Re: My first translation in Moten! Champagne for all!

On Thu, 3 Jun 1999, Tom Wier wrote:

> Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
>
> > Because all those cultures have been affected by those bible
> > translations, for better or for worse is a fruitless discussion,
> > but the Nepalese government forbade _every_ linguistic research
> > project by foreigners after some bad experiences with proselytizing
> > SIL 'researchers'. I don't want any Andal culture to be affected
> > by Christianity (or by Buddhism, Islam or Hinduism), at least not
> > when I can avoid it by not doing something of which I know that
> > it will.
>
> Well, no one's forcing you to take part in a Babel translation project.
> You can do whatever you want.  How about making up your own
> scriptures to go along with your culture? I'd be interested to see
> those, because that's something I've never seen before
> for a conculture. :)
>
I have already done so. While not about every god in the pantheon I've
posted a little essay on, but there is a temple catechism and a few
stories about the elder gods. You'd have to be pretty proficient in
Dutch to be able to read those, though. And the tradition in which
these scriptures exists is a lot different. The stories about the gods
are not necessarily written down, but are transmitted orally. The
teachings of the Divine Philosopher Pantumatar have about the same
status as the Six Books had in China. The temple catechism was
written down, only the questions. The answers had to be learned by
heart. Just as there isn't one God, there isn't just one Book.

On the subject of the Bable translation - I'm encouraged to do it,
and I wanted to make clear why I won't. But if there's a big project
where I can show off my conlang, I want to be part of it!

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt