In Our Tongues; A Popular Handbook to the Translation Work of the British and Foreign Bible Society (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1899 Excerpt: ... PREFACE HIS little book makes no pretension either to originality or to scientific value. It is merely intended to be a kind of Bible Society Baedeker for the use of tourists in that particular province of the fascinating realm of Bible Translation. And it omits any account of versions in whose preparation or publication the British and Foreign Bible Society has had no share. Consequently the arrangement is neither geographical nor linguistic, but simply alphabetical. The list of versions in the Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society for 1899 forms its basis, and the nomenclature is that which is adopted by the Society. Cross-references have, however, been added, so that as far as possible the ordinary reader may. be able to connect the information here collected with that which is given in Dr. Cust's books, and in Mr. Gordon Watt's Four Hundred Tongues. The reports of the British and Foreign Bible Society are the main source of the information which is arranged in the following pages, but almost every linguistic statement is borrowed from Dr. Cust's invaluable works, or from such books as The Bible in the Pacific and The Bible of Every Land. In some cases the writer has been so fortunate as to obtain information at first hand from linguistic missionaries, or from friends in the Consular Service. For some of the facts as to languages of the Russian Empire he is indebted to an interesting summary of data as to the nationality and classification of the people of the Russian Empire according to their languages, a copy of which has reached him by the kindness of Sir Charles Scott. In a work, however, which does not claim to be original, the acknowledgment in the text of sources seemed to be superfluous. The present issue covers only the work of the la...