0002 Session #2.

LANGUAGES - PEOPLES - CULTURES

A. LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD
 

Around Your World - Session #2

Note: The video only deals with languages. Find out more below about languages, peoples, and cultures

Languages of the World

Learn more about LANGUAGES.  

What do you know about the world’s languages? Take the quiz. They represent one of the major barriers to spreading the gospel. Here are some factors.

B. PEOPLES OF THE WORLD

Peoples of the World

Learn more about PEOPLES. You probably noticed is that word “peoples” is an odd sort of plural. That’s because we are not talking about many individuals.

C. CULTURES OF THE WORLD

Cultures of the World

Learn more about CULTURES. 

We have looked at languages and peoples. Cultures are closely related, but there are differences.

200 Languages

LEARN ABOUT LANGUAGES

Languages of the World

Check out the answers to these questions about languages. Click on the question to get the answer.

1. How many languages are in the world?
2. Why are there so many languages?
3. Isn’t the Bible translated into most languages?
4. Don’t most people understand English?
5. Why are 7,000 languages the tip of the iceberg?
6. Why should I care about dialects?

THE LANGUAGE CHALLENGE
The world’s languages represent one of the major barriers to spreading the gospel. Here are some factors.
Read More.

DID YOU KNOW?
Here are some Interesting facts about languages. 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 guess English?
Read Further 

DIG DEEPER

Go to these websites for more about languages. Find specific languages
Read Further

204. How Many Languages

HOW MANY LANGUAGES ARE IN THE WORLD?

7,000

 

The International Standards Organization recognizes approximately 7,000 individual languages. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.


Find out why. Click here.

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?

DIG DEEPER

Dig Deeper into Languages

210 Isn’t the Bible translated

ISN'T THE BIBLE TRANSLATED INTO EVERY LANGUAGE?

Not yet. We’re a long, long, way from getting there.

An illustration: Imagine 100 soldiers standing on a parade ground. They represent all the languages in the world. Seven will have the whole Bible. Eighteen will have a portion. Thirty-three will have a translation underway. It may take five, ten, or fifteen years for this to be completed. Forty-two will have nothing.


This is a huge challenge. We need more people out there translating the Bible.

Translation Goals: The good news is that Wycliffe Bible Translators plans, by 2020, to start a translation for every language that, in their estimation, needs one.

215 Don't most speak English?

Don’t most people understand English?

Travel and Aviation Industries: If you travel a lot, especially to tourist destinations, you will encounter English speaking staff in every airport, major hotel and tour bus. You may also be aware that every single pilot and ground controller worldwide speaks English. This may give you a mistaken idea that most people speak English.

It’s true that many people around the world do speak some form of English, but even more of them don’t.

An Illustration. Picture eight people standing in a circle. They represent all the languages in the world. Only one of those people will understand some degree of English.

Eight-hundred-and-forty-million people speak English as a first or second language. This means that there are over six billion who do not understand the language. If you look for those who cannot read or write English, the number is much higher.

The Real Question. But the question is not really about the English language. I once visited a Navajo (Pronounced Nav-a-ho) reservation in Arizona. I talked to a pastor who holds services each Sunday, and asked if he preached in Navajo.

“Oh no,” he replied. “They all speak English.”

I then visited the Navajo Information Center and talked to one of the Navajo men. “I hear that you all speak English,” I said.

He pondered for a moment, and then said, “We speak in English, but we think in Navajo.”

So the real question is not, "What language do the understand?," but, "What is the language in which they think?" 

More Questions:
· Why are there so many languages?
· Isn’t the Bible translated into most languages?
· Why are 7,000 languages the tip of the iceberg?
· Why should I care about dialects?

220 Why the tip of the iceberg?

Why are 7,000 languages the tip of the iceberg?

The International Standards Organization has cataloged seven thousand languages. You can go online and find the names of the languages, the number of speakers, and where they are located.

 

You can even get maps showing the boundaries of these languages.

 

But in addition to those seven thousand languages, we have collected the names of some ten thousand possible dialects.

 

Researchers are still checking and verifying many of these names. Nevertheless, this gives us a possibility of seventeen thousand speech varieties.

 

That is a huge challenge and it complicates our aim to communicate the gospel to everyone.

 

Question: Why should we care about dialects?

225 Why care about dialects?

Why should I care about dialects?

When we hear the term “dialects,” most of us think in term of accents, like the British or American accents. But dialects are a lot more distinct.

Linguists compare word lists from different speech forms. If, for instance, eighty percent of the words in a given speech form are compatible with those used in a primary language, it is labeled as a dialect. This presents a definite communications problem. 

Let’s take a simple ten-word sentence, “I am going to town today to purchase some food.”

If I understand eighty percent of that sentence, it follows that there are two words I won’t understand. These two words may be crucial to the understanding of that sentence, like town and food. It may very well sound as follows. I'm going to mumble today to purchase some mumble.” The listener will not know where I’m going or what I plan to do there.

These principles are even more crucial when we attempt to communicate spiritual truths. Here is another ten-word sentence:

“Jesus died on the cross to save us from sin.”

If I don’t understand the two words save and sin, it results as follows:

“Jesus mumble on the cross to save us from mumble.”

You can see the importance of presenting the gospel to people, not only in their own language, but in their own dialect.


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

DIG DEEPER

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.

Notice: If you have suggestions for expanding this section, we'd love to hear them.Please let us know by entering your comments below. Thank you.

Go To:
Learn about Peoples
Learn about Cultures

440. Barriers

Don’t missionaries face a lot of barriers?

Literacy, politics, geography, language, manpower, and prejudice are all barriers to the spread of the gospel. Missionaries may face any combination of these barriers as they attempt to take the good news of the gospel to a people group. Fortunately, there is a way around each of them. Read how audio cassettes can help overcome these barriers.

1. The Language Barrier is represented by some 7,000 languages and 10,000 dialects.

2. The Literacy Barrier. There are over two billion oral communicators worldwide.

3. The Political Barrier. Many Countries Close Their Doors To Missionaries

4. The Prejudice Barrier. People Do Not Want To Listen to Someone from Another Religion or Race

5. The Manpower Barrier. Jesus said, "The Harvest Is Plentiful, But The Laborers Are Few." That is still true today.

6. The Spiritual Barrier. Scripture reminds us that a battle is not against flesh and blood.

510. reaching other languages

How do missionaries reach people who speak another language?

Other Languages

Many do it the hard way. They go to school, learn the language, live in the culture, and stay with the people.

Then there are others who have to visit different groups who speak different languages. They can’t learn them all, so they might take an interpreter with them.

We must not forget the Bible translators who go to a given tribal or language group and translate the Bible into their language, staying over a ten-year period. For those who cannot read, we have audio specialists who make recordings of the gospel message. Literature missions print pamphlets in all the major languages in a country and get them to every door.