Academic Events

Colloquium, December 4

Bruce Wiebe

Marking tone without "chicken scratch"

Wednesday, Dec 4, 3:00-4:15 pm PST

Room 208 & online at this link 

Is it possible to orthographically mark tone in a way that faithfully represents the phonological structure of the language, and corresponds to native speaker perception, but at the same time conforms to the widespread and restrictive desires of many language communities and even at times governments around the world, represented by the words of this language speaker: "We don't need all that chicken scratch in our language!"? In answering this question, we will first survey various methods used around the world to mark tone and other suprasegmentals like intonation, stress, and nasalization. Drawing on some themes from this survey and some other ideas previously proposed (Wiebe 2018), I propose a method of marking tone that answers our initial question in the affirmative. It proposes to represent tone without accents or other diacritics or raised symbols or special characters, but in a way that looks like the segmental representations of the rest of the language. As such it is as easily typeable on phones, laptops, or other keyboards, as the other aspects of the language. At the same time it holistically represents word pitch patterns, as native speakers perceive them. It is easily applicable to any language of the world, even those written in syllabaries or logographic systems, and further, can be culturally adapted to each individual language by referring to culturally important concepts.

Reference

Wiebe, Bruce. 2018. Towards expanded orthographic tone notation possibilities in the African context. Paper presented at the World Congress of African Linguistics (WOCAL) 9, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco, 25-28 August 2018.

Bruce Wiebe has done phonological fieldwork (especially tone analysis) with a view to orthography development, as well as consulting in that area as a linguistics consultant in training, for SIL Cameroon, SIL Nigeria, and currently SIL Mexico, teaching workshops on preparing for tone analysis, and assisting with various tone analysis workshops. He is also teaching and in the role of research officer at CanIL.

SIL Participatory Approach Community of Practice event, November 19

Tim Stirtz

Participatory Linguistics: Methods and Case Studies from Around the World

Tuesday, Nov 19, 7:00-8:30 pm PST

online video call (please, sign up for this call and get the link HERE)

(Please prepare for this event by reading 5 pages of the book — a portion of Philip Swan’s chapter — essentially Table 1 and all the footnotes, beginning with “3.3 The Participation Plotter” and going through Appendix 1.)

One of the things the SIL Participatory Approach Services team gets asked for most are examples… examples, stories, case studies, ways to illustrate how the various participatory methods can be used in different contexts. Trained facilitators and newly curious people alike want specifics for using participatory tools within different contexts, they need to hear about the steps that someone took, and they hope to hear about things that did and didn’t work. 

Participatory linguistics is a partnership between local language communities and outside linguists to explore the structures of their language. Participatory Linguistics: Methods and Case Studies from Around the World describes, practically, the methods by which this can be done. Its chapters showcase diverse cultural contexts and innovative approaches that have yielded successful outcomes in different parts of the world.

The case studies in this book are organized according to various linguistic subfields, and offer a range of practical tools, guidelines, and resources for linguists and educators interested in implementing such participatory linguistics and orthography projects. Tim Stirtz will highlight several of the book's participatory methods and case studies from around the world.

Tim Stirtz is the SIL Global Linguistics Coordinator, one of the editors of the book, and a contributor of one of the case studies.

Open class presentation (Ling 210), November 19

Danny Foster

Why is it that parents often present the greatest resistance to mother tongue education?

Monday, Nov 19, 12:00-12:45 pm PST

Room 209 & online at this link 

(By way of background, it might be helpful if beforehand you view this video from 2008 (length 9:50) about multilingual education.)

There is little dispute regarding the efficacy of mother tongue-based multilingual education (MLE), especially among indigenous rural communities where dominant and/or colonial language legacies have failed. Internationally, educational authorities and stakeholders are embracing MLE and a growing number of successful implementations have been documented. However, it is also well documented that an ongoing source of opposition to MLE comes from parents—often in communities where it is needed the most. But what exactly are parents in these contexts rejecting when they oppose their own languages for their children's formal education? This paper highlights the findings of a systematic literature review (Foster 2021) and discusses i.) the complex ideological tensions with which parents wrestle when trying to do language planning for their children, and ii.) the role of discourse in sustaining and disrupting power imbalances between language communities and educational authorities.

Danny Foster is president of CanIL, and recently completed his PhD dissertation at the University of Bristol, on language of instruction attitudes in rural Tanzania. From 2004 to 2012 he worked with SIL in Tanzania and Uganda, as training co-ordinator and then training director.

Colloquium, October 16

Keith Snider

Grammatical tone in Mada nouns

Wednesday, Oct 16, 3:00-4:15 pm PDT

Room 208 & online at this link 

Due to the historic loss of most segmental affixes in Mada [mda], a Plateau language spoken in central Nigeria, there is now a sizeable and bewildering array of tone alternations between singular and plural nouns. Together with the loss of segmental concord markers, these facts have led linguists like Blench (2015) to consider Mada as no longer having a noun class system. However, by identifying floating tone affixes, Snider (2021) documents two elements of typical African noun class systems present in Mada: 1) singular and plural noun prefixes, and 2) semantic unity amongst nouns with identical singular-plural prefix pairings.

The present paper, based on original fieldwork in Nigeria, builds on Snider (2021) by documenting a third element typical of noun class systems, i.e., a system of concord marking (again consisting solely of floating tones) that relates nominal constituents (e.g., adjectives, subject/object markers) to their head nouns.

References

Blench, Roger. 2015. Number Marking in Mada Nouns. Online: https://www.academia.edu/15753866/Number_marking_in_Mada_nouns.

Snider, Keith L. 2021. Floating tone noun class prefixes in Mada (Nigeria). Linguistique et Langues Africaines 7, 11-41. https://llacan.cnrs.fr/lla/fichiers/numero7/1-Snider_open_access.pdf.

