Uwe Jung, the librarian at Goethe had thrown out another challenge, he asked the group if we could get the computer to speak Cameroonian languages.  He must have known this would interest me, and he would have been right.  I dove in, searching documentation on the challenges of converting these complex languages from text back into speech.

I knew some of the challenges and graces.    We have a common alphabet here in Cameroon for all 280 languages.  This is great, because the computer will see a subset of the same 40 characters, and I can predict what I might find.  The challenge is that each language has used each letter to represent a slightly (or wildly) different sound…so I knew this couldn’t be a one-size-fits-all job.

Challenge 1: Pronunciation

I started with Ewondo, the local language I’d been learning.  Even though I’m a newbie, it is the only Cameroonian language that I knew both the sounds and words.  I set to work, placing basic phrases in the application, and it seemed that French pronunciation was closer than any other.  i had my framework…my pre-invented wheel.

Next…to add the letters that aren’t in French…mostly fun vowels.  It turned out single vowels were easy, but double vowels produced unpredictable results.  Ok..so I learned to add exceptions.

At this point, a young Ewondo woman came into my office for tech support.  After I finished fixing her problem, and as she was packing up to leave..I quickly typed in and played a greeting in Ewondo from my computer, the equivalent to “Good day, how are you?”  She responded without thinking with the correct response.  If I ever needed confirmation that I was on the right track, that was it.

Challenge 2: Tone

Ewondo uses tone to express meaning. Think of how you would pronounce “Coming.” or “Coming?”.  The way your voice rises on the question, that’s tone.  Ewondo, and most of the languages of this region, use tone to determine the meaning of the word…so your two pronunciations of “coming” could have 2 completely different word meanings.

Sometimes linguists choose to mark tones as accents over the letters, but most see that simplicity decides which languages that are easily learn and write.  Ewondo marks most of their tones, and the ones not marked are predictable.  Bassaa does the same, but has many more complex possibilities. Badw’ee only marks tone when distinguishing between two different words with the same spelling (homographs).  Bassaa and Ewondo are easy to “translate” into speech because most of the important information is written in the words.  Badw’ee would need a large dictionary giving the “true” pronunciation of each word.

Anyways, I had no idea how to represent tone in this application, so I got in touch with the developer.  He gave me some cryptic hints that eventually led to a solution.  Now, the computer could pronounce tone (frankly better than myself) without creating confusion.

Challenge 3: Special cases

Even though Cameroonian languages are quite consistent, there are always words that require a special pronunciation that you wouldn’t expect from reading it.  Maybe they came from a neighboring language, French, or English.  Maybe two words are pronounced as one.  Cleaning up the pronunciation will be a long process of putting in texts and “fiddling” when it makes mistakes. After some fiddling, I moved on to the PowerPoint at the last moment..finishing at about 4am Saturday morning.

Challenge 4: Fine tuning

I stood on the shoulders of giants to create this. My version was a Frankenstein of several languages. I pulled the vowel from “why” to pronounce one sound, and I used the French I for both I and e (in certain situations).  These are rough equivalents and great for a mock-up, but not complete work.  A trained linguist (which I am not yet) could do recordings and analysis to create vowels specially for Ewondo that match exactly the tone and timbre.  I counted over 30 numerical variables to define a single vowel.

The Presentation:

A few short hours later, I was on my way to Goethe with some colleagues and making final adjustments to my presentation.

I talked about the technology and the tools, all in French and on 4 hours of sleep. I knew about the orthography of most of the languages in the room, and could point out some of the challenges that each might have.

I had decided that the best example of the technology would be to create a male and female voice, and create an Ewondo conversation.  Mouths dropped around the room…the computer was speaking one of their languages.  I had noticed in town that it was easier to understand an Ewondo woman than an Ewondo man, and they seemed to agree.  So we stuck with the female voice for working.  Obviously it had the accent of an american cow, but it was close enough that they could understand and follow it.

Click Ewondo Conversation to listen to it.

