Originally Posted by Fantasea
Considering that missionaries and the indigents they sought to convert didn't speak, let along read and write the same language, distributing bibles printed in languages that couldn't be read by the recipients would have been a futile effort. At best, missionaries were limited to rote methods of teaching from catechismal texts, not bibles.
In many parts of Missionary Africa there was not even a written language, let alone the ability to read.
This was not always the case, of course. Many of my wife's family were missionaries, and her early years were spent in South Africa among the Zulus. Her younger brother spoke only Zulu until age five. One of two bibles in my house today is written in Zulu.
Had you not responded, I would never have thought of "digging" into the subject. However, I did, and learned that you are, indeed correct, there is a bible written in Zulu.
This is of interest, if one examines it a bit further. Yes, the Zulu language has been reduced to writing. However, not by the Zulu people, and from what I deduce, not for the specific use of the Zulu people. My belief, and you may correct me, is that the mass of the Zulu people cannot read the Bible as written in Zulu.
It would appear that the missionaries, recognizing the language barrier that had to be overcome, using the Latin alphabet, invented a system of phonetics to capture the sounds of the Zulu language. This had to be truly a labor of love and the missionaries are to be commended for it.
There were probably two major reasons why this was done.
1. So that they would be able to transcribe what was heard in order that they would be able to exchange information with other missionaries who spoke the language.
2. So that they could transcribe material from their own language into the phonetic equivalent of Zulu so that missionaries who could not speak Zulu could, nevertheless, preach, or teach, by reading the texts aloud - much the same as an operatic diva, having memorized the lyric, might sing an aria in a language she does not understand.
I do not imagine that there was any significant number of bibles printed in the language devised by missionaries that were distributed to the Zulu people.
The source of my understandings is:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/zulu.htm