Handbook Impacts Nation
by Dr. Connie Champeon, Literacy and Linguistics Coordinator

These were some of the comments made as approximately 40 people gathered in Yangon, Myanmar, to dedicate the Falam Writers’ Handbook, a 157-page guide written by the BI Literacy Department standardizing the basic rules of grammar and spelling for the Falam Chin language. One pastor shared how he attempted such a project 30 years ago but eventually gave up. Another had been working and praying toward this since 1972!

Why the need for such a manual? Because of a dichotomy among Falam speakers as to how their language should be written. More than one missionary group visited the Chin Hills of Myanmar in the 1800’s, and while their desire and determination to create a writing system for the Falam and other Chin languages were exemplary, their ways of doing so did not always agree. When BI began working on the Falam New Testament in 2005, this faction over how words should be written was inherited with the project. So marked was the division between the two schools of thought, it looked doubtful that an agreement could ever be reached. The Falam Writers’ Handbook, however, is a testament to God’s grace in bringing about unanimity and in allowing Bibles International to be a part of the process.
BI’s Literacy Department had no plans to have such an impact on the Falam language let alone the Chin languages in general. The team became aware of the writing inconsistencies in Falam as they attempted to develop literacy materials, and the plan was to produce a 10-to-12-page pamphlet with guidelines for writers and editors. It was evident the group had the proverbial “tiger by the tail,” however, when the first meeting convened. Having envisioned half a dozen people getting together for a few days to hammer out the details, they were surprised to find over 50 people gathered for a meeting that continued every day for more than a week.
The entire project spanned a period of four years and included countless meetings with Falam writers/speakers (including medical doctors, DMins and ThMs) who invested hours of their time. Also heavily involved was the team of linguists: Debbie King (PhD candidate), Translation Consultant Ross Hodsdon, and Dr. Danny Smith; technology expert Birch Champeon; and short-termer Carla Bieber, whose four overseas trips with BI personnel have made her an expert in her own right.
It appears that God has a big future planned for the Falam Writers’ Handbook. Though the examples given in the book are written in Falam, the rest of it is in English, Myanmar’s trade language. Falam people are even now translating the entire manual into Falam. They have already received requests for copies from Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, the UK, Germany, the U.S., and Canada. It was voted at the end of the dedication ceremony to reprint the manual as The Chin Model Writers’ Handbook, so as to be an official model for all the Chin languages, of which there are many, in developing their own handbooks. Teaching guides are being prepared so that the handbook can be used as a textbook in Burmese schools and Bible colleges. To date, two Chin Bible college presidents have decided to make Chin grammar class a requirement next year, using the handbook as a textbook, with more colleges expected to follow.
Bibles International hopes to print a number of New Testaments this year, one of which is the Falam Chin. Because the primary grammar, morphology, and punctuation examples used in the Falam Writers’ Handbook are Bible verses from the Falam NT, people are reading verses that teach salvation and important aspects of the Christian faith. Several key people who were previously apathetic or opposed to the Falam NT translation are now excited about promoting it.
The Falam Writers’ Handbook is a manifestation of the complexity of Bible translation. When a language has no written form or is a mishmash of forms that have never been standardized, much work must be done before the translation process can begin. The BI Literacy Department is critical to this process, both in cementing the writing system and in developing materials for teaching people how to read.
It is the nature of God’s ways to take something small, yet dedicated to His use, and develop it into something never imagined by those involved. May He receive the glory for all that is accomplished by something so “mundane” as a grammar book.