Language and Location
Recent research has shown there are approximately 50 Tibetan languages and over 200 varieties of Tibetan and Ladakhi is one of those 50 languages. Ladakhi is located in India bordering both China and Pakistan and it’s neighbouring languages are Purik, Balti, Zanskari and Changthang (See map). All these languages are part of the Western Tibetan language grouping and quite distinct from Central, Amdo and Kham Tibetan spoken varieties.
Contents
- Language and Location
- Choice of Register
- Translation History into Mid and High Literary Registers
- Vernacular Translations of Ladakhi
- References
Choice of Register
The complex task of translating the Scriptures into the different varieties of Tibetan is made more difficult by the need to choose between different ‘registers’. These are: a High Literary Register (the language used for the Tibetan Buddhist scriptures, also known as chos skad); the Mid Literary Register (a mixture of High Literary and some known common spoken and non-spoken words); and one of many varieties of the Low Register (the vernacular/spoken language), which are specific to particular regions.
There are advantages and disadvantages of translating into each different register. A translation into one of the varieties of the Low Register will be easily understood in one specific region but its geographical reach will be limited, and it will be seen as less prestigious than the High and Mid Registers. Mid Literary is more difficult to understand than the spoken language but has a wider geographical reach. The High Literary Register can reach even further geographically but it requires people first to learn a literary language in order to understand what is written in it.
Translation History into Mid and High Literary Registers
The Moravian missionary H.A.Jäschke (1817-1883) spent three months in Ladakh in 1857, and subsequently worked in Kyelang (Lahul) until 1868. He studied the spoken languages of the region. However, he decided to translate the New Testament into literary Tibetan, drawing on the assistance and advice of speakers and scholars of different forms of Tibetan in both the Western Himalayan region and Darjeeling. He hoped that his choice of language would ensure that the written text would be widely understood across Tibet and the Himalayan border regions.
Jäschke’s successor F.A. Redslob (1838-1891) completed the translation of the New Testament in 1885. Between 1898 and 1902 a committee chaired by another Moravian missionary, A. W. Heyde (1825-1907) prepared a revised version of the Tibetan New Testament under the sponsorship of the British & Foreign Bible Society. Later, Dr A.H.Francke (1870-1930) and his Ladakhi colleague Yoseb Gergan (1878-1946) translated the Old Testament into literary Tibetan. The draft translation of the Old Testament was completed by 1935, but the full Tibetan Bible was not published until 1948.
In 1959 Eliyah Tsetan Phuntshog (son-in-law of Yoseb Gergan) started to revise the New Testament with Pierre Vittoz (a Swiss missionary). They translated it into a Mid Literary Register, hoping that this would be accessible to the various Tibetan-speaking peoples in both India and Tibet. This version was published in 1970. However, most of the Ladakhis who were not trained in the Literary register, found all these versions difficult to understand.
Vernacular Translations of Ladakhi
Alongside his main Tibetan translation work, Jäschke translated the ‘Harmony of the Gospels’, a selection of texts used by the Moravian church in Easter Week, into vernacular Ladakhi. He noticed that the Ladakhi Christians were more attentive when listening to the Harmony, than they were when they heard texts written in the Higher Register of classical Tibetan.
Like Jäschke, Francke put his main efforts into Bible translation into literary Tibetan. However, he also emphasised the need to translate at least some portions of the Bible into the spoken languages of the region. In 1907 he printed a revised version of Jäschke’s Harmony. He also prepared a Ladakhi ‘Life of Christ’, and in 1908 he published a Ladakhi version of St Mark’s Gospel. Yoseb Gergan produced a revised version of the Ladakhi St Mark, and this was published in Lahore in 1919.
These early vernacular translations adapted the classical literary spelling system rather than using a phonetic transcription of spoken Ladakhi. In the early 1950s E.T. Phuntsog experimented with a greatly simplified spelling system for writing Ladakhi. However, he ran into opposition from the Ladakhi community who regarded the proposed spelling reforms who wanted to preserve the classical spelling system of the Buddhist Scriptures. Phuntsog translated excerpts from the Gospels of St Mark and St Luke using this script. However, his proposals were never accepted outside the small Christian community, and he was forced to put them on one side.
Today there is an ongoing project to translate the entire Bible into the Low Register of spoken Ladakhi language using a more phonemic spelling structure of the Zhung/Leh dialect. Currently the New Testament and Genesis 1-16 has been completed.