Inuit Bible arrives. (News in Brief).

Nunavut--April 17, 2002 marked the completion of a 23-year project--the first translation of the Holy Bible into Inuktitut syllabics, the native tongue of about 28,000 Canadians residing in Nunavut, the Ungava Peninsula and Nunavik. Four young Anglican ministers from Baffin Is land took on the challenge from the Canadian Bible Society in 1978, and their efforts have accomplished a marvellous result.

These translators shared the difficult fate of all biblical translators--having to convey the expressions of ancient languages and cultures which find no exact equivalent in today's world. They also faced challenges unique to the Inuit experience and language. For instance, the Inuit have six or seven "seasons" per year, not corresponding to the four seasons most of us know, or to the biblical seasons--"dry or rainy." The Bible uses various words for palm trees, but in Nunavut there are no trees--posing difficulty for translators.

With the first draft completed, the closing phase has now begun--final proof reading, printing and preparation of the Inuktitut study guide. The Inuit eagerly await final completion in 2005.

A letter to the editor (N. Post, May 1) pointed out that two hundred years earlier Moravian missionaries from Germany began the translation of the Bible into the Inuit language in Labrador using the Latin alphabet. By 1826 the translation of the New Testament was complete. By 1871, the entire Bible had been translated into Labrador Inuktitut. The syllabic system, used today in the rest of Canada's Arctic, was invented later and adapted by missionaries from the Cree syllabics.

The Bible is now available in over 2,285 different languages. The Canadian Bible Society says there is a need for translation into 2,000 more languages, which have no Bible in their tongue.