Sa'a New Testament (APBWBT)

Overview

The New Testament in the Sa'a language, spoken on Small Malaita (Sa'a) in the Solomon Islands. The vernacular title is Tataroha Diana i Sulie Aalaha Ikie a Jisas Kraes. Published in 2005 by the Bible Society in the South Pacific, with the translation produced by Wycliffe Bible Translators. [1]

Sa'a has a long history of Bible translation and linguistic documentation, largely owing to the work of Walter George Ivens (1871--1939), an Anglican priest and linguist of the Melanesian Mission. [2][3] Ivens served as a missionary on Ulawa and Small Malaita from 1895 to 1909 and translated large portions of the Bible into Sa'a, Ulawa, Bugotu, and Lau. [2][3] He also published the Dictionary and Grammar of the Language of Sa'a and Ulawa in 1918, for which he received a doctorate from the University of New Zealand in 1919. [2][3] His major anthropological work, Melanesians of the Southeast Solomon Islands (1927), focused on the Sa'a and Ulawa peoples. [3]

The 2005 New Testament represents a modern translation building on this earlier tradition of Sa'a-language scripture. Bible translation in the Solomon Islands began with the Melanesian Mission's translation of John's Gospel into Nggela in 1879 and expanded to include Sa'a and other Malaitan languages in the early 1900s. [4]

Language and People

Sa'a (ISO 639-3: apb) is spoken by approximately 11,500 people in Solomon Islands. [Glottolog: saaa1240]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Bible Society in the South Pacific. Translation type: New.

References