Scripture Forge Features Its Back Translation Tool
Scripture Forge, a developer of digital tools for Bible translators, is featuring its Scripture Forge Back Translation to help Bible translators collaborate and improve their work. Back translation is a process where a text that has been translated from a widely known language (such as English) to a target language is translated back into a language of wider communication for checking purposes. It facilitates a collaborative translation process in which a diverse group of people bring their different areas of expertise to the task.
Back translation is typically integrated into a Bible translation project as a quality control checkpoint. A back translation is a separate step, carried out by a translator who did not participate in drafting the original translation. This unique process seeks to accurately represent the content of the translation in a language accessible to skilled exegetical checkers or consultants who can compare it with the original Biblical languages. As part of the collaborative checking process, a back translation can help teams pinpoint areas where the original message might have been lost or altered, allowing for a thorough check of the translation's fidelity to the original sources.
Because of its unique purpose, the style of a back translation may differ significantly from the style of the source Bible. It may also include additional information that is linguistically encoded in the target language, but is not normally made explicit in the source. For example, some translation teams must differentiate between inclusive and exclusive “we” pronouns, or make use of kinship terms that do not map directly onto the source language terms. The back translation can make these choices apparent in the source language for checking and discussion.
Bethany Moore, an experienced Linguist and Engineer on the SIL Scripture Forge team stated:
“Scripture Forge Back Translation is uniquely equipped to provide the precision Bible translators need. The Scripture Forge AI machine learning algorithm is able to “learn” (analyze and encode) the patterns of a team’s existing back translation in relation to the translated text. It can then produce a starter draft for new back translation books that follows the style and language use of the team’s back translation.”
The starter draft serves the work of the back translator, who will need to edit it and check for consistency with the project text. One experienced translator commented that using the Scripture Forge Back Translation reduced the effort of producing a quality back translation by 50%.
While there are other tools available, Scripture Forge Back Translation uses work translators have already done to generate new back translations with ease and consistency as they continue checking and iterating through new books.
By facilitating the work of back translation, Scripture Forge empowers translators to engage translation consultants to create accurate and culturally appropriate Bible translations. One consultant said:
“I wasn’t certain that, as a new tool, it would provide trustworthy results, but I was pleased and surprised by the quality.”
