Karajá New Testament (KPJWBT)

Overview

The Karajá New Testament, titled "Deuxu Rybe Tyyriti" in the vernacular, is a translation of the New Testament into the Karajá language, published by Wycliffe Bible Translators in 2011. The first Bible portions in Karajá appeared as early as 1965, and an earlier edition of the New Testament was completed in 1983, making the 2011 publication a revised edition of decades of translation work [1][2]. The Karajá (who call themselves Iny) are an indigenous people living along the Araguaia River and on Bananal Island in the states of Goias, Mato Grosso, Para, and Tocantins in central Brazil [3]. Beginning in the 1970s, the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) directed a bilingual and bicultural education program among the Karajá under Brazil's federal indigenous affairs agency FUNAI, which led to both literacy development and Bible translation in the Karajá language [3]. SIL linguists David and Gretchen Fortune conducted extensive work on Karajá grammar and literacy, including a transformational grammar study (1973) and a pedagogical grammar (1977), which provided the linguistic foundation for the translation [4]. Today approximately 60% of the Karajá people identify as Christian, with between 10% and 50% identifying as evangelical [1].

Language and People

Karajá (ISO 639-3: kpj) is spoken by approximately 3,060 people in Eastern Central Brazil. [Glottolog: kara1500]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Wycliffe Bible Translators USA.

References