Dave Eberhard has done a large scientific study with other colleagues for progress.bible, and the results are devastating. This is something I’ve been trying to raise caution about for a long time, but now we have hard evidence and data to support a simple idea which Dave is calling The Sequencing of Translation Hypothesis. This states that the following general tendency holds in most multilingual communities: a local language translation does not become a Scripture of normative public use if a national/regional language has already become normative in that domain. In other words, if a language of wider communication like English or Spanish was the first language to become normative in church and spiritual life, then a local language translation will not be used and is not necessary. The consequences of this hypothesis would be that most of the languages currently listed as needing translated Scripture would be removed from that list, and put us extremely close to eliminating Bible poverty.

Dr. David M. Eberhard is the General Editor of the Ethnologue.

Read a prepublication draft of the paper on the Vanuatu study.

View a slide presentation of the study's findings.

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