Ngäbere New Testament (GYMWBT)

Overview

The Ngäbere New Testament, titled Kukwe kuin ngöbökwe in the vernacular, was published in 2004 by Wycliffe Bible Translators and contains the New Testament and Genesis in the Ngäbere language, a Chibchan language of Panama and Costa Rica [1]. Ngäbere (also known as Guaymí, Movere, or Chiriquí) is spoken by the Ngäbe people, Panama's largest indigenous group with approximately 321,000 members who primarily reside in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé, a semi-autonomous indigenous reservation established in 1997 [2]. It is one of two languages of the Guaymí group; the other, Buglere, carries its own New Testament. Earlier Bible work among the Guaymí people dates to the 1920s, when British Methodist missionary Rev. Ephraim S. Alphonse (1896-1995) devised a written form of the language and translated the four Gospels and hymns into the Guaymí dialect [3]. The 2004 Wycliffe translation represents the first complete New Testament in Ngäbere and was released alongside a Ngäbere hymnal, Ari Kare Ngöböye; it is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license [4].

Language and People

Ngäbere (ISO 639-3: gym) is spoken by approximately 171,840 people in Costa Rica. [Glottolog: ngab1239]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by WBT, [Orlando, FL]. Translation type: First.

References