They all had questions…wondering if we could make it speak Ghomala, Kwasio, Bassaa.  They also wondered if voice recognition (I talk, it types) could work.  It’s all a possibility, but consider how many millions of work hours have gone into English recognition, and how flaky it is.

The Ewondo team was most excited, and took my code to immediately start improving it.  They started adding pronunciation rules I hadn’t even imagined, and even jumped over what I thought were limitations in the program.  The copy I have now from them is much better..the obvious benefit of having a mother-tongue linguist and programmer in tandem.

We had some issues with the Windows version, but Kwasio started a draft voice as well.

Follow-up: Nuasue

Another linguist, from the Nuasue language, couldn’t come to the presentation, but was quite interested in the practical applications of this technology, and wanted it to speak his language.  Kibassa had the vision that he could use it for reading to children and the illiterate, teaching the language, and even checking the naturalness of a text.  Yesterday, Kibassa and I sat down to work out Nuasue.  (Actually the word “nuasue” means “ours” in Nuasue.  Imagine the conversation where a traveling linguist asks which language a man is speaking, and he replies in his language “ours, of course”.)

So we started with the Ewondo framework…and had to rework almost everything.  The vowels and consonants are often the same, but sound nothing alike.  The tones were too strong and jumpy for Nuasue, so we smoothed them out.  Kibassa found that the male voice was more understandable for Nuasue…interesting.  We still have more work to make the voice natural, we think it’s breaking syllables in the wrong places, but it’s getting there.  We impressed his fellow linguist with spoken Biblical text when he returned.  Kibassa was right about the naturalness check.  The spoken voice gave a surprising pronunciation of one word, and he realized that he had misspelled it in his translation.

Here is a photo from my living room.  I thought it was interesting enough to post.

Last night, I got a couple of chapters in, but today, I finished it.  Page after digital page, I read the story of the first american foreign missionary. I read a story similar to Paul’s, of long journeys over water, prison sentences, and speaking to local officials.  Compared to Judson, Paul had it easy.  Adonairam Judson buried 3 wives, most of his children, and almost all of his friends. He lived in a time where going into missions meant you would most likely die there, days when “medevac” meant a 7-month sea voyage.

Death had only touched me once, well actually twice, since leaving.  Once with here with Shawn’s passing, and once before that when the boyfriend of one of my best friends died in the hospital.  I admit that I’m not much good at relating to grieving people, I’m more of the get-things-done type, and that’s nearly impossible to express long-distance.  As I look toward returning home before linguistics school, I believe I will have the grace to return to find all of my family thriving.

Replacing this isolation in Burma experienced by Judson and his familes, there is a new and opposing struggle for missionaries of the digital age.  The struggle is a spread of responsibilities.  My duty is to serve God, through my life even more than through my work, and my commitment is to share this world with my partners. Beyond that is another level, we work FOR the Cameroonians and are often tempted to leave cross-cultural relationships struggling when pressing duties rise. Many of our extraverts seek out Cameroonians on tough days, but I usually retreat into the quiet.  For the many wonderful things Cameroonians can be, loving, enthusiastic, persistent…quiet doesn’t describe any public gathering. 

I don’t know if I have expressed it here, but I find it interesting that each missionary here felt a call strong enough to put aside, at least for a time, friend and family obligations for the sake of the Cameroonian people.  We’re here trying to relate to a people whose lives are directed by family obligations, and can’t (or at least wouldn’t dare) to step outside these obligations for even a couple of hours.

Thank you Yah for being bigger than me, bigger than Cameroon, and for your Son’s example of being the perfect cross-cultural missionary, even to death.  Fill me again with your Spirit. Help each of your ambassadors to be continually filled by your peace that passes understanding, and comfort those left behind, who continue to see a person-shaped hole in their lives.  Fill that hole with warmth, compassion, and encouragement…and bring both Cameroonians and Americans into the fold and closer to You because I reflect Your light and Spirit. Amen

Please continue to praise for:
-Ongoing translatio in more countries, media, and languages than ever before.
-Gifted workers that continue to flow in.
-The 40 People who are in the Pipeline to come to Cameroon.
-Personal and corporate partners.
-Reinvention of the organization to adapt to a changing world.

