Teke Sud-Ouest (TYXEBL)
Overview
The Teke Sud-Ouest is a New Testament translation in the Teke-Tyee language, published by Wycliffe Bible Translators in 2025. Teke-Tyee (also known as Kwe, Tee, or West Teke) is a Narrow Bantu language (B.73) spoken by approximately 14,400 people in the Bouenza, Lékoumou, and Pool departments of the Republic of Congo. [1][2] The translation project was carried out in collaboration with SIL Congo, which organized workshops involving Teke-Tyee translators alongside other translation teams in the region. [3] The Teke-Tyee language has 85% lexical similarity with Kukuya and Eboo, and some speakers also use Kituba as an additional language. [1]
Language and People
The Teke people (Bateke) are a Bantu ethnic group of Central Africa, primarily inhabiting the south, north, and center of the Republic of Congo, with smaller populations in the western Democratic Republic of Congo and southeastern Gabon. [4] The Teke-Tyee variety is spoken in the area between Kitembe and Makaka. [1]
References
- [1] Dictionnaire Teke-Tyee - Introduction (archived) - Speaker population, geographic location, linguistic classification, and lexical similarity data.
- [2] Teke-Tyee language resources - Joshua Project - Language classification and people group information.
- [3] Bible translation in Teke-tyee (archived) - Translation project details and SIL Congo collaboration.
- [4] Teke people - Wikipedia - Ethnographic background on the broader Teke people.
- bible.com - YouVersion.
- ebible.org entry - ebible.org.