Keith L. Snider (born in Jos, Nigeria) is a Senior Linguistics Consultant with SIL Global® and a Professor of Linguistics at the Canada Institute of Linguistics (CanIL) in British Columbia, Canada. He began his linguistics career in Ghana in 1982, living and working with the Chumburung people, which sparked a lifelong interest in phonology, especially tone analysis. After his years in Ghana, he served as SIL’s Linguistics Coordinator in Cameroon, and later taught for over 20 years at Trinity Western University. He has conducted many phonology and tone analysis workshops throughout Africa and elsewhere, covering more than 100 languages, and has presented numerous papers at linguistics conferences, including key papers at the Berkeley Tone Workshop and at the Australian National University Tone Workshop in 2011. He has taught courses in phonology and historical linguistics and developed a course specific to tone analysis at CanIL that has been replicated elsewhere. He has a special interest in applying tone studies to new orthographies in under-researched languages. He was granted a Doctor of Letters in African Linguistics degree from Leiden University (1990), with a dissertation titled 'Studies in Guang Phonology'.

Seminar, September 18

Marc Durdin

Type to the world in your language

Wednesday, Sep 18, 3:00-4:15 pm PDT

Room 208 & online at this link 

There are a variety of keyboarding challenges that one encounters when working with the world's languages. Keyman (see keyman.com) is keyboarding software, used around the world, that helps you type in over 2000 languages on just about any device — Windows, macOS, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android tablets and phones, and even instantly in your web browser. This presentation will contain a fun introduction to keyboarding challenges, and some background on what Keyman is and does, including fun with complex scripts. There will also be discussion of some things that Marc has been working on more recently, e.g. LDML (Unicode Locale Data Markup Language) and CLDR (Unicode Common Locale Data Repository).

Marc Durdin, originally from Australia, started working on Keyman when he was 14, to solve a keyboarding issue that his father had with the Laos script. Keyman developed over the years from free software to a company to an open source project that Marc continues to work with.

Seminar, Sep 4

QinQin Zhang (TWU Librarian)

Using TWU Library Resources and Services for Research

Wednesday, Sep 4, 3:00 - 4:15 pm PDT

Room 208 & online at this link 

This presentation will cover the following topics about using TWU library resources and services for research, and provide opportunity for you to ask other questions as well:

1. What logins do I need?

2. How do I find digital materials?

3. How do I search for online journals / articles / topics?

4. How do I fine-tune my searches to get the right results?

5. How do I get references into my bibliography manager?

Qinqin Zhang (MSc, MLIS) is Assistant Librarian at Trinity Western University's Norma Marion Alloway Library, specializing in Information Literacy, E-Learning, and E-Resources. Her journal article, 'Integrating Library Instruction into the Course Management System for a First-Year Engineering Class', received awards from both the American Library Association and the American Society for Engineering Education.

Colloquium, Aug 1

Andreas Joswig

Why grammar is needed for Bible translation

Thursday, Aug 1, 2:40-4:00 pm PDT

Room 208 & online at this link 

A widely neglected aspect of quality in Bible translation is the role of target language structures. When checking translations, consultants are used to to focusing on exegetical adequacy and lexical equivalence, but they tend to have no way of checking whether the translation adheres to the grammatical rules of the target language. This paper presents experiences with a new type of workshop trying to address this gap, targeting translation consultants and consultants-in-training. In four weeks a wide range of grammatical phenomena is presented that have an impact on the accuracy and naturalness of the translation.

While it is true that mother-tongue translators will not produce ungrammatical sentences, there are significant areas of grammar where linguistically untrained translators can miss the mark. Such situations arise when the target language provides more grammatical choices than the source language. As an example, if a translator is not aware that the target language provides inclusive and exclusive forms of the 1st person plural, then translations of any passage that contains the pronoun “we” will be a product of chance. Translators and consultants need to be aware of the choice to make sure that the translation always contains the adequate form.

There are many more areas of morphology and syntax where target languages may provide more choices than the source language. Being aware of the relevant phenomena for each language will allow the consultants to focus their attention on these matters during the checking sessions, and in this way to improve the quality.

Andreas Joswig works as a linguistics consultant for SIL Ethiopia, and over the past 15 years he was involved as a consultant in a number of orthography decisions in that country. He further consults on dictionary making, grammar analysis, and the use of the FLEx software package in grammar and lexicography. He has an MA in Linguistics, Anthropology and African Studies from Cologne University, and a PhD from Leiden University.

Seminar, July 18

Rod Casali

Gʋtɔ mʋ sʋ nɩɩ Dekereke naa bwan

(Why Chameleon walks slowly)

Thursday, Jul 18, 2:40-4:00 pm PDT

Room 208 & online at this link 

Dekereke is a software program that assists a field linguist with phonological fieldwork. It provides a system for maintaining and processing phonetic and phonological data, and functions for searching and analyzing such data to answer questions about the phonological patterns in a language. It can facilitate tasks such as the following:

• Checking phonetic data for accuracy.

• Finding evidence of contrast or complementary distribution.

• Discovering phonotactic generalizations.

• Choosing appropriate examples for a phonology write-up.

• Making audio recordings of wordlist data and using them for comparative listening and acoustic analysis.

Rod Casali has served with Wycliffe / SIL since 1983, with his wife Ellen. He worked for six years with the Nawuri people of Ghana (under GILLBT), doing linguistics and orthography. He got his PhD from UCLA in 1996, writing on vowel hiatus resolution. For about the next ten years he filled several administrative and consulting roles, as well as working on software development for four years. From 2006-2022 he taught at CanIL in the areas of acoustic phonetics, phonology, field methods, and survey of linguistic theories, as well as directing the MA Ling for four years. During that time he also did various software development projects, especially Dekereke, which he has focused on more (along with research and writing) since 2022. He is regarded as an expert in ATR harmony (advanced tongue root vowel harmony) in African languages.

Colloquium, July 9

Beth Bryson

The NLP Landscape in Bible Translation

Tuesday, Jul 9, 4:00-5:15 pm PDT

Room 208 & online at this link 

How does AI and Natural Language Processing relate to Bible translation?  It’s not as simple as, “Let’s use AI to translate the Bible.”  This talk will explore the various computer-assisted techniques used in the Bible translation landscape, discuss factors that are unique to translation of Scripture, and explore other ways that AI and NLP are helping in the larger Bible translation movement.

Beth Bryson has been a member of SIL since 1999.  Her first assignment was to assist with rule-based adaptation of Scripture.  She has also contributed in the areas of non-roman script work, as a trainer and decision maker for the FieldWorks linguistic software, on the Dictionary and Lexicography Services team, and teaching others to use the automatic parsers in FLEx and the FLExTrans rule-based machine translation system.  She has an M.A. in Linguistics and lives in Dallas, TX.

Colloquium, Jun 27

Thomas Blecke

Confirmative and Mirative in Mombo (Dogon):

A grammaticalized expression of surprise

Thursday, Jun 27, 2:40-4:00 pm PDT

Room 208 & online at this link 

In Mombo, a Dogon language of Mali, there is a clause-coordinating conjunction kɔnɔ which eludes analysis on a purely truth-conditional semantic level. The emphatic nuances it carries rather point to the pragmatic level of speaker emphasis of two different sorts, according to two different contexts it occurs in. A factual context leads to a confirmative function, whereas in a context of intention, the function is surprise / counter-expectation, also called mirative.

Thomas Blecke is an SIL senior linguistics consultant and francophone Africa linguistics domain leader, with work experience in Mande, Kwa, Dogon, Bantu, and a special interest in TAM.

MA Ling Thesis Defense

Wednesday, April 24

On Zoom at this link

10:00-12:00 pm PDT

(Note: please join the call before 10:00 as you will not be admitted after the defense has started.)

Victoria Infante

Verbal Morphology of the Main Sentence in Ninam of Upper Mucajaí, a Yanomami Language

The Yanomami are a linguistic family located in the Orinoco-Amazon jungle, between Venezuela and Brazil, in South America. The family is characterized by a highly polysynthetic typology, especially related to the verb. This work describes the morphemes that comprise the verbal complex in the main sentences of Ninam, a Yanomami language spoken in the Upper Mucajaí. The work begins with a brief historical review related to the Yanomami people with special emphasis on the Ninam of the Upper Mucajaí. A summary of the important aspects of phonology is given, along with the orthography used for the presentation of the data. The presentation of the morphological features of the verbal complex begins with a look at the types of verbs, followed by a description of the preverbal morphemes, which mark subject, object, simultaneity and evidentiality. The postverbal morphology marks valency changes, adverbials, aspect, directionals, locatives, and tense.

MA Ling Thesis Defense

Tuesday, April 23

CanIL Harvest Center, Room 208 & online 

12:00-2:00 pm PDT

(Note: please arrive in person, or join the call, before 12:00, as you will not be admitted after the defense has started.)

Andrew Johnson

The way we meme: Toward a descriptive typology for cognitive sociolinguistic analysis of internet memes

In this thesis, I outline a functional typology for categorizing internet memes using the cognitive linguistic theory of Conceptual Integration and related concepts from Construction Grammar and Relevance theory. Although cognitive linguists have analyzed the communicative power of memes, their endeavours have yet to result in a typology that can be used to organize all types of memes for analysis that extends into the future. Some categorization schemes for memes have been implicitly and explicitly proposed, but the implicit categories only serve to structure articles, and the explicit categories rely on formal features or lack linguistic motivation, which renders them unhelpful in the long term as memes evolve so rapidly. I argue that Conceptual Integration theory provides the necessary tools to construct a robust typology that can support meme analysis according to a descriptivist linguistic paradigm in order to emphasize the importance of emergent dynamic meaning creation and phatic socio-pragmatic function to meme communication and transmission. I organize memes based on two functional concerns: 1) whether form and function explicitly correspond and 2) whether the meme’s meaning structure applies top down from conventionalized instructions or bottom-up from a non-conventionalized pattern recognition process.

MA Ling Thesis Defense

Friday, April 19

On Zoom at this link

10:30-12:30 pm PDT

(Note: please join the call before 10:30 as you will not be admitted after the defense has started.)

Joe Leman

Magar Kham Narrative Discourse

This thesis presents discourse patterns and features observed in eleven third-person narrative texts in the Magar Kham language of Nepal. The analysis methodology is drawn primarily from Dooley and Levinsohn (2001). Narrators in this study make extensive use of clause-chaining to describe the main events of a story, making the clause-chaining sentence a feature of default sentence articulation. The clause-chaining sentences in this study exhibit continuity across the three thematic domains associated with narrative texts(action, topic, and situation). Magar Kham narrators adhere to a subject-oriented anaphoric reference strategy across clauses. However, functioning with this basic strategy are a cataphoric system of switch reference within narrative clause chains, and a local VIP reference strategy for major participants. In general, Magar Kham narrators prefer to begin a sentence with a point of departure, and they favor those which reactivate previously narrated events in the text (tail-head linkage). Narrators make extensive use of the particle te to perform a number of pragmatic tasks, including thematic highlighting and developmental marking. Finally, the narrators of this study frequently contrast both prominent and backgrounded events from the main event line by nominalizing the main verb of the independent clause describing those events.

Evangelical Missiological Society

2024 Canadian Regional Conference

New Frontiers in Missiology

Friday, April 5

Canada Institute of Linguistics (Langley, BC Venue)

8:30 AM – 3:30 PM (PDT)

Tyndale University (Toronto, ON Venue)

8:30 AM – 5:00 PM (EDT)

Plenary Speakers

Michael Goheen

(Professor of Missional Theology; Director of Theological Education, Missional Training Center)

“New Frontiers in Missiology: Whose Mission? Which Frontiers?”

Anna Robbins

(President, Acadia Divinity School; Dean of Theology, Acadia University)

“Dynamischen: Recognizing New Intersections for Mission in Canada”

To Be Presented at the BC Venue (6 Papers):

• God Is Still Calling: To Whom Are You Sending? (Greg Laing)

• Insights from the Twelve Minor Prophets about God’s Mission in Changing Times (Beth Stowell)

• Empowering Movement Catalysts from the Other Side of the World: Personal Reflections on Mentoring Through the Internet (Mark Naylor)

• The World Seems to Be Getting Darker: The Shadow of War and Christian Mission (Phil Wagler)

• From Canaan to Babylon: Crafting a Relevant Gospel Narrative for the 21st Century Workforce (James Bruyn)

• The Groaning of Creation: The Untapped Potential of Creation Care to Revitalize Christian Mission (Rick Faw)

To Be Presented at the ON Venue (15 Papers)

• Examining the Effectiveness and Potential of Bible and Orality-Based Trauma Healing: Equipping for Practitioners Ministering to Refugees and Muslims in Canada (Deborah Hayhoe Padilla and Ramón Padilla)

