, paper rationing, submarine blockades and
442-546: The BFBS's name translated into the text's language, e.g. "Société biblique britannique et étrangère" on Louis Segond 's French Bible or "Brita kaj Alilanda Biblia Societo" on the Esperanto bible compiled from L. L. Zamenhof 's papers after the latter's death. The British and Foreign Bible Society dates back to 1804 when a group of Christians, associated with the Religious Tract Society , sought to address
476-512: The Bible were first translated into Tongan in 1844, the New Testament was first published in 1849. The first complete edition of the Bible was translated into Tongan by Wesleyan missionaries; the translation was then revised and edited by Thomas West, and published in London by W. M. Watts in 1860 (New Testament) and 1862 (Old Testament). Another translation of the Bible into Tongan was completed by James Egan Moulton in 1902 after serving there as
510-780: The Editorial Superintendent of the British and Foreign Bible Society , worked to revise the translation of the New Testament. In 1853, 15,000 copies were printed in England. These copies, when circulated, made the total number of 106,221 copies of the New Testament printed in the Māori language and distributed by the CMS and Wesleyan Missionary Society in New Zealand. In the early 1860s Elizabeth Fairburn Colenso helped prepare
544-527: The Loyalty Islands that are spoken just to the north of New Caledonia . Blench (2014) proposes that languages classified as: Word order in Oceanic languages is highly diverse, and is distributed in the following geographic regions (Lynch, Ross, & Crowley 2002:49). British and Foreign Bible Society The British and Foreign Bible Society , often known in England and Wales as simply
578-492: The New Hebrides in 1839 where he was killed and eaten by cannibals at Erromanga on 20 November 1839. He was 43 years of age. The complete Bible was published in 1851. [Insert by Tangata Vainerere, 2014] Samoan language first had a Gospel of John from 1841, then a Bible from 1844, mainly the work of George Pratt . John Davies (1772-1855) and Henry Nott (1774-1844) translated the Bible into Tahitian. Although parts of
612-755: The New Testament, which was published in 1837 and its revision in 1844. The translation and printing of the Book of Common Prayer was completed by November 1841. The greater number of the Collects were translated by the Rev. William Williams; the Sacramental and Matrimonial Services by William Puckey; and the remaining Collects, with the Epistles from the Old Testament, Thanksgivings, and Prayers, Communion of
646-552: The Red Cross among sick and wounded soldiers, sailors and prisoners of war. On average between 6–7,000 volumes were sent out every working day for fighting men, the sick and wounded, the prisoners of war, exiles and refugees. That's over four copies distributed each minute, day and night, for the duration of the war. Translation work never stopped – between August 1914 and November 1918, the Bible Society printed Scriptures in 34 new languages and dialects. This meant on average there
680-615: The Sick, Visitation of the Sick, Commination, Rubrics, and Articles of Religion , by William Colenso. From May to September 1844 a committee consisted of Archdeacon William Williams, the Rev. Robert Maunsell, James Hamlin, and William Puckey revising the translation of the Common-Prayer Book. The first complete editions of the New Testament, and the revisions, were published at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society . The Rev. William Williams and Rev. T. W. Meller M.A.,
714-561: The fifth chapter of the Gospel of St Matthew, the Lord's Prayer and some hymns. It was the first book printed in New Zealand and his 1837 Māori New Testament was the first indigenous language translation of the Bible published in the southern hemisphere. In 1830, during Rev. William Yate 's stay in Sydney, New South-Wales, he supervised the printing of an edition of 550 copies of a translation of
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#1732766312267748-626: The first three chapters of the Book of Genesis; the first eight chapters of the Gospel according to St. Matthew; the first four chapters of the Gospel according to St. John; the first six chapters of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians; parts of the Liturgy and the third catechism, Ko te katekihama III. William Gilbert Puckey also collaborated with William Williams on the translation of
782-485: The largest collection of Bibles in the world, with about 39,000 items. It includes its Chinese Collection which is the largest collection of Chinese Scriptures anywhere in the world. Since the society's move to Swindon in 1985 the library has been located in the library of the University of Cambridge . The Society's mission is global. Its work is organised into two categories: domestic and international. The Society
