Southern Nambikuára New Testament (NABWBT)

Overview

The Southern Nambikuara New Testament, titled "Txa2wa1su3na2 Wan3txa2" in the vernacular, was first published in 1992 by the Bible League of Brazil and reissued in 2012 by Wycliffe Bible Translators [1][2]. The translation is the product of decades of linguistic work by SIL missionaries Menno Kroeker and Ivan Lowe, who settled in the Serra Azul village in the late 1950s to early 1960s and carried out the first systematic studies of the Southern Nambikwara language [3][4]. Kroeker subsequently authored "A Descriptive Grammar of Nambiquara" (2001), published by SIL, providing a comprehensive description of the language's syntax and semantics based on extensive fieldwork data [4]. Southern Nambikuara (ISO 639-3: nab) belongs to the Nambikwaran language family, an isolate family with no known connections to other South American language families, and is spoken by the Nambikwara people who inhabit indigenous territories in the states of Mato Grosso and Rondonia in Brazil [3][5]. The Nambikwara population suffered a dramatic decline from an estimated 10,000 in the early 1900s to as few as 550 by 1969 due to epidemics following outside contact, but has since recovered to over 2,300 individuals [3].

Language and People

Southern Nambikuára (ISO 639-3: nab) is spoken by approximately 720 people in Central Brazil. [Glottolog: sout2994]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. Translation type: New.

References