• The “New” Comparative Theology as a New Frontier in Interreligious Engagement and Christian Witness: An Evangelical Perspective on Christian-Muslim Engagement (Alexander S. Lee)

• New Challenges and Opportunities in the World of Missions Created by Changes in the World (Frank A. Vander Meulen)

• The Local Church addressing Poverty: Emerging Frontiers in Mission Theology and Practice (Ryan Seow)

• The Frontier of Simplicity: Small Congregations as Missional Laboratories for the 21st Century (Marilyn Draper)

• Missiological Constants in the Shifting Context of Digital Space: Constructing a “Local" Theology of Mission in Digital Frontiers (Sarah Han)

• Peacebuilding as Mission: A Relevant, Aligned, and Inviting Approach to Christian Mission in a Polarized Society (Kendra DeMicco-Lovins)

• Sanctified to Be Set Apart or to Be Reconcilers in Community? (Manuel Boehm)

• Proclamation Follows Demonstration in the Undivided Elements of Holistic Witness: The Order of 1 Peter 3:15-16 (Joel B. Zantingh)

• A Biblical Theology of Childbearing and its Implications for A Brave New World (Lindsay Callaway)

• “We Repent from Valuing Talent Above Christ-like Character”: The Failures of Celebrity Male Ministry Leaders and Reconciliation as a Missiological Strategy (Peter Schuurman)

• Birth Plan: What Can We Learn from Church Planting in Canada? (James W. Watson) 

• Developing Intercultural Competence in New Canadian Church Planters (Elsie Lo and Mark Chapman)

• Transformational Leadership’s Impact on the Future of the Church and the Next Generation (Jason Persaud)

• Intergenerational Faith Transmission in Flourishing Churches: “New Frontier” in Doing Next-Generation Mission in Canada? (Narry F. Santos and Mark Chapman)

More information at the conference website.

Colloquium, Mar 28 (Maundy Thursday)

Ryan Douglas Kopke

The Sign of our King: 

Living the Regal Metaphor in John 13 with Insights from Cognitive Linguistics

Thursday, Mar 28, 1:30-2:45 pm PDT

Room 208 & online at this link 

Metaphor is ubiquitous in human cognition and language. In the last forty or fifty years, many linguists have been moving to hold more robust views of mind, cognition, and language. These robust views are better suited to address the prevalence of metaphor, and many of us now view cognition, language, and reason as more interconnected with the whole body, the emotions, and the imagination. A stance like this pairs well with our capacity for love and our propensity to engage in art. This trajectory of linguistics is coinciding with a relatively recent resurgence in philosophy, in which both the importance of affectual aspects in epistemology and the centrality of aesthetics have been highlighted. Considering these developments, the Sign of the King will be explored contextually and with a focus on John 13. This Sign has profound implications for our whole lives, but I will focus on implications for creation care, Bible translation, and literature. What is the Sign of the King? Come and see!

Ryan Douglas (RD) and his wife, Jordan, accepted assignments with Pioneer Bible in Vanuatu after they finished their initial training for their roles. RD graduated with the MLE (now MALT) at CanIL / MBBS (ACTS) and did some additional coursework at SEBTS and a couple other universities. In Vanuatu, he served as an exegetical and translation advisor. He designed curriculum for Bible translator training. He taught Greek and NT Exegesis, and he led translation labs for four teams of translators who are translating the Bible into their own languages. RD joined CanIL faculty in 2019, and his research interests include: Greek, Johannine literature, philosophy of language and linguistics, and aspects of linguistics most closely united with meaning. He enjoys being with Jordan and their three children, being outdoors, and poetry. His passion is for God to be glorified as people know Him personally and are transformed by His awesome love for them.

Post-BT-Conference Watch Party @ CanIL, March 21

Talk #1

Christy Hemphill & Phil King

Re-modeling quality: A comparison of implicit values revealed by translation metaphors

1:30 - 1:55 pm PDT video, 1:55 - 2:05 pm discussion

Mental models of translation, and the underlying conceptual metaphors used to build them (Lakoff and Johnson 2003, Kovecses 2010), drive how we problematize the translation task and the values we prioritize as we assess quality. The problems the twentieth century Bible translation movement identified and addressed typically flowed from understanding translation as a scientific endeavor, as did metrics for achieving something valuable, a quality product. These metrics continue to influence the movement today.

However, this TRANSLATION is A SCIENCE model is not the only way of understanding what translation is, or what a valuable translation achieves. A greater understanding of the values that shape alternative models will help teammates coming from the science orientation navigate tensions that arise when competing values are exposed. With a better understanding of differences at the conceptual level, participants in the movement will be better prepared to give constructive feedback when a team’s reliance on an alternative mental model leads to differing ideas about what quality translations accomplish.

This paper will describe and analyze the TRANSLATION is A SCIENCE model, so that those who depend on it have more awareness of the assumptions they are bringing to the translation task. Then we will describe and analyze examples from five other models of translation: TRANSLATION is AN ART, TRANSLATION is A CRAFT, TRANSLATION is A DIALOGUE, TRANSLATION is A JOURNEY and TRANSLATION is A MISSION. Comparing and contrasting these other models with the TRANSLATION is A SCIENCE model will highlight the possible points of tension when it comes to assessments of quality.

Christy Hemphill is an educator serving with SIL in Guerrero, Mexico. She works on a team that provides linguistic and exegetical support to New Testament translators in four varieties of Me’phaa, and she is the ILV training coordinator. She has MA degrees in applied linguistics from Old Dominion University and Dallas International University.

Phil King is SIL's International Coordinator for Translation Training and Development. He also supports the British Sign Language (BSL) Bible project, teaches at Moorlands College, UK, and is part of the ETEN Innovation Lab on QA. Phil previously lived in PNG, training Papua New Guinean Bible translators, and has a PhD in Biblical Hebrew.

