Lamma Bible Translation Project — Lame (Tu-Gura) New Testament (Nigeria)
Overview
The Lamma Bible Translation Project is the complete New Testament (27 books) in the Lame language of northeastern Nigeria, published by The Word for the World International and available via YouVersion/Bible.com (ID 4449). The project name uses Lamma — a community spelling variant of the exonym Lame — while the speakers themselves use the autonym Tu-Gura for their language and people. The Lame (ISO 639-3: bma) language belongs to the West Chadic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, making it a relative of Hausa (the dominant language of northern Nigeria) within the same major Chadic grouping. The Word for the World International coordinated the translation project through its Nigeria partnership programs.
Language and People
Lame (ISO 639-3: bma; autonym: Tu-Gura) is an Afroasiatic language: Afroasiatic → Chadic → West Chadic branch (Bole-Tangale group or related West Chadic sub-branch). The West Chadic languages of northeastern Nigeria include several dozen minority languages alongside the major Hausa language, forming a belt of Chadic-speaking communities across Gombe, Bauchi, and surrounding states. Lame/Tu-Gura is one of these smaller West Chadic communities.
The Lame/Tu-Gura community inhabits:
- Gombe State, northeastern Nigeria — within the Chadic-language zone of the Lake Chad basin watershed
- The broader region between the Jos Plateau highlands and the semi-arid northeastern lowlands
Estimated speakers: small West Chadic community; precise data is limited in widely available sources.
Cultural Context
The Lame-speaking community exists within the wider context of Nigeria's extraordinary Chadic language diversity in Gombe and Bauchi states, where dozens of small West Chadic and Plateau languages coexist with the dominant Hausa. The double-m spelling Lamma in the project title may reflect either local orthographic convention or a specific community pronunciation variant. The Word for the World International has worked extensively in Nigeria's minority language communities through church-partnership translation models, producing New Testaments for several Chadic and Plateau-family languages in the region.
Publishing and Organizations
Published by The Word for the World International (thewordfortheworld.org), a Bible translation organization working in partnership with national churches across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.