We and a dozen Cameroonians served our little stint in purgatory for having left 5 minutes too late for church.  After buying a bottle of water, there was little left to do but stare out the concrete opening. We watched as the dirt turned to mud, the low spots into rivulets, the rivulets into streams, and the streams into rushing rivers. Ellen imagined herself on a little island in the middle of the road, only to be wisked away as a vehicle forded the intersection. As if to add insult to injury, a motorcycle splashed through a spot just downstream. “OUCH!”, we both said.

So we watched as God watered the corn outside the Church, settled the dust, topped off water barrels in the neighborhood, and washed the litter off the streets.

In the conversation, I let someone else’s secret slip…the second secret about this person to the same listener, and they commented that they’d better not tell me any secrets.  This hurt, but she was right in calling me out. Usually, I’m a vault, acting appropriately on the priveleged information I know without letting on, but twice in a row I’d been a gossip about the same person, a person that had confided in me.  I apologized, still wondering if I should apologize to the other person.  I whispered a quiet prayer giving my tongue and mouth back to God (see Isaiah 6:6-7 and James 3), the noise of my prayer being drowned by the thunderous pounding on the tin roof.

Later, in the service, the pastor prayed for those still en route, and declared these sorts of days a test of our faith.  He also congratulated the congregation for their triumph.  This reminded me of the opposite sentiment from Brad Paisley:  “There ain’t nothin’ that’ll test your faith like a long sermon on a pretty Sunday” …and for the umpteenth time this morning, I giggled.

The sermon was about stewardship, and Pastor Jean-Jacques did his best not to make the whole sermon about money.  He deftly avoided Malachi 3:8 and used 1 Chronicles 29:10-14. (I found an interesting article on tithing that’s worth considering: http://bible-truths.com/tithing.html )

David’s Prayer

10 Then David praised the Lord in the sight of all the assembly. David said,
May You be praised, Lord God of our father Israel, from eternity to eternity. 11 Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in the heavens and on earth belongs to You. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as head over all. 12 Riches and honor come from You, and You are the ruler of everything. Power and might are in Your hand, and it is in Your hand to make great and to give strength to all. 13 Now therefore, our God, we give You thanks and praise Your glorious name.
14 But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from You, and we have given You only what comes from Your own hand.
~ 1Ch 29:10-14 HCSB

In 1 Chronicles, David prayerfully reminds himself that EVERYTHING is already God’s, and we should seek to be as generous with our blessings as He has been to us.

As you know, sometimes I have been the French-English Translator at church.  I don’t count myself among the public speakers of this world, but I’m comfortable translating if I don’t have to worry about blashphemy. Knowing that our Former pastor, Pastor Herve, was a godly man and that his sermons were guided by the wisdom of the Spirit, I’d asked God first to let any false words fade away, then to attach me to the pastor’s spirit for that time so that I could translate both the words and sentiment.  I don’t know if this request was scripturally sound, but God has a habit of granting some of my most foolish requests, and I believe that God has blessed me and the congregation through it.  Nowadays, we have a new, younger pastor, and I’ve been reluctant to translate until I have an idea what to expect from him.  Apart from that, he tends to give a paragraph to the translator, and you end up scrambling and revising rather than translating.

Today, I was called up to the pulpit by surprise to pray for the offering.  During the service, I’d already realized the folly of my request, that the words bubble up from the Spirit and not the pastor. I’d instead asked the Spirit to attach me to and bring me ever closer to Himself.   I’m usually not all that comfortable composing prayers in front of a crowd (my dad was always the designated pray-er in a group) , but this time I felt that the words I spoke came from much deeper than my heart and mind…deeper than ever before.  I’ve always imagined that the Spirit took our mangled and humble words and took them up to heaven, telling the Father in a vaguely apologetic tone: “Ok, so here’s what he meant to say…”.  I’m not saying that I expresed anything groundbreaking or new, but this was a different flow, where the intercession came between my heart and my lips, rather thn after.

