Jô Bible — Jɔ Biibili ki (2022)

Overview

Jɔ Biibili ki ("The Bible in Jɔ") is the New Testament — plus two additional Old Testament books — in Jowulu, published in 2022 by Wycliffe Bible Translators (copyright holder: Wycliffe Bijbelvertalers, the Dutch member of Wycliffe Global Alliance) and available via YouVersion/Bible.com (ID 3776). The YouVersion edition contains 29 books (the 27 NT books plus two OT selections), making it one of the rare minority-language Bible editions that includes sample Old Testament material alongside the complete NT. Audio recordings are available via Hosanna / Faith Comes By Hearing. The title Jô is the French-orthography spelling of the language's name in the Latin script; speakers write it with the open-O vowel as Jɔ.

The translation work was led by SIL linguists Jacqueline Eenkhoorn-Pilon and Bart Eenkhoorn, working with local translators including Mama Djilla. The Eenkhorns also co-authored the foundational linguistic study of the language: Phonologie du jôwulu ("samogho"): langue mandé du Mali et du Burkina Faso (R. Köppe Verlag, Cologne, Mande languages and linguistics 6, 2004) — the primary published phonological description of Jowulu. The first Jowulu syllabary was designed by Mama Djilla and Hae Kyung Kim in 2004 (printed at the Mission Catholique, Sikasso / Imprimerie du Kénédougou); revised in 2010 by Pornan Ouattara and Jacqueline Eenkhoorn-Pilon, with further improvements in 2020–2021. The long development of literacy infrastructure — syllabary 2004, phonology 2004, NT complete 2022 — reflects a standard 15–20 year SIL translation timeline from first linguistic documentation to published NT.

Language and People

Jowulu (ISO 639-3: jow; also Jɔ, Jo, Jôwulu) is a Mande language of the Southwestern Mande branch, spoken primarily in Kadiolo District, Sikasso Region, southern Mali, with communities also in adjacent Burkina Faso. It is closely related to other languages of the "Samogho" cluster — an umbrella term applied by French colonial linguists to a group of mutually unintelligible but genetically related Mande varieties in the Sikasso-Banfora corridor (including Duungoma, Dzùùngoo, Seenku, and others). Jowulu itself is not mutually intelligible with these neighbours despite the cluster name. Estimated speakers: approximately 10,000–15,000 (figures vary; Kadiolo is a sparsely populated rural district).

Kadiolo District is a lightly forested savanna zone bordering Côte d'Ivoire, producing cotton, sesame, and sorghum. Mali is approximately 95% Muslim (Maliki Sunni with strong Sufi orders — Tijaniyya and Qadiriyya predominant); the Jowulu-speaking area near the Côte d'Ivoire border has historically had higher Christian presence than the north, but Joshua Project classifies the Jowulu as a Frontier Unreached people group with less than 0.1% evangelical Christian and less than 2% Christian overall. The publication of a NT in Jowulu is thus a significant milestone for a small and predominantly Muslim language community with minimal prior Scripture access.

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. (copyright: Wycliffe Bijbelvertalers, 2022). Translation led by SIL linguists Jacqueline Eenkhoorn-Pilon and Bart Eenkhoorn. The NT was produced in collaboration with the Jowulu language community; print copies were produced at the Imprimerie du Kénédougou at the Mission Catholique Sikasso. Audio recordings by Hosanna / Faith Comes By Hearing are available alongside the text edition.

References