816-584: The problem of a lack of affordable Bibles in Welsh for Welsh-speaking Christians. Many young girls had walked long distances to Thomas Charles to get copies of the Bible. Later the story was told of one of them – a young girl called Mary Jones who walked over 20 miles to get a Bible in Bala, Gwynedd . BFBS was not the first Bible Society in the world. The first organisation in Britain to be called "The Bible Society"
850-402: The revised Māori Old Testament and New Testament for the press. She corrected the printed copy, sometimes suggesting alternative translations. The first edition of the full Māori Bible was published in 1868. Since then, there have been four revisions of the full Bible at intervals of 21 years, 36 years and finally 27 years up to the 1952 edition. The New Zealand Bible Society has a vision for
884-407: The sinking of merchant shipping. Even greater than these physical difficulties was the emotional toll – former colleagues suddenly found themselves fighting on opposing sides. Bible salesmen throughout Europe were conscripted or volunteered into their respective armies. The Bible Society responded to the challenge. They printed New Testaments bound in khaki, stamped with a cross, for distribution via
918-558: The three groups above, but are still classified as Oceanic are: Ross & Næss (2007) removed Utupua–Vanikoro, from Central–Eastern Oceanic, to a new primary branch of Oceanic: Blench (2014) considers Utupua and Vanikoro to be two separate branches that are both non-Austronesian. Ross, Pawley, & Osmond (2016) propose the following revised rake-like classification of Oceanic, with 9 primary branches. Roger Blench (2014) argues that many languages conventionally classified as Oceanic are in fact non-Austronesian (or " Papuan ", which
952-407: The translation of the Bible. William Williams concentrated on the New Testament; Maunsell worked on the Old Testament, portions of which were published in 1827, 1833 and 1840 with the full translation completed in 1857. In July 1827 William Colenso printed the first Māori Bible comprising three chapters of Genesis, the 20th chapter of Exodus, the first chapter of the Gospel of St John, 30 verses of
986-574: The world, in the church and through the culture. The strategy of the Bible Society centres on Bible availability, accessibility and credibility - what it calls the 'lifecycle' of the Bible. These strategic approaches encompass all of its activity: translation, production, distribution, literacy, engagement and advocacy. To these aims the Society was the original publisher of translations the Bible into several contemporary languages, among which Louis Segond 's French Bible (1910) and L. L. Zamenhof 's Bible in Esperanto (1926). The Bible Society has by far
1020-489: The world, which later became Bible Societies in their own right, and today operate in co-operation as part of the United Bible Societies . The Bible Society is a non-denominational Christian network which works to translate, revise, print, and distribute affordable Bibles in England and Wales. A newspaper article in the 15 March 1879 edition of The Gazette (Montreal) , noted that the total circulation by
1054-701: Was due to the Lapita demographic expansion consisting of both Austronesian and non-Austronesian settlers migrating from the Lapita homeland in the Bismarck Archipelago to various islands further to the east. Other languages traditionally classified as Oceanic that Blench (2014) suspects are in fact non-Austronesian include the Kaulong language of West New Britain , which has a Proto-Malayo-Polynesian vocabulary retention rate of only 5%, and languages of
Bible translations into Oceanic languages - Misplaced Pages Continue
1088-650: Was founded in 1779: it still exists and is called the Naval & Military Bible Society. The first BFBS translation project was the Gospel of John into Mohawk for Canada in 1804. In the British Isles BFBS reprinted Bibles in Welsh, Scots Gaelic and Manx Gaelic first produced by the SPCK . The first Romani translation was the Gospel of Luke into the Caló language of Iberia. A report in the 13 November 1824 edition of
1122-411: Was one new version every seven weeks during the whole period of war. For many years the headquarters of the society was in London; in 1972 its address was 146, Queen Victoria Street, E.C.4. By 1972 it had published or distributed whole Bibles or parts of the Bible in 1,431 languages. At that time it was distributing 173 million copies each year. The Society is working to circulate the Scriptures across
1156-549: Was published in 1899. Hiram Bingham II , Congregationalist, translated at least parts of the Bible into Gilbertese . The Bible was translated into the Māori language in the 19th century by missionaries sponsored by the Church Missionary Society . In 1826, the Rev. William Williams started work on the translation of the Bible into the Māori language. The Rev. Robert Maunsell worked with William Williams on
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