I’ve been guided by the Spirit here to Africa, but I hope that this new depth is a new level of moment-to-moment growth and maturity in my relationship with God. 

After church today, I was reading today’s Morning and Evening devotion by Spurgeon.  It reminded me of the downpour of the morning and the confession of David.  Here are some excerpts:

“I will pour water upon him that is thirsty.”
— Isaiah 44:3
All the riches of divine grace you shall receive in plenty; you shall be as it were drenched with it: and as sometimes the meadows become flooded by
the bursting rivers, and the fields are turned into pools, so shall you be—the thirsty land shall be springs of water.

Through African languages, I’ve had introductions to tone, phonetics, grammar, class, morphology, a little semantics. I look for complex patterns in texts to clean or repair them.

In the meantime, I’ve taken time to learn, or more often just learn about, several languages and scripts.
A year in French school of course to get a reasonable level in French. Basic greeings in Swiss german and Italian. I’ve worked with some texts in Arabic script, though Coca Cola is about the only phrase I can reliably recognize at this point. We all play with Cameroonian pidgin when we’re in a goofy mood. I even took some time in Israel to learn to pronounce the Hebrew alphabet.

They recommend that anyone involved with language work try to learn at least one African language. Since I don’t work with a specific language team and I live in the city, I’m taking the opportunity to learn Ewondo. Ewondo is the language of the tribe that inhabits Yaounde, and a local trade language related closely to the other languages of the area.

We’ve gotten through the basic greetings and obligatory questions. “How did you sleep?”, “Where are you going?”, “How is your wife, children, aunt, uncle, chickens..” (They’re always fine at this point in the conversation, but you may find out differently later in the conversation.) We’re getting into some complex expressions, and I’ve not had as much time to study outside of my 3 hours a week in class.

I went downtown to the market yesterday, and for the first time, I understood a large percentage of what was yelled at me in the market, which is at the same time unsettling and amusing. Of course, I’m used to the French and English (A man described my imposing friend as a cartoon character, Obelix, and I got quite a giggle as the man was quite right about the resemblance.) A Cameroonian was talking about a woman mixing French, English, and Beti, and I was able to follow the phrase without problem.

Anyways…this is one more step into Cameroonian culture…stepping out of the “colonial” languages and into something a little more personal. If I could go to the market and function in Ewondo and Fulfulde, in addition to my French and English, I would be able to communicate with virtualy anyone except those in the deepest villages.

Please pray 1 Tim. 2:1-4 for Cameroon: I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

• reading or finding the text
• checking other versions
• following cross-references
• researching commentaries
• researching cultural influences on the text
• researching back-stories on the characters
• boiling it town to teaching points
• preparing resources/handouts

She realized that this was a completely different activity than her daily reading, not nearly as fulfilling and exhaustingly academic. This got us wondering if we had the right idea. Where does scriptural insight come from? If Christ is the Word (see John 1), doesn’t he wish to speak to us? Won’t the Spirit lead us to truths through his word if we listen.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Please don’t get me wrong, Commentaries aren’t dangerous. If I find a challenging passage, I’m the first to look up John Calvin or Matthew Henry’s thoughts on the topic or to look up the notes at the bottom. I’ve heard these stressed as non-scriptural notes, and I’ve heard a Study Bible called a “cheater Bible” joking that it alone has “All God’s answers in one book”. Where did the insights of the great quoted masters come from? We’re long past the days when we thought only the elite could talk to God. We just have to realize that if we were to read every commentary and volume ever written on John 3:16, the Spirit would poke us in the ribs and remind us that He still has words just for you left unsaid. He’s that deep and unsearchable.

Oh the Depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways. (Romans 11:33 NIV)

Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are High as the Heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know. (Romans 11:33 NIV)

That second verse isn’t saying don’t bother looking for God…just dive in head first and don’t expect to hit the bottom.

