205 Why So Many Languages?

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY LANGUAGES?

Babel

Scripture tells us that, at the Tower of Babel, “The Lord confused the people with different languages” (Genesis 11:9.) He did such a good job that today they’re still confused, and the experts are not always completely sure what’s a language and what’s a dialect—but they have a good idea.

Dynamic, not Static

Languages are dynamic, rather than static. They’re living, growing, changing. For instance, we don’t speak today the way Shakespeare did, or the “thee” and “thou” way the King James Version of the Bible was written. We’ve gradually changed our language.

Isolation

When groups are isolated one from another, their languages change. Think of two groups who speak the same language. They move apart. Group A’s language starts changing in one direction and group B’s language changes in another. The Afrikaans language spoken in South Africa is a good example. In 1652 the Dutch East India Company sent out a party to the southern tip of Africa. They established a halfway stop to India for ships plying the spice trade. They were isolated from their homeland. Over a period of four hundred years, the Dutch language in Holland changed and the Dutch language in South Africa changed. The latter version eventually was eventually recognized as a distinct language called Afrikaans.

Technology

As technology develops, our culture invents new words. For example, if you look in a dictionary printed fifty years ago, you will not find words like astronaut, google, or DNA.

Borrowed words
Many languages borrow words from other languages. Engilsh is a prime example. It borrows words from Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and Spanish, to name a few.

More questions about languages (Click on the questions for the answers)
· Isn’t the Bible translated into most languages?
· Don’t most people understand English?
· Why are 7,000 languages the tip of the iceberg?
· Why should I care about dialects?

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Dig Deeper into Languages

230 the Language Challenge

THE LANGUAGE CHALLENGE

The world’s languages represent one of the major barriers to spreading the gospel. Here are some factors.

The Sheer Volume of Languages. We discussed earlier the sheer volume of seventeen thousand speech forms and the problems of communicating between dialects and primary languages.

The Prejudice factor. But what if dialect speakers are bilingual in the primary language? Do we still need to present the gospel to them in their own dialect. Even if they understand the major language, they are often prejudiced against those people so will reject the message before listening to it. It may be as simple as, “they don’t speak properly.” If the speakers of one speech form feel either superior or inferior to the speakers of another form, even though they can understand what is being said, they may not wish to accept it.

Major and Minor Languages. Often groups who speak a minor language have been subjugated by speakers of a major language. They may have been forced to learn the major language. In that case, they will be less likely to accept a gospel presentation in that language.

Accessibility. Many of these languages are located in countries that are closed to missionaries or are far from the beaten track.

Literacy. A majority of the smaller groups are oral communicators. They either don’t have a written language, or only a few speakers can read.
The Ultimate Goal. The goal is for missionaries to learn each of those languages and dialects so they can preach, teach, and translate the Bible. A lot has been accomplished, but we are not there yet.

Bible Translation. Most major groups have at least a portion of the Bible translated into their language. The New Testament has been translated into 1,275 languages. A further 1,500 Bible translations are in progress. This still leaves thousands of speech forms with no Bible translation.

Good News. Even though Bible translation has a long way to go, there is some good news. Global Recordings Network (GRN) has made audio recordings in over 6,300 speech forms. These are scriptural messages couched in the culture of the people rather than direct Bible translations.
Go To:
Learn about Peoples

Learn about Cultures

235 Did you know?

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT LANGUAGES

DID YOU KNOW?
There are at least 7,000 known languages alive in the world today. Twenty-three of these languages are a mother tongue for more than 50 million people. The 23 languages make up the native tongue of 4.1 billion people.

With at least 7,000 known languages in the world, you might have been curious regarding
which language is the most-widely spoken as the mother tongue? (Did you assume English?)
Other interesting questions:

• Which language is spoken in the most countries? 
• Which language is the second-most spoken in the most countries? 
• Which countries have the most languages spoken? 

For answers to these and other questions, check out Infographics

240 Dig Deeper - Languages

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Check out info about languages at the following sites. (Click on the name of the site)

1. Learn more about Languages at Joshua Project
2. You can listen to, or download, over 6,000 languages and dialects at Global Recordings Network (GRN).
3. The Ethnologue has information about 7,000 languages.

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Learn about Peoples
Learn about Cultures

250 Learn about Peoples

LEARN ABOUT PEOPLES

PEOPLES AND NATIONS

The first thing you probably noticed is that word “peoples” is an odd sort of plural. That’s because we are not talking about many individuals. Rather, we’re talking about many groups of individuals. In scripture they are referred to as “nations.” This is important in missions, because God wants his message of salvation to go to all peoples. In the book of Revelation, we read “your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9).

