Uto-Aztecan languages are divided into two groups, Northern and Southern

Uto-Aztecan languages The Uto-Aztecan languages are a family of native American languages, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The name of the language family reflects the common ...

. They are spoken in the southwestern United States, north and central Mexico, and in Central America.

Northern Uto-Aztecan

Ute/Southern Paiute

Luke's gospel was completed in 2006 and published by Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Shoshone

Beverly Crum published her translation of Mark into Shoshone in 1986. This was published by the U.S. Center for World Missions

Comanche

Mark was translated into

Comanche language Comanche (, endonym ) is a Uto-Aztecan languages, Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Comanche, who split from the Shoshone soon after the Comanche had acquired horses around 1705. The Comanche language and the Shoshoni language are quite similar, ...

(

) by Elliot Canonge of Wycliffe Bible Translators, and was published by the American Bible Society in 1958 as ''Mark-ha tsaatü narümu'ipü̲.''An edition of the Gospel of Mark, containing a Commanche