Revised NWT in French released yesterday

by careful 40 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • StephaneLaliberte
    StephaneLaliberte

    Back in the 90s, JWs released a version of the french bible where the names in it were closer to the hebrew version. Hence, Jonas became Yona, Éli became Eliya, Josué became Yoshua, etc.

    Though, technically, they were correct, it didn`t match with the names every other french people were used to. And so we went several years using these difficult names no one could understand until yesterday. The french people in quebec now have a bible that reverted back to the old names.

    So, new old light. :)

    The weird thing is: If I still would have been in, I would have been so excited about his. But now that I don`t even believe in the bible anymore... I don`t care one bit.

  • joe134cd
    joe134cd
    I guess the question that needs to be asked even if they did digitally release a RNWT in Spanish, is how many of those Spanish speaking witness could afford to own such a devise. When I was in Latin America I saw a young girl getting held at knife point for her smart phone in a public area and broad daylight. So even carry these divides in these areas could put you in unwanted danger.
  • fifth.column
    fifth.column

    I attended a convention in France. We were all connected to Paris where David Splane made the announcement.

    Every attendant received a hard copy of the new Bible, just immediately delivered to our seat after the announcement. Except for people in the french islands or french-spoken coutries in Africa : they will have a more robust version because of their weather conditions, but the supplier was late.

    For the congregations who already had their convention last weeks, they will receive hard copies starting next week. BTW, the new word for congregation in France is now "Local assembly".

  • sir82
    sir82

    Yeah, I've seen photos of French JWs ecstatically clutching their talisman, er, new silver Bible.

  • Ding
    Ding

    Sounds like the GB doesn't believe the end is that close if they are still putting out translations.

  • careful
    careful

    Thanks SL and FC for the info. So it is a printed copy. Perhaps they "tackled" producing the French version before the German and Spanish ones. If they're making a higher quality binding for the bros in the islands and African nations, then they must have some funding for such "robust" copies.

    The new term for "congregation" en français is interesting. I wonder what's up with that. A Splane quirk? Some legal manoeuvre?

    Morph, you'll just have to quit predicting the org's imminent demise! Or wait a minute, was that Morph? ...

  • RubaDub
    RubaDub

    the lack of the Spanish rev NWT is really strange. What's up with that? Aren't there plenty of Spanish translators?

    careful ...

    The question is not the lack of Spanish translators. It's the issue of which "Spanish" do you use. This has been a bone of contention for as long as I can remember. What is translated into "Spain Spanish" is a lot different than "Puerto Rican Spanish" which is a lot different from "Argentinian Spanish" which is a lot different from "Mexican Spanish" etc., etc.

    In fact, some common words or expressions that are commonly used in one country may be gross or dirty in another country. The "Cuban Spanish" used here in South Florida is the perfect example.

    I really don't know how the Society can make a truly "common" bible with such variations in the language.

    Rub a Dub

  • careful
    careful

    Thanks, Rub a Dub. I remember a bro in a Spanish-speaking cong in S. Calif. telling me that once. He'd been a Bethelite in NY and told me how bad the Spanish was at HQ. The Society's translations of the publications were all being done by Puerto Rican bros and how different that was from what he was used to in Calif. So then this getting "a rev. Spanish NWT" may be a problem. That leads to the question, however, how they pulled it off before, with the previous editions of the NWT? And what about the current publications? Are they being translated into all these different dialects of Spanish?

  • waton
    waton

    This tower of Babel nightmare is still with the tower, and the GB knows it first hand.

    There was an episode implicating David Splane, who was stuck in presenting a "drama" with the use of Quebecois actors and audience, but Parisian tapes.

    The attempt to create locally flavoured audios was less than stellar.

    Thankfully there is a solution for the Spanish arrivals in America, learn english too, , the language of the land.

  • Wonderment
    Wonderment

    Spanish language differences among various countries is akin to the English language varieties found in USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

    https://blogs.transparent.com/spanish/the-many-dialects-of-spanish-and-what-they-mean-for-language-learners/: "It’s true that, like in English, most native speakers of the many different dialects of Spanish understand each other with relative ease or by listening just a bit more closely. But also like a non-native learning English in New York City will struggle to understand a thick Scottish brogue, dialects of Spanish often feature differences that present challenges for learners....The majority of vocabulary and grammar differences in the Spanish-speaking world are between European Spanish and the Latin American dialects."

    Even so, just as an English speaker form USA can travel to other English speaking countries, and be understood, so can the Spanish speaker from the Iberian peninsula travel to Latin America and communicate fairly well. Of course, there are a lot of local idioms and accents that may pose a challenge at times, but not a major one to prevent adequate communication.

    In regards to Bible translations, most publishers make an effort to use universal Spanish, that is, Spanish that can be understood in most countries without much difficulty. There is no way a Bible publisher is going to produce Spanish versions for dozens of countries, when only one or two versions would suffice.

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