David Frank is a linguistics consultant and a translation consultant for SIL Americas. He and his wife Lynn first served with SIL on the island of Saint Lucia for nearly 17 years, from 1984 through 2000, and that is where their three children (all now grown and married) were born and lived their early years. Since the end of 2000 the Franks have been based at the JAARS Center in Waxhaw, North Carolina. David’s specialty is creole languages, having worked first on Saint Lucian French Creole, then Gullah, an English creole, and now Portuguese Creole of Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. David is also the editor of the Journal of Translation, a publication of the SIL International Translation Department.
Bible Translation Values and Norms
Abstract
We say a translation of the Bible should be clear, accurate and natural. This is not part of the definition of translation, but something we add to it which governs how we work and what particular kind of product we want to produce. We might add that the translation needs to be acceptable to the target community in order for it to be embraced as their Bible, and this, too helps govern how we translate. We say that a translation should be neither too woodenly literal nor excessively free. A translation can aim to bring the text to the reader or bring the reader to the text. There are literal, foreignizing products that can be fairly labeled as translations and there are free, domesticating products that can fairly be labeled as translations, but in identifying the kind of product we want to aim for, somewhere between extremes, we are also identifying ourselves as a Bible translation community. That is not to say there is complete agreement in the Bible translation community about all its values, norms, definitions and practices. There should at least be room for dialogue and negotiation within this community. Values and norms are standard part of the conceptual framework in the field of sociology, and the concept of translation norms was introduced and developed by translation studies scholars such as Gideon Toury and Christina Schäffner. Here the concept is extended to Bible translation in particular, and the Bible translation community.