Post-BT-Conference Watch Party @ CanIL, March 21

Talk #2

Daniel Gya

Towards Quality in Translating Biblical Poetry: Target Language Orality Research

2:05 - 2:30 video, 2:30 - 2:40 discussion

Great efforts have been made in discourse studies focused on narratives to enhance the quality of Scripture translations. However, little is done to research aspects of poetry in the target languages including the form and structure, morphosyntactic patterns, and kinds of rhetorical features available in the poetry of the target language. Consequently, most translations render the poetic aspects of the Scriptures in prose with emphasis on meaning alone and format the text using Paratext standard format markers to make it look like real poetry. This paper is based on linguistic analysis of songs on Rigwe, a language in Central Nigeria, and argues that research into the orality features of target language poetry needs to be carried out, and the findings of the poetic features and structure incorporated in translating biblical poetry to enhance the appropriateness and adequacy of the translation. 

The study is theoretically approached from complexity theory and semiotics within the discipline of translation studies. Examples are given from the translation of selected portions of the Psalms into Rigwe, a language of Central Nigeria.

Daniel Gya served as Project Advisor for the translation of Rigwe New Testament (Nigeria) and later as Translation Coordinator for Nigeria Bible Translation Trust until 2016. He is currently a Translation Consultant in Anglophone West Africa, helping with oral Bible story-telling, and oral/written translation projects, and a Ph.D. student.

Post-BT-Conference Watch Party @ CanIL, March 21

Talk #3

Seth Vitrano-Wilson

“I Speak In Parables”: The Limits of Comprehension Testing as a Measure of Accuracy

2:40 - 3:05 video, 3:05 - 3:15 discussion

A common question in Bible translation is, “Can a translation be accurate if it is unnatural and unclear, leading to misunderstanding?” Nida and Taber answered this by saying that accuracy should be measured by the degree to which a translation gives the “average reader” not just the possibility, but the “overwhelming likelihood” of understanding the text correctly, and that translators should “aim to make certain” that the reader understands (TAPOT 173). Comprehension testing became the primary tool for measuring readers’ understanding of the text, and thereby, of accuracy according to Nida and Taber’s definition.

This approach can produce valuable gifts to the church, and comprehension testing is an important tool for uncovering translation errors. However, as this presentation argues, the God-breathed Scriptures in the original languages were often written in ways that even the original audience would not have quickly understood. Moreover, God makes clear that at times this difficulty of comprehension is deliberate. Put simply, God’s Word in its original, flawless form would fail comprehension testing.

Using comprehension testing as a measure of accuracy also introduces inherent bias, by skewing translator’s attempts to maximize comprehension toward certain questions that they think to test, at the expense of others that they do not test. We will explore some examples of this bias, and consider ways that translators can lessen this bias and produce more accurate translations that more closely match the original authors’ level of clarity.

Seth Vitrano-Wilson received his MA in linguistics from Payap University, serving with SIL's MSEAG group for many years as the Orthography Coordinator. He now serves with Horizons International consulting on orthographies, writing articles on the theology of Bible translation, and developing tools and resources for Bible translators.

Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition, Thursday, Mar 14

Norma Marion Alloway Library's Glass Room

1:00-3:00 pm PDT

The contestants include:

Andrew Johnson

The way we meme

In this thesis, I outline a functional typology for categorizing Internet memes using the cognitive linguistic theory of Conceptual Integration and related concepts from Construction Grammar and Relevance theory. I argue that Conceptual Integration theory provides the necessary tools to construct a robust typology that can support meme analysis according to a descriptivist linguistic paradigm in order to emphasize the importance of emergent dynamic meaning creation and phatic socio-pragmatic function to meme communication and transmission. I organize memes based on two functional concerns: 1) whether form and function explicitly correspond and 2) whether the meme’s meaning structure applies top-down from conventionalized instructions or bottom-up from a non-conventionalized pattern recognition process.

Andrew is a CanIL MA Ling student.

Colloquium, Feb 8

Josh Smolders

The functional load of tone in Bilugu Opo

Thursday, Feb 8, 1:30-2:45 pm PST

Room 208 & online at this link 

In the Bilugu dialect of Opo [lgn], a small Nilo-Saharan language of the Koman family spoken in Ethiopia and South Sudan, tone has a remarkably high functional load both lexically and grammatically. Following tonal analysis methods outlined by Snider (2018), this paper gives evidence that Bilugu has four phonemic levels of tone. This is the largest known tonal inventory of any Koman language to date, the others having at most three (Otero 2019:39-93). There is lexical contrast between low (L), mid (M), high (H), and extra-high (X). In addition, tone bears a high grammatical load. In the verb system, for example, tense-aspect-modality (TAM) is marked with both replacive floating tone morphemes and tonally contrastive segmental morphemes. In addition, for certain verbs, tone can make the difference between derivational stems, such as transitive and intransitive, singular and plural subject, singular and pluractional, distributed and non-distributed object, and others. In the noun system, tone plays a role in marking nominal relations such as the associative construction, where a floating H tone suffixes to the head noun with the resulting semantics "noun of noun". In the pronoun system, replacive tone can be seen in the formation of the possessive pronouns for first person plural.

Given that previous descriptions of Opo have not provided a thorough treatment of tone (Lemi 2010, Van Silfhout 2013, Mellese 2018), the data in this paper is an important step in the description of Opo and the advancement of Koman linguistics. In addition, given the unusual number of contrastive tone levels, the extensive nature of lexical and grammatical tone, and the fact that only some of the tonal constructions can be explained by historical elision of segmental morphemes, Bilugu Opo is an important datapoint in typological studies of African tone.

Josh Smolders is a linguist-translator with SIL. He was born and raised in Ucluelet on Vancouver Island. He completed a Masters in Applied Linguistics at CanIL (2010-2012). In 2014 he and his family moved to Ethiopia. He did phonological research on the Ganza language ([gza] Omotic), and then more extensive phonological and grammatical research on the Opo language ([lgn] Nilo-Saharan). In 2018 he became translation advisor for the T'a Po Scripture Development Project. He has been an instructor at CanIL. He is currently on home assignment in Langley, and soon, Vancouver Island. He is presenting this paper at a satellite workshop of the OCP (Old World Conference in Phonology) conference in Germany on Feb 13 and would appreciate feedback.

