Whitesands New Testament (TNPWBT)

Overview

The Whitesands New Testament, titled Nauəuə Asim Rəha Uhgɨn Nəmtətiən Vi, is a translation of the New Testament into the Whitesands language (also known as East Tanna), spoken by approximately 7,500 people on the eastern coast of Tanna Island in TAFEA Province, Vanuatu. [1] Published in 2014 by Wycliffe Bible Translators, this translation was adapted from the completed North Tanna New Testament, taking advantage of the near-identical grammars and high lexical overlap between the two closely related languages. [2] The adaptation work was carried out under the direction of Greg Carlson, an SIL translation advisor who had worked on Tanna since 1991 and had previously completed the North Tanna New Testament. [3] The audio recording of the Whitesands New Testament benefited from SIL's HearThis software, which dramatically reduced production time -- approximately six weeks to record 85% of the New Testament, compared to the fourteen months required for the earlier North Tanna audio recording using older methods. [3] Whitesands is one of five indigenous languages on Tanna Island, all belonging to the Tanna subgroup of the South Vanuatu branch of the Oceanic language family, and this translation completed the goal of providing Scripture access in all five Tanna languages. [4]

Language and People

Whitesands (ISO 639-3: tnp) is spoken by approximately 7,500 people in Vanuatu. [Glottolog: whit1269]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Wycliffe Bible Translators USA. Translation type: New.

References