THE BOOK OF REVELATION IN NAFE (KWAMERA): WILLIAM WATT’S TRANSLATIONS AND LOANWORDS

Authors

Lamont Lindstrom, University of Tulsa

Abstract

William Watt, Presbyterian missionary on Tanna (1869–1910), published a Nafe (Kwamera) language translation of the KJV New Testament in 1890. He had earlier produced Kwamera versions of the Gospels as soon as linguistic skills permitted, but the full New Testament translation was not completed until the late 1880s and printed in Glasgow during a mission leave (1889–1890). Watt worked with island pundits, and he relied on his wife Agnes’s linguistic expertise. Revelation’s allusions and obscurities presented significant difficulties of translation. I offer a close reading of Watt’s translated book of Revelation—Nari Kenamsasani (sasani means “display”)—tracking his grammatical choices, his translation decisions given structural divergences of source and target languages, transliterations and loanwords that he borrowed from Biblical English or nineteenth century Bislama, and finally how Revelation may have resonated with island culture. Tanna’s celebrated John Frum Movement prophecies, like John of Patmos, also foretold a New Heaven and New Earth.

Recommended Citation

Lindstrom, Lamont (2022) "THE BOOK OF REVELATION IN NAFE (KWAMERA): WILLIAM WATT’S TRANSLATIONS AND LOANWORDS," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 45: No. 2, Article 1.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol45/iss2/1