Bible now available in Alaska's updated Yupik language

The Holy Bible is now available in the modernYupik writing style.

The translation to Yupik spoken by an estimated 18,000 AlaskaNatives from Norton Sound in the western part of the state toBristol Bay on the eastern end was produced after nearly half acentury of work by fluent Yupik speakers and the American BibleSociety, reported KYUK-AM. Yupik is thesecond-most spoken language in Alaska, after English.

The first missionaries translated the New Testament into an earlyform of Yupik writing, said Moravian Pastor Jones Anaver ofKwigllingok. But today, Yupik textbooks and dictionaries in thelocal schools use a newer and easier to read script developed bylinguist Steven Jacobson in the 1980s.

The team rewrote the New Testament in Jacobson's style andtranslated the Old Testament into Yupik using the revised StandardVersion of the Bible.

"We wanted the youngest of our generation to be able to read andfully appreciate the Holy Bible," said Anaver.

Bethel elder Elsie Jimmie agreed that the earlier translationstook more learning to read. She's been part of thetranslationproject for the past sixyears.

"My father taught me to read the Bible's early Yupiktranslations after I learned English," she said. "In myexperience,the new orthography is much easier to use and learn."

She says her work on the translation has been fulfilling.

"An elderly man who couldn't read or write called me some timeafter the project was completed. He was very happy the Bible wasconverted into the modern Yupik style because his grandchildren nowfluently read and teach the Old Testament to him," said Jimmie.

According to a letter Rev. Peter Greene wrote to the weeklynewspaper Delta Discovery, the project started in 1971 with pastorsTeddy Brink and Peter Andrews under the guidance of the AmericanBible Society. The American Bible Society did not immediatelyrespond to inquiries.