I’m no expert in Bible study, I just know what works for me. I’m going to propose a few ideas I’ve found and heard and hope that some of you can add to in your comments. Also, I don’t offer this as a “method”, but as suggestions.

Pray

This one should be obvious, but sometimes we forget it. If you don’t believe me, read 1st Thessalonians 5:17 then James 1:22. Read them again, read it again….and this brings us to the next idea.

Re-read

Re-read the verse. Re-read the Chapter. Read it and stress different words. Read it with the clauses, and without the clauses. Read it out loud. Read it upside down (well, you get the idea). This is never time wasted.

Don’t Stop

If you come to the end of a chapter or story, don’t make the mistake of stopping cold. I learned recently that even the parables can be understood more deeply if you dare to keep reading. The chapter numbers and section titles were added much later for our convenience. Did you know that “cutting out a sinful eye and approaching people about accountability are in the same chapter. Why do we laugh off Matthew 18:9 as an exaggeration, yet try to follow 18:16 as a prescription.

Multiple Versions

English speakers have an unbelievable wealth of translations and study Bibles. There are Bibles with notes for women, golfers, students, pastors, maybe even Motorcycle repairmen (or is that Zen . There are Bibles translated to extract the literal words from the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. There are Bibles trying to recapture the poetic styles of the original languages. Each time you pick up a different translation, you’re reading God’s love letter to the world guided by the spirit and seen through the eyes and emphases of that translator.
This shouldn’t be a surprise that different versions speak more strongly to different people. Even the gospels were written to different audiences.

• Matthew was written with details specific for the Jews waiting for the Messaiah.
• Mark was written for the Romans, often containing information that was needed to explain Jewish customs.
• Luke was written as a detailed account to all people.
• John was written to the Gentiles, to us, so that we would know that Jesus was God.

Please understand, I’m not saying that you should give up your beloved KJV or NIV. I like both of those, and sometimes use them. I just ask you to open your eyes and dare to hear the words expressed differently.

When was the last time you were “shocked” by scripture?

Working with Bible translation, this is sort of a passion, so it might get a little long-winded. Food for thought: Here’s my experience with several Bible versions:

NIV:

New International Version is my old standard. Like many of you with the KJV, most of the verses I’ve memorized are from the NIV, so it’s comforting. I have a thinline NIV, and this is the Bible I carry around when I travel. This is often one of the best and beloved for working with a Group. Anytime you’re with English speakers, you’re bound to find more than a few NIVs in the group. It’s clear and easy to read aloud, and those with other common versions will follow along with no problem.

HCSB:

This is the Holman Christian Standard Bible. This is my study Bible. HCSB is a 2004 translation (the standard NIV is from 1978) and it speaks to me like no other. It’s a re-translation from the original texts, and though the New Testament often sounds like NIV, it really shines is in the psalms. I’ve found it to be a beautifully crafted balance of textual precision and smooth flow. I’d have to say this is the one that speaks most clearly to me, and I use this for my daily Bible reading. It’s hard to describe why it seems so natural, but this is the version that I don’t get caught up in the words, and it clearly speaks to my heart. Thanks to Jim Luedtke for suggesting the Study Bible at Montreat, it’s been a blessing.

Amplified:

The Amplified Bible isn’t one that you would often read out loud, as it tends to have some of the longest verses. When those hard-to-translate words show up, the Amplified Bible shines. Most Bibles translate the Greek makaros in Matthew 5 as “blessed” or “happy”, which are both valid and useful translations. The Amplified Bible doesn’t skimp and adds parenthetical explanations of the sense to unlock it…

Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous–with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the poor in spirit (the humble, who rate themselves insignificant), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven! (Matthew 5:3 AMP)

They take it even further in the following verses:

Blessed and enviably happy [with a happiness produced by the experience of God's favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted! (Matthew 5:4 AMP)

