Fipa-Nyika Survey
In November we carried out a sociolinguistic survey of the Fipa and Nyika people in southwestern Tanzania. This meant travelling to Sumbawanga town (about 15 hours drive from Dodoma) and then spending a month in the area travelling around different places talking to lots of people and collecting information about their language. The aim of the survey was to see which dialect (or dialects) would best serve the Bible translation needs of the Fipa and Nyika people.
The work generally involves going to different villages and carrying out various tasks, such as collecting wordlists (a list of 240 words in the language of that village) collecting a phraselist (20 short phrases) and conducting a group interview, which involves asking between 20 and 300 people questions about the language of their village. We also talk informally to the village leaders and other people to try and get a good understanding of the language situation in the area.
The situation was actually quite complicated, with several dialects in the region. At times it felt quite daunting, with such a large area and so many speech varieties in front of us, but God guided us to the right places, and by the end we felt that we had a good understanding of the languages and dialects in the area.
Me collecting a phraselist in a Fipa village. (I’m the little white one in the middle…)
The non-language highlights of the trip were probably spending a day in one of Tanzania’s most remote national parks, and visiting the second highest waterfall in Africa – Kalambo falls. We also got a taste of what happens if you try and travel during the rainy season…
But thankfully the rains didn’t really start properly in the time we were there and we were able to get to all the places we wanted to go.
After that we spent a few days surveying the Nyika language community. Nyika is hardly known outside of the immediate area, although as we discovered it is a very vital language which the people love to speak, and it’s different to all the surrounding languages. Please pray that the Nyika would be able to start translating the Bible into their own language soon.
Christmas Holidays!
And then it was time for Christmas. I went on holiday with a few friends from here, to Lushoto and Zanzibar…
Grammar Workshop
In January I helped with a grammar workshop here in Dodoma. Speakers of 5 different languages came together for the purpose of writing a grammar description of their languages which can be used when they start translating the Bible. I was working with two Kinga speakers, trying to guide them through the process of analysing the grammar.
The Kinga language group with our completed first draft
By the end of the two weeks we were all pretty exhausted and were glad we didn’t have to think about grammar any more! I’m not sure can I English proper grammar speak still…
Prayer
· Thank God for how he has provided everything I have needed in my first year here in Tanzania. Especially for people who have supported me in prayer and financially.
· Thank God for a successful survey trip in November, where we were able to find out all the things we needed to about the Fipa and Nyika languages
· Pray for wisdom as we now write the reports here in Dodoma
· Pray for the Fipa and Nyika peoples, that they would have the opportunity and the motivation to start translating the Bible into their various languages.
· Pray for the Kinga people – that the grammar description would be accurate, and useful for when translation starts. Pray that they would soon have an accurate Bible translation in the Kinga language.
· For me – that I would draw closer to God day by day, knowing that without him I can do nothing.
"My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are weak."
2 Corinthians 12:9
For more pictures and info on what I'm doing... www.habarizamark.co.uk
My address in Tanzania: SIL, Po Box 1369, Dodoma, Tanzania (Mobile: +255 745 653 286)
E-mail: mark_woodward@sil.org
Wycliffe Bible Translators, Horsleys Green, High Wycombe, Bucks, HP14 3XL, UK
www.wycliffe.org.uk
E-mail: askus@wycliffe.org | 