Emphatic no to Patois Bible
Published:Tuesday | October 11, 2011 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
The attempt to translate the Bible into Patois will offer nothing but confusion. Patois, though a language, and a very colourful one at that, is not standardised sufficiently for it to be the national language of Jamaica, let alone being considered as a medium for the Holy Scriptures.
If we have not made the attempt to write the Jamaican Constitution in Patois or conduct commercial or legal business in our native tongue, why are we going this route with the Bible? If the idea is to aid the untutored who are deficient in reading and in understanding standard-language Bibles, the idea is flawed, because the untutored do not have a language problem, they have a learning problem.
Merely making the scriptures accessible in Patois will not convert more souls, encourage more to read the Bible or offer more clarity than other Bibles are able to provide.
JAY KIRBY