{"id":26986,"date":"2022-01-06T10:58:28","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T21:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblesociety.org.nz\/?p=26986"},"modified":"2022-01-06T10:58:28","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T21:58:28","slug":"new-caledonia-bible-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/new-caledonia-bible-translation\/","title":{"rendered":"Bible translation needed in New Caledonia"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>The people of New Caledonia have been Christians for generations but many still do not have the Bible in their heart language. <\/h3>\t\t\n\t\t\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/658439956?h=a9b9acbbf7\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" id=\"video\"><\/iframe>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Missionaries reached the island in the 1840s and, as people began to respond to the gospel, they translated the Bible into the three languages of Drehu, Laai, and Nengone. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, these languages, which are spoken by 26,000 people, are still the only indigenous languages to have the full Bible. Currently, there are around 30 indigenous languages, many of which are considered to be endangered, spoken by New Caledonia\u2019s 285,000 speakers, who are known as Kanaks.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like the cagou bird, an endangered species of bird which is endemic to the dense mountain forests of New Caledonia, many of these languages are in need of special protection. Already, one language has become extinct, one is critically endangered, four are severely endangered, five are endangered, and another five are vulnerable to extinction.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The most widely spoken language on the main island of Grande Terre is Aji\u00eb.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is used in churches, with sermons, prayers, and hymns all conducted in Aji\u00eb. Yet Aji\u00eb speakers, who have been Christians for generations, still do not have the full Bible in their language.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Aji\u00eb New Testament was published in 1922, followed by the Psalms in the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2014, Bible Society published a revision of the Aji\u00eb New Testament with new orthography. It was warmly welcomed by Christians across the island who are excited at the ongoing work to translate the Old Testament, due for completion in 2025. Bible Society is also translating the New Testament into Bwatoo and Nelemwa for the first time.<\/p>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"548\" src=\"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/RS99111-scaled-e1641419731719-1024x548.jpg\" alt=\"New Caledonia Old Testament\" srcset=\"https:\/\/biblesociety.org.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/RS99111-scaled-e1641419731719-1024x548.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/biblesociety.org.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/RS99111-scaled-e1641419731719-300x161.jpg 300w, https:\/\/biblesociety.org.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/RS99111-scaled-e1641419731719-768x411.jpg 768w, https:\/\/biblesociety.org.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/RS99111-scaled-e1641419731719-1536x822.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/biblesociety.org.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/RS99111-scaled-e1641419731719-2048x1096.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figcaption>Members of the Aji\u00eb Old Testament translation team hold copies of the Revised Aji\u00eb New Testament.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The people of New Caledonia have been Christians for generations but many still do not have the Bible in their heart language. Missionaries reached the island in the 1840s and, as people began to respond to the gospel, they translated the Bible into the three languages of Drehu, Laai, and Nengone. Today, these languages, which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-26986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bible"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzealandmarketing.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}