Colloquium, Jan 25

Kyle Hubbard

Intransitive Copy Pronouns, mental spaces, and the Access Principle:
A characterization from Cognitive Linguistics

Thursday, Jan 25, 1:30-2:45 pm PST

Room 208 & online at this link 

Intransitive Copy Pronouns (ICPs) – a common feature of West African languages – are traditionally described as copies of the subject suffixed to intransitive verbs. There is still little consensus in the literature as to how they work. This thesis describes the “how” using cognitive linguistics, in particular mental space theory (i.e., the brain’s use of conceptual “realities” to help process change) and the Access Principle (i.e., the mechanism used to connect elements in these “realities”). With this description, I counter the theory that ICPs function like cognate objects (Storch, Atindogbé & Blench 2011: 6), and I support and further explain the theory that ICPs encode subject point-of-view (Frajzyngier 2012: 585). I also establish a previously unreported function of navigating disruptions in the cognitive environment, and show how this function accounts for some of the ICP’s seemingly unrelated semantic effects; I also show how it explains variation in ICP use within discourse.

Kyle Hubbard graduated from CanIL in 2023 with an MA Ling. His thesis was on the topic of this talk. He is currently working in Cameroon with CABTAL as a translation consultant in training.

Colloquium, Nov 15

James Hafford

The Pragmatics of Wuvulu Pronouns

Wednesday, Nov 15, 3:00-4:15 pm PST

Room 208 & online at this link 

This study examines the pragmatic use of dual pronouns and inclusive pronouns in the Wuvulu language. Dual pronouns in Wuvulu are based on the Proto-Oceanic morpheme *rua 'two', for reference to two people. Yet for social reasons, a second person dual pronoun can also be used to refer to one person. Additionally, inclusive pronouns can be used pragmatically to demonstrate solidarity, to mitigate, or to persuade.

James teaches linguistics at CanIL and serves as a linguistics consultant with the Fertile Crescent Harvest group of SIL International. He and his wife Lois are members of Wycliffe Bible Translators and have served in Papua New Guinea, where they completed the Wuvulu New Testament in 2005. They currently serve as mentors for the Wuvulu Old Testament project.

MA Ling Thesis Defense, Nov 14

Jonathan Moe

A Phonology of the Domung [dev] Language of Papua New Guinea

with Acoustic Analysis

Tuesday, Nov 14, 3:30-5:00 pm PST

Be sure to arrive early, as access is locked once the defense begins.

Online at this link.

This synchronic phonological analysis of the underdescribed language of Domung (ISO 693-3 [dev]) identifies 16 consonant phonemes and six vowel phonemes based on a corpus of ~1600 recorded words collected during original fieldwork. Domung is a Trans New Guinea language spoken in the Finisterre mountains of Papua New Guinea. A brief comparison is made to the phonemic inventories of other related and documented Finisterre languages. The phonology description includes acoustic measurement and analysis of vowel quality (via vowel formants) and vowel length (via vowel duration). Acoustic analysis confirms the presence of phonemic vowel length in a subset of vowels. Vowel sequences and diphthongs are also identified and characterized using relevant acoustic correlates. Syllable and word structure analysis is provided as well as description of several phonological processes occurring at morpheme boundaries. The accent system is also analyzed via both native speaker intuition assessments and acoustic measurement data.

Chair: Jonathan Numada, PhD (ACTS)

Thesis Supervisor: Roderic F. Casali, PhD (LING)

Second Reader: William Gardner, PhD (LING)

Third Reader: Paul Arsenault, PhD (Tyndale University)

Watch parties @ CanIL, post- Bible Translation Conference (BTC), Nov 8

Talk #1 - Glenn Machlan: Relative Clauses That Can Create Problems

3:00 - 3:25 pm video, 3:25 - 3:35 pm discussion

There are two main types of relative clauses: restrictive, which identify or specify the head noun, and nonrestrictive, which give parenthetical information about the head noun. While all languages in the world reportedly use restrictive relative clauses, many languages do not have non-restrictive relative clauses. However, Hebrew, Greek, and English all have both types of relative clauses. Consequently, people in languages with only restrictive relative clauses can easily understand non-restrictive relative clauses in those languages to be restrictive. For example, the statement, “This is my Son, whom I love” could be interpreted to mean that there was another son whom the Father did not love. This presentation will seek to explain those two types of relative clauses, their use in scripture, and the potential problems in translating non-restrictive relative clauses. It is hoped that being aware of the problems with non-restrictive relative clauses, in addition to good community checking, can help alert translators to potential misunderstandings of the source texts and English translations. And it will present some ways to translate non-restrictive relative clauses that can help produce better, more accurate target language translations.

Glenn Machlan received an MA in linguistics from University of Texas at Arlington in 1995. He worked as a Linguist/Translator for SIL Philippines for 14 years, and then as a Bible translator for YWAM Philippines for 5 years. For the last 6 years he has been Translator's Notes Editor with YWAM and SIL.

Watch parties @ CanIL, post- Bible Translation Conference (BTC), Nov 8

Talk #2 - Joshua Frost

Exegeting Emotions in the Bible for Translation: 

Toward a Comprehensive Method

3:35 - 4:00 pm video, 4:00 - 4:10 pm discussion

Emotions are critical for human cognition and decision-making, impacting memory and interactions. In Bible translations, capturing emotions is essential for effective communication (Larson 1998). The Forum of Bible Agencies International recognizes this, having included emotion as their 2nd core translation principle since 2006.

Emotions appear at all linguistic levels: phonological, morphological, lexical, syntactic, discursive, and in conceptual metaphors. Despite their prevalence, few translation resources systematically focus on emotions, leaving translators without adequate resources or methodology for translating them.

Translators and other gospel communicators need materials that help them communicate the emotions in the Bible adequately. These materials prove crucial for oral and sign language translators, whose audiences subconsciously interpret the entire passage through the emotions they perceive in the performance. Faithfulness to the biblical text requires identifying and translating emotions, yet verifying the correct identification of those emotions remains elusive.

This paper incorporates ideas from the most recent and widely accepted research on emotions to outline a basic framework for exegeting emotions within biblical texts for translation. The paper introduces the study of emotions, focuses on the interplay between emotions and society, and surveys how emotions appear in language. Building on these theoretical foundations, the paper introduces a simple process for identifying emotions in the biblical texts. The paper concludes with direction for further research.

Josh is a researcher with SIL who focuses on developing translation resources for oral and written translation projects. His primary area of research has been in the New Testament, with a special emphasis on the emotions in the text. As a member of the Spoken English Bible, he provides exegetical guidance and suggestions for how the text should be performed to maintain maximum faithfulness to the biblical text in its historical context. He is currently pursuing an MA in Applied Linguistics with Dallas International University.

