Team finishes translation of Holy Bible into modern Yupik writing style

The Holy Bible is now available in the modern Yupik writing style.

KYUK-AM reports that the translation was produced after nearly half a century of work by fluent Yupik speakers and the American Bible Society.

Moravian Pastor Jones Anaver of Kwigllingok says the first missionaries translated the New Testament into an early form of Yupik writing. But today, Yupik textbooks and dictionaries in the local schools use a newer and easier to read script developed by linguist Steven Jacobson in the 1980s.

Anaver says rewriting the New Testament in Jacobson's newer writing style was critical so that younger people could read and fully understand it.

The team also translated the Old Testament into Yupik using the Revised Standard Version of the Bible.