The Bible Society of the West Indies has announced that it has commenced a project to translate the Christian bible into the Jamaican language. The project has good intentions, for it is a fact that the best way to get a message across to a people is to communicate with them in their own language. And yes, Jamaican Creole is a separate language - related to English, but different. We have the Hon Louise Bennett-Coverley to thank for her role in making our language 'respectable', and for making us comfortable with ourselves. I wish the effort well.
Ambitious project
It is, of course, a tremendously ambitious project, for there is no such thing at the moment as Standard Jamaican Creole. Different dialects are spoken in different parts of Jamaica. One immediately thinks of those in the west who say: "Him ben a come" while others (from the east) say: "Him a come". Both are 'correct', but they are different, and since I do not expect the translators to produce more than one translation, they are going to have to make choices about which variations they will use. And there are many variations. People from deep rural St Thomas speak slightly differently from people in deep rural Portland, and again differently from those in upper Clarendon. There is uptown Jamaican Creole and downtown Jamaican Creole, not to mention the Rastafarian variation. Into whose Jamaican Creole will the Bible be translated?
There is a danger that, with the hegemony of the big city, the translators will produce an uptown St Andrew Creole Bible, the Mona Version, which may defeat their purpose. I remember the disdain with which many in the ghetto treated the Uptown Reggae of Pluto Shervington and Ernie Smith in the 1970s. If the idea is to reach the Jamaican people with a creole Bible, which Jamaican people will be targeted?
First translation
When the Bible was first translated into English in 1611, the well-known King James Version (KJV), there was no such thing yet as Standard English. English was a relatively new language, widely spoken, but with a limited literature and much variation in expression and spelling. The translators of the KJV made choices, which helped to standardise the young language. Today, we find the KJV turn of phrase archaic, for English has moved on, requiring new translations into modern language. The Jamaica Creole Bible project may well perform the same function, creating and standardising a version of Jamaican Creole, but also fossilising what is a vibrant, dynamic (constantly changing) and versatile language.
When I studied Biblical Greek (under that great Greek scholar, the Rev David Jelleyman of the Jamaica Baptist Union) we learnt of the great difficulties of its translation into English, since Greek is a much more complex language than English. For example, Greek verbs have many more tenses than English (example the Aorist), more moods (example the Optative) and a middle voice (English has only the active and passive voices). We also learnt that Jamaican Creole is more versatile than English since our Jamaican language has many of these additional grammatical features, including the middle voice. And so, the only great translation difficulty I foresee will be the choice made from among the many dialects, which make up Jamaican Creole, and the marginalisation of many Jamaicans, which will take place when their language variants are not selected.
One hundred years from now, the Jamaican Creole Bible will sound as archaic to the Jamaican ear as the KJV sounds today, for the Jamaican language will not stand still. In fact, few reputable Bible scholars today use the KJV, not just because English has changed and many English words have different meanings today than in 1611 (which is true enough), but mostly because the Greek text from which the KJV was translated (the Textus Receptus of Westcott and Hort) has been determined to be flawed, and has been substantially corrected from recently discovered manuscripts, like the Dead Sea Scrolls. Yet the KJV still remains popular among many, some of whom believe that The KJV is the version that St Paul used, which, of course, is rubbish, since the English language did not even exist in St. Paul's day. Fortunately, the Jamaican Creole Bible will not face most of these difficulties, as the Greek text from which it will be translated is a good one.
I challenge the translators to avoid the obvious pitfall of the creation of an urban uptown Creole Bible. Do not be afraid of using deep rural expressions. Like at Pentecost, rural people need to hear God's Word in their own language too.
The Rev. Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is a Deacon in the Roman Catholic Church.
