Hixkaryána New Testament (HIXWBT)

Overview

The Hixkaryána New Testament, titled Khoryenkom Karyehtanà, is a translation into the Hixkaryána language, a Cariban language spoken by approximately 600 people along the Nhamundá, Mapuera, and Japatú rivers in the Pará and Amazonas states of Brazil [1][2]. The translation work was pioneered by SIL missionaries Desmond and Grace (Gracie) Derbyshire, who entered Hixkaryána villages in 1958-1959 and resided with the communities for extended periods totaling over seven years between 1959 and 1975 [3]. When the Derbyshires arrived, the Hixkaryána population had been reduced to approximately 100 people due to measles epidemics brought by Europeans; by 2001, the population had recovered to over 800 across five villages [3]. Parts of the Bible were first translated into Hixkaryána in 1966, and the complete New Testament was initially published in 1976 by Livraria Cristã Unida, with a second edition published in 1987 by Liga Bíblica Internacional [1][4]. The 2012 Wycliffe edition is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivatives license [5]. The Hixkaryána language is notable in linguistics as one of the few languages with object-verb-subject (OVS) word order, a discovery first brought to the attention of the academic world by Desmond Derbyshire [3].

Language and People

Hixkaryána (ISO 639-3: hix) is spoken by approximately 1,200 people in Northeastern Brazil. [Glottolog: hixk1239]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Wycliffe Bible Translators USA.

References