Sonsorolese Gospels: Matthew and Mark

Overview

The Sonsorolese Gospels contain the Gospels of Matthew and Mark in the Sonsorolese language, published by Wycliffe Bible Translators and available via YouVersion/Bible.com (ID 4385). These two Gospels represent the first published Scripture for one of the Pacific's most endangered languages — a language spoken by fewer than 400 people on the remote outer islands of Palau and in the diaspora community of Koror.

A closely related project: the Tobian language of Tobi Island (Palau's other Southwest Island language, closely related to and now increasingly intelligible with Sonsorolese) has a translation project that was more than 80% complete on its NT as of 2019, led by a shared team including representatives from both the Sonsorol and Tobi communities — Lucy Pedro and Paulina Theodore from Sonsorol, and Rosa Andrew and Sabino Sackarias from Tobi. The Sonsorolese Gospels likely emerged from the same collaborative translation effort.

Language and People

Sonsorolese (ISO 639-3: sov; autonym: Ramari Dongosaro — "language of Dongosaro/Sonsorol island") is a Micronesian language of the Trukic continuum within the Austronesian family, related to Woleaian and the languages of Yap and Chuuk States in the Federated States of Micronesia. Despite being geographically inside Palau's territory, Sonsorolese is not related to Palauan — Palauan is a non-Oceanic Austronesian language from a completely different branch. This reflects the complex settlement history of Micronesia: the Southwest Islands of Palau were settled by Central Carolinian-speakers from the FSM/Yap direction, not by the Palauans.

Sonsorolese has three dialects corresponding to three inhabited islands:

  • Ramari Dongosaro — spoken on Sonsorol island (~30 speakers in situ)
  • Ramari Puro — spoken on Pulo Anna island (~10 speakers in situ)
  • Ramari Melieli — spoken on Merir island (~3 speakers; effectively extinct in situ)

The diaspora community in Koror (principally at the village of Echang) accounts for approximately 300 of the ~343 total speakers (2007 data). The community is "completely bilingual in Palauan, or English, which is preferred by young people," and the language is severely endangered; "fewer than 20 fluent speakers remain over age 60." Current total speakers: under 400.

A language documentation project led by Vasiliki Vita (SOAS University of London) ran from October 2022 to September 2023, producing ~30 hours of recordings (cultural practices, vocabulary, municipal council meetings in both Ramari Dongosaro and Ramari Puro) and ~3,000 lexical entries. Bible portions and the Sonsorol State Constitution are the primary written documents in the language. Sonsorolese holds official status in Sonsorol State alongside English.

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc., likely through the Isles of the Sea / YWAM translation partnership active in Palau's outer islands. The Matthew and Mark Gospels were produced collaboratively with the Tobian translation project team.

References