Blessed and fortunate and happy and spiritually prosperous (in that state in which the born-again child of God enjoys His favor and salvation) are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God), for they shall be completely satisfied! (Matthew 5:6 AMP)

The Message:

This one gets a lot of flack as it’s a paraphrase rather than a translation, but I challenge you to re-read the verses you know best in this version. Many times the subtleties that were hidden in your standard version will jump out in your face and shock you. You’ll find yourself asking…is that what Christ really meant? I’ll admit that sometimes Peterson goes a bit far, but surprise by scripture will get you digging deeper. I like to use the message, especially in audiobook form, when I’m in the mood to read a whole book or several. You can cover a lot of ground in 20 minutes, and have plenty to chew on for the rest of the day.

King James Version and Good News Bible:

Maybe it’s a little shocking to put these together in the same section, but that’s sort of my point. They were written for different people groups. KJV, with it’s higher language, has always expressed the majesty of God. A quick read of Psalm 23 will show you the value of this translation. If you understand the precise vocabulary, this will get you a long way. On the other hand, this is very hard for non-native English speakers. Several missionaries have heard Cameroonian churches using King James language and Bible, and the poor congregation leaves the sanctuary “confounded” or “erred in spirit”. The Good News Bible is written in simple English, avoiding the complex clauses and phrases that would confuse an early reader. For those that do not yet have a Bible in their own heart language, this is an accessible, though still not ideal, means of accessing God’s word.

Other Languages:

I’ve had the opportunity to study French, and this has greatly increased the depth of my Bible study. Similar to the message, you’ll read a verse and all of the sudden, you’re shocked by a word. I remember reading Romans 7:23 about sin warring on our heart, and the French word for “war” stood out. “Guerre” was a word that I’d always associated in French with World War 2, and not with the little things going on in my heart. I stopped cold reading this, and I was reminded of the severity of sin. If you have the chance to read the Bible in another language, I dare you. You’ll be surprised at the new old things that will jump out at you. This also goes for the original languages…Bible word studies in Greek or Hebrew (even in translation) will get you even further into the text.

[For my determined purpose is]
that I may know him–that I may progressively
become more deeply and intimately
acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing
and understanding [the wonders of His Person]
more strongly and more clearly.
And that I may in the same way come to
know the power outflowing from
His resurrection [the power it exerts over
believers]; and that I may share His
sufferings as to be continuously transformed
[in spirit into His likeness even]
to His death.

That’s it, that’s our duty to Him, and through this will His work be done. Swindoll quotes Thomas Kelley saying that God “never guides us to an intolerable scramble of panting feverishness.
Let’s read that again: God never guides us to an intolerable scramble of panting feverishness.

I’d wager that this describes not only missionaries and pastors, but most anyone reading these words. We get caught up in obligations to our boss, to our family, our congregation, and especially to our Saviour, and while we know that works aren’t getting us into heaven (we’ve already attained entry through faith and grace) we work ourselves thin as if it was.

Next chapter:

God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated. Ecclesiastes 7:29 (TEV)

I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his Craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3

I’ve always liked Luther’s idea “I’ve got so much to do today, I’d better spend 3 hours in prayer instead of 2.” This is the wonderful foolishness of Christ.
The world tells us that by working smarter and harder, that our labors will produce more fruit. In fact, working closer is what makes all the difference.

More encouragement:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

And here’s where a little repetition comes in handy.

Be still and know that I am God. (Ps. 46:10 NIV)

Cease striving and know that I am God. Stand silent! Know that I am God. (Ps. 46:10 TLB)

Let be and be still, and know–recognize and understand–that I am God. (Ps. 46:10 AMP)

“Give in,” he cries, “admit that I am God.” (Ps. 46:10 Moffat)

“Stop fighting,” he says, “and know that I am God.” (Ps. 46:10 TEV)

Step out of the traffic! Take a long loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything else. (Ps. 46:10 Message)

“Stop your fighting–and know that I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.” (Ps. 46:10 HCSB)

Are you still yet?