Urarina New Testament (URATBL)

Overview

The Urarina New Testament, titled Cana Coaunera Ere, was published in 2008 by Bible League International. [1] It is the product of translation work initiated by SIL International among the Urarina people of the Peruvian Amazon. [2] Portions of Scripture in Urarina were first published as early as 1973, but the complete New Testament was not available until 2008. [3] Urarina is a language isolate with no demonstrated genetic relationship to any other known language, making it of particular interest to linguists. [2] The translation standardized practical spelling conventions for the language, contributing to broader literacy efforts among the Urarina. [4]

Language and People

Urarina (ISO 639-3: ura) is spoken by approximately 3,000 people in Peru. [Glottolog: urar1246] The Urarina inhabit the valleys of the Chambira, Urituyacu, and Corrientes rivers in the Loreto Region of northeastern Peru, where they have resided for centuries. [2] They are a semi-mobile hunting and horticultural society. [2] The Urarina language has the rare canonical word order of object-verb-subject (OVS), and features a complex threefold conjugation system. [4] Contact with oil companies and traders has led to increasing cultural loss and linguistic shift toward Spanish in some communities. [5]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by Bible League International.

References