Sebat Bet Gurage 1982 Edition (SGWBSE)

Overview

The 1982 Sebat Bet Gurage New Testament is the first publication of the New Testament in Sebat Bet Gurage, a West Gurage Ethio-Semitic language of southwestern Ethiopia. "Sebat Bet" means "Seven Houses," referring to a cluster of seven closely related Gurage dialect groups. [1] The translation was carried out by a translator named Deggefu, working with SIL linguist Carolyn Ford, and was completed and approved by the Bible Society consultant in November 1979 after approximately two and a half years of work. [1] Typesetting took another two and a half years using manual metal type. [1] Because permission to publish in Ethiopia could not be obtained under the Derg regime, the New Testament was sent to Korea for printing in 1982. [1] In July 1983, 10,000 copies arrived at an Ethiopian port and were seized by authorities; the remaining 3,000 copies shipped in late 1986 cleared customs on December 24, 1986, and the seized 10,000 copies were finally released in January 1988. [1] An Old Testament translation was subsequently completed and published in 2010. [1]

Language and People

Sebat Bet Gurage (ISO 639-3: sgw) is spoken by approximately 2,710,000 people in Southwestern Ethiopia. [Glottolog: seba1251]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Bible Society of Ethiopia.

References