A to Z & Back – Serving the Bibleless

What We do

We work with Wycliffe Bible Translators to see that each people group can flourish through access to the scriptures in their own language. Specifically, we help people analyze and write three categories of sound in their language:

Consonants

Your airways close or constrict in lots of interesting ways, and not the same in each language.

Vowels

Air passing freely through your throat and mouth (and maybe your nose!) can produce different sounds, which are again not used the same in each language

Tone

Contrastive pitch (from your vocal chords) can distinguish one word from another, or one use of a word from another use of the same word. Each language that does this will have its own system.

Welcome!

Here you can stay connected with our life and work with Wycliffe Bible Translators, through whom we have served the church worldwide since 2001. We have the privilege to help develop alphabets for unwritten languages.

We could not do this without the partnership of many. Whether it is a timely prayer over us at 2am, a note or package to show you’re still behind us, or whatever financial help God has called you to send for the support of our Wycliffe ministry, we are humbled by the sacrificial support of you, our partners. You are a continuous reminder of God’s power and faithfulness. God will complete His work, but we are privileged to join Him in it. And you, too, are in the trenches with us, serving to the glory of God.

Blog

Check out some recent entries

Linguistics

The Alphabet Experience

Before we left for Cameroon, we did a series of Africa Night events, which included, among other things, a taste of what it’s like to understand your vowel system anew, like we do in writing Read more…

Anthropology

The Value of First Language Literacy

Do you speak a second language? Many Americans don’t. If you do, do you read and write in that language? If so, how does that compare to reading or writing in the language you know Read more…

Linguistics

Insights from Thailand

You may already know that I went to Thailand last week to present on A−Z+T and Phonology First, the philosophical underpinnings of A−Z+T and other participatory linguistics research methods. But I learned a lot, too, Read more…

"Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" —a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages

Goma Daniel Green

ICT Officer (BiLTA, Lusaka Zambia)

From the dedication you have shown working with the Senga team for Senga language development, it's clear indication your services are far reaching.

CET-DMTB

Mbandaka, DRCongo

Nos sincères remerciements s’adressent à Monsieur Kent pour l’idée qu’il a eu de créer l’AZT, un logiciel expérimenté pour ce genre de travaux. Ses interventions chaque fois que cela était nécessaire, nous ont grandement aidées.

Juvette Ntela

CET-DMTB workshop

Moi, je ne savais pas que notre langue pouvait avoir son alphabet. Cet atelier m’a permis d’en prendre connaissance.

Eminant Lonkofo

CET-DMTB workshop

Je suis bénéficiaire de ce que je n’avais pas depuis ma naissance. Je confirme que ma langue a eu un nouvel élan.