Warning: nerdy linguistic post ahead!
The ladies here are always encouraging and friendly to me, no matter how much I stumble, do things incorrectly, and take up their time and energy. I wanted to be able to tell them that they encourage me, so my mission was to walk around the village and ask people how to say “encourage.” I had no idea what I was getting into! First I talked to Moses, and he gave me a phrase “Ngolugui mutete fi oi”. Basically, it’s an idiom that means you have heavy feelings. The verb root “lugu” has a wide range of meaning. We’ve heard definitions like “love” and “sorry” and “think”, and the best we can figure out it’s like our generic “feel”. As in “I feel for you” when we’re told that someone is hurting, or “I have feelings for you” when you are finally admitting that you really like that cute guy.
I moseyed over to another section of the village and found a bunch of small ones gathering kino nuts and green coconuts for their afternoon snack. Kids are always so friendly and fun!
The second friend I asked was totally shamed because she had no idea how to put the word “encourage” into her own language. So she sent me to her auntie, Hilda, who has a high level of education and has served on several government committees. She gave me a totally different phrase. The fourth person I asked was again shamed because she didn’t know. So, I need to figure out how to get language data without making my friends feel incompetent. I’m only looking for one word or idea, how much more do Aaron and his team of guys have to wrestle with as they tackle each piece of scripture! Translation isn’t just substituting a word in one language for a word in another language.
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