DEFINITION OF A PEOPLE GROUP

Here is a formal definition of a people group from the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. “A People Group is a significantly large sociological grouping of individuals who perceive themselves to have a common affinity with one another.” But how does this affect missions? It continues, “For evangelization purposes, a people group is the largest group within which the Gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance.”

"US" AND "THEM"

Those who belong to a people group talk in terms of “us” and “them.” They use words such as “foreigners” or “outsiders” and in some instances they may make ethnic jokes about other peoples. Their common affinity is based on factors such as language, religion, ethnicity, culture, and residence. One of the strongest factors is language. But this is where things get a little complicated. We looked at languages in Session #1 and found that there are thousands of them. Well, there are even more peoples. In many cases the members of a people group all speak the same language. But there are also peoples who speak more than one language, and languages that are spoken by more than one people. Experts have estimated over 16,500 people groups worldwide. Who said this was going to be easy?

THE WORD "NATIONS" IN THE BIBLE

When we read the word “nations” in the Bible, we naturally think of countries. After all, the United Nations is composed of over two hundred countries. But the Greek word translated as “nations” is closer to “ethnic groups” or “people groups.” So, when used in that sense, one country may be composed of many nations. We may send missionaries to one country, but that does not guarantee that they will reach all nations in that country.

AN EXAMPLE

NIGERIA - Political Boundary

NIGERIA - People Groups

The country of Nigeria in West Africa is a good example of the need for individually targeting each people with the gospel message. There are over 500 people groups (or “nations”) in that country and about the same number of languages. However, many of the languages have dialects that range from sounding almost identical to being 80 percent intelligible with the main language. A field technician made some audio recordings of the gospel message in a local village. He then played them to a people living 20 miles away. They understood every word, but rejected it because the speaker was not from their group. They wanted a program of their own. Notice again that the definition of a people group refers to “barriers of understanding or acceptance.”

THE CHALLENGE

The challenge is therefore to present the gospel message in a language each people can understand and a way that is acceptable to their culture, without changing the intent and meaning of the scripture.

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Click Here to find more information about Peoples

    Go To:

Learn about Languages

Learn about Cultures

260. Dig Deeper. Peoples

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Learn more about People Groups at Joshua Project

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264 Learn About Cultures

LEARN ABOUT CULTURES.

We have looked at languages and peoples. Cultures are closely related, but there are differences.  Missionaries must communicate in terms of the culture of the people without changing the message of the Bible. So, let’s find out a little about the subject.

There are different meanings of the world “culture,” but in our context we are thinking of how a given people group behaves and believes. Two cultures may use the same word or phrase but attach different meanings to it.

An Example

I was talking to a fellow worker in Nigeria who is a national. I used the phrase, “You can’t teach old dogs new tricks.” I asked him if he understood what it meant. He replied, “I understand very well. The old dogs know all the tricks, so you can’t teach them anything new.” This highlighted the difference between our cultures. His culture respects and honors old people for their wisdom and experience. Ours tends to write them off as being set in their ways and unteachable. Knowing this would give the missionary a clue as to how to approach these people with the gospel message.

Gestures Are Also Important.

For instance, in some countries in Africa a visitor might see men shaking their fists at him. This could be quite intimidating if the person didn’t know this was a friendly greeting. If you offer the smallest gift to a person from the Xhosa culture, they will hold out two cupped hands. This could be interpreted as a demand for something bigger. In fact, they are saying, “Your gift is so big, I need two hands to receive it.” In some Asian countries, you have to receive a gift with your right hand. This was difficult for me to remember, because I’m left handed.

These are a few of thousands of examples of cultural differences that could cause a missionary to unknowingly offend or misunderstand the people they trying to reach. Because of this, most missionaries take general cross-cultural communication courses before leaving for the mission field. They also try to learn as much as they can about the specific culture of the people they are planning to reach. Sometimes this is only discovered by trial and error, so the missionary needs to be sensitive and willing to learn.

Culture Shock.

Missionaries often experience culture shock when moving to a new society. After being away for many years, they may experience reverse culture shock on their return. They may be so engrossed in their new culture that they have forgotten how to act at home. On the other hand, they may find that the home culture has changed significantly during their absence.

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Click here to find out more about cultures

Go To:
Session #2 home page
Learn about Languages

Learn about Peoples

Welcome Page

265. Dig Deeper - Cultures

MORE ABOUT CULTURES!

Go to the Wikipedia (Internet dictionary) and read about culture shock 

Check out these books: (Click on titles)

•  A Beginners Guide to Crossing Cultures.
•  Communicating Christ Cross-Culturally
•  Cultural Anthropology

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