Beyond Babel

Wycliffians practice phonetics so they can preach the Gospel

The tongues of men have proliferated considerably since the Tower of Babel helped explain how the sons of Noah came to converse in so many different languages. Today there are 3,000 languages in the world, most of them oral only, which makes life difficult for Christian missionaries sworn to spread the word of God as widely as possible. Most Bible societies, in fact, concentrate mainly on getting adequate translations into the major written languages. But the Summer Institute of Linguistics has a longer reach. For the past 42 years, following the teachings of its founder W. Cameron Townsend, S.I.L. teams have been seeking out tiny, isolated tribes in remote corners of the world. With a little help from tape recorders, phonetics and the science of linguistics, they create written language out of the primitive spoken word; eventually they teach the tribesmen how to read primers written in the vocabulary they talk, and present them with a readable New Testament printed in their native tongue.

As a labor of love and an example of global evangelism and literacy instruction, the overseas work of S.I.L. and its U.S. counterpart, known as the Wycliffe Bible Translators, cannot be matched. It has brought reading and Bible translations to 90 previously illiterate tribes, and is currently at work with 650 more. Counting pilots and support personnel, literacy teachers and workers in community development, agriculture and medicine, the agency has a staff of 3,700, making it by far the largest U.S. mission. Until recently, at least, it was still growing.

But last week S.I.L. missions faced a serious rebuff in one of their most successful fieldwork areas--among tribes deep in the Amazon jungles of Brazil. The natives are not hostile--far from it. Forty-four field teams, mostly married couples, backed by five support bases equipped with light planes and sophisticated radio gear, have been peaceably at work for 22 years. But the government of Brazil has suddenly announced that in 1978 it will not renew permits for S.I.L. field teams to work in remote areas administered by the National Indian Foundation. No official explanation has been offered.

The reason seems clear: the Brazilian government wants to turn the Indians into fully integrated Portuguese-speaking Brazilians as fast as possible, so that it will not be hampered by them in its attempts to exploit remote mineral deposits and open the country to land developers. It is thus opposed to anyone--and that includes S.I.L. personnel--who contributes to "keeping the Indians in their natural state." S.I.L. officers and many Brazilian linguists deny the charge, in part because S.I.L. teams, once they make a tribe literate in its own language, customarily proceed to teach the tribesmen Portuguese as well. In conjunction with several Brazilian universities, the mission is still negotiating to keep many of its linguistic teams in the field, perhaps with Brazilian linguists working alongside, at least until they have finished the four New Testaments now nearing completion and eight more that are expected to be ready within two years.

Just how much patient effort even these few projects involve may be seen from the experience of Wycliffian Missionaries Al and Sue Graham. An S.I.L. field team, the Grahams first began following members of the remote Satere tribe around with tape recorders and 3-by-5 cards (for jotting down phonetic notes) in 1959. They are only now on the point of bringing the tribesmen to the joyful final moment of literacy and faith when their new Bibles are delivered.

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