Watch parties @ CanIL, post- Bible Translation Conference (BTC), Nov 8

Talk #3 - Timothy Hatcher

Veneration, Heresy, and the Acceptability 

of Vernacular Language Bible Translations

4:10 - 4:35 pm video, 4:35 - 4:45 pm discussion

Acceptability is a more recent addition to measures of quality in Bible translation; it has been variously framed as authenticity, acceptability, or appropriateness (Anderson 1998; Chemorian 2009; Daams 2015; Dye 2009; Gross 2003; Larsen 2001; Mudge 1997). These various lenses have appropriately focused on community agency, the skopos of translation programs, and other elements that influence acceptability of Bible translations. Multiple theological issues are also interwoven within the dimension of acceptability. It is essential to take into consideration a host community’s theology of the Bible, theology of translation, theology of language, and intertextual issues (i.e. comparative theologies of sacred texts).

In almost every context, there is one or more pre-existing sacred texts to which a new vernacular Bible translation will be compared, whether that text is an LWC Bible translation, a sacred text from another religion, or a religious oral tradition. Host communities make comparisons of style, purpose, use, and conceptualizations with these previous sacred texts which influence their theological categorization of vernacular Bible translations. It is also instructive to compare the way other major world religions understand the parameters of acceptability of translations of their sacred texts. These understandings are important prerequisites to the essential task of noting how the host community's theological views overlap with or conflict with those of Bible agencies and personnel and how best to respond to these frequent, significant divergences of perspectives.

Timothy Hatcher teaches courses in missiology and Scripture Engagement at Dallas International University and is a Scripture Engagement consultant for SIL. He and his wife Lynley are leaders in the multi-agency Freedom Ascent addiction recovery program for oral audiences. Tim holds a PhD in Intercultural Studies from Assemblies of God Theological Seminary.

TWU CREATE Conference, Oct 20

A multidisciplinary conference showcasing research by TWU students & faculty.

Friday, Oct 20, 9 am - 5 pm PDT

The Robert G. Kuhn Centre 

We encourage CanIL faculty & students to present at this conference, to let others in our CanIL & TWU communities know what we are doing.

Presenters register & submit by Sep 22, attenders by Oct 6.

More information on the website here.

Watch parties @ CanIL for Bible Translation Conference (BTC), Day 4

Tuesday, Oct 17

CanIL Harvest Center, Room 118

6 am - 3:15 pm PDT | 9 am - 5:15 pm EDT

You can also join the watch parties online at this Zoom link to view / discuss.

BTC livestreams some sessions via Zoom (see below). In those cases, watch the presentation and Q&A on their link, then join the watch party at the above link.

If you have questions, email bruce.wiebe@canil.ca.

6:00 - 6:45 am PDT | 9:00 - 9:45 am EDT

Welcome & Devotions

This session livestreamed at this link, then join the watch party at the above link.

6:45 - 7:45 am PDT | 9:45 - 10:45 am EDT

Nida Lecture

A Blast from the Past: Revisiting the Manuscript Tradition as a Paradigm for Quality in Learning Biblical Languages for Bible Translation

Edgar Ebojo

This talk live streamed at this link, then join the watch party at the above link.

8:15 - 8:50 am PDT | 11:15 - 11:50 am EDT

Artificial Intelligence Tools as Quality Assessment Copilots

Gary Simons, Mark Woodward, Cassie Weishaupt, Daniel Whitenack, Joshua Nemecek

This talk live streamed at this link, then join the watch party at the above link.

9:05 - 9:40 am PDT | 12:05 - 12:40 pm EDT

Lost in Translation: Navigating the Intersection of Humanity and Technology in BT

Larry Hayashi (CanIL faculty), Reinier De Blois, Matt Merritt (CanIL alum), Paul Unger (CanIL alum)

This talk live streamed at this link, then join the watch party at the above link.

11:15 - 12:15 am PDT | 2:15 - 3:15 pm EDT

AI Panel

This session live streamed at this link, then join the watch party at the above link.

12:30 - 1:05 pm PDT | 3:30 - 4:05 pm EDT

Migration Realities: Benefits of Embracing Diaspora in Bible Translation

Trevor Deck 

1:35 - 2:10 pm PDT | 4:35 - 5:10 pm EDT

Reading the Scriptures, or Performing Them? Authoritative Reading versus Dramatic Expression

Dick Kroneman

2:25 - 3:00 pm PDT | 5:25 - 6:00 pm EDT

Outcome Based Consultant Training: Lessons from CanIL’s M.A. in the Translation of Scripture

Joost Pikkert (CanIL faculty)

Watch parties @ CanIL for Bible Translation Conference (BTC), Day 3

Monday, Oct 16

CanIL Harvest Center, Room 118

6 am - 3:15 pm PDT | 9 am - 5:15 pm EDT

You can also join the watch parties online at this Zoom link to view / discuss.

BTC livestreams some sessions via Zoom (see below). In those cases, watch the presentation and Q&A on their link, then join the watch party at the above link.

If you have questions, email bruce.wiebe@canil.ca.

6:00 - 6:45 am PDT | 9:00 - 9:45 am EDT

Welcome & Devotions

This session livestreamed at this link, then join the watch party at the above link.

6:45 - 7:45 am PDT | 9:45 - 10:45 am EDT

John Beekman Lecture Series #2

Quality in Oral Bible Translation and Performance

Dr. Tshokolo Makutoane

This talk live streamed at this link, then join the watch party at the above link.

8:15 - 8:50 am PDT | 11:15 - 11:50 am EDT

Multimodality in Bible Translation: Will it Contribute to Quality Assurance

Bryan Harmelink, Sebastian Floor

This talk live streamed at this link, then join the watch party at the above link.

9:05 - 9:40 am PDT | 12:05 - 12:40 pm EDT

Translating the Bible with People for People: How Current Anthropological Insights contribute to Quality

Johannes Merz, Sharon Merz, Michael Jemphrey, David Troolin

This talk live streamed at this link, then join the watch party at the above link.

11:00 - 11:50 am PDT | 2:00 - 2:50 pm EDT

(free time)

12:30 - 1:05 pm PDT | 3:30 - 4:05 pm EDT

AI Natural Language Processing--A Game Changer for Minority Language Translation

Gilles Gravelle 

1:35 - 2:10 pm PDT | 4:35 - 5:10 pm EDT

Going the Extra Mile: How Can Translation Consultants Improve Linguistic Quality?

Christopher Vaz

2:25 - 3:00 pm PDT | 5:25 - 6:00 pm EDT

A Balanced View of Interpreting the Psalms in Light of their Sitz im Leben

Milton Watt

Watch parties @ CanIL for Bible Translation Conference (BTC), Day 2

Saturday, Oct 14

CanIL Harvest Center, Room 118

6 am - 3:15 pm PDT | 9 am - 5:15 pm EDT

You can also join (most of) the watch parties online at this Zoom link to view / discuss.

BTC livestreams some sessions via Zoom (see below); for those, connect directly instead.

If you have questions, email bruce.wiebe@canil.ca.

6:00 - 6:45 am PDT | 9:00 - 9:45 am EDT

Welcome & Devotions

This session livestreamed at this link

6:45 - 7:45 am PDT | 9:45 - 10:45 am EDT

Sanneh Lecture

The Role of Local Communities in Determining Quality in Bible Translation

Dr Paul Kimbi

This talk live streamed at this link.

8:15 - 8:50 am PDT | 11:15 - 11:50 am EDT

Scripture, or Translations of Scripture? Septuagint, Doctrines of Scripture, and Bible Translation Today

Ruedi Giezendanner

This talk live streamed at this link.

9:05 - 9:40 am PDT | 12:05 - 12:40 pm EDT

Improving Source-text Comprehension and Internalization with Argument Flow Analysis

Steven Runge

11:15 - 11:50 am PDT | 2:15 - 2:50 pm EDT

Tacit Linguistic Knowledge is Not Enough: Using Participatory Methods to Improve Quality in Bible Translation

Mike Cahill, Tim Stirtz

12:05 - 12:40 pm PDT | 3:05 - 3:40 pm EDT

Linguists: The Next Bottleneck?

Danny Foster, Doug Trick, Steve Nicolle (all CanIL faculty) 

12:55 - 1:30 pm PDT | 3:55 - 4:30 pm EDT

Biblical Language Grammars and the Barriers They Create

Michael Aubrey, Rachel Aubrey (both CanIL alums) 

2:00 - 2:35 pm PDT | 5:00 - 5:35 pm EDT

Ethnography of Oji-Cree Translation Practices

Matthew Windsor (CanIL alum), Yvonne Winter 

2:50 - 3:25 pm PDT | 5:50 - 6:25 pm EDT

Quality Bible Translations in Minority Languages. Can it be done? An update.

Nico Daams

Watch parties @ CanIL for Bible Translation Conference (BTC), Day 1

Friday, Oct 13

CanIL Harvest Center, Room 118

6 am - 3:15 pm PDT | 9 am - 5:15 pm EDT

You can also join (most of) the watch parties online at this Zoom link to view / discuss.

BTC livestreams some sessions via Zoom (see below); for those, connect directly instead.

If you have questions, email bruce.wiebe@canil.ca.

6:00 - 6:45 am PDT | 9:00 - 9:45 am EDT

Welcome & Devotions

This session livestreamed at this link

6:45 - 7:45 am PDT | 9:45 - 10:45 am EDT

John Beekman Lecture Series #1

Quality in Bible Translation: Principles and Procedures

Dr. Andy Warren-Rothlin

This talk live streamed at this link.

8:15 - 8:50 am PDT | 11:15 - 11:50 am EDT

Quality in Translation: A Multi-threaded Fabric

Stephen Watters

9:05 - 9:40 am PDT | 12:05 - 12:40 pm EDT

Quality in OBT: The What and the How

Heather Beal, Joshua Frost, Nikki Mustin

11:15 - 11:50 am PDT | 2:15 - 2:50 pm EDT

Testing Quality: Rationale, Goals, and Methods of Community Testing

Nicholas Bailey (prev. CanIL faculty)

12:05 - 12:40 pm PDT | 3:05 - 3:40 pm EDT

The Necessity of Metaphors in Life & the Danger of Erasing Them in Translation

Stephanie Wong

12:55 - 1:30 pm PDT | 3:55 - 4:30 pm EDT

New Methods in Consultant Development

Stephen Doty, Angeline Foo

2:00 - 2:35 pm PDT | 5:00 - 5:35 pm EDT

Accelerated Bible Translation and the Critical Thinking Gap

Larry Jones

2:50 - 3:25 pm PDT | 5:50 - 6:25 pm EDT

What Difference does a Linguist Make in the Quality of the Translation?

Feruza Krason

Bible Translation Conference, Oct 13-17

Hosted by DIU & SIL, online (in person is full)

Theme: Quality in translation

Wednesday, Oct 13-14, 16-17

8 am - 5:15 pm CDT, 6 am - 3:15 pm PDT

Watch parties planned in Harvest Center, Room 118

CanIL faculty & students register using this form - faculty by Sep 30, 9 pm (early bird rate), students by Oct 12, 9 pm. CanIL will cover your cost. Students will be required to attend 8 sessions & write a 1-2 page reflection paper by Nov 15 (see details below).

If you are registered and are also interested in watch parties at CanIL, fill out this form [link coming shortly]. (You don't have to come to all / any of the watch parties; you can attend on your own online. But we would value your participation in the discussions.)

Any questions, email Bruce at bruce.wiebe@canil.ca.

This is the premier Bible translation conference in North America - we encourage attendance!

From CanIL, seven faculty and six alumni are presenting!

More details on the conference website here (but register using the form above, not on the website).

Students whose cost is covered by CanIL will be required to attend at least 8 sessions, and submit a 1-2 page reflection paper by Nov 15. This would list the talks attended, and address any of the following topics:

1. What was a key idea or approach that was very new to you?

2. What was a key idea or approach that you consider to be problematic, and why?

3. What was something that you would like to pursue more deeply as a result of what you heard at the conference?

4. Perhaps other similar question(s), depending on your interests.

Send your reflection paper to Bruce at bruce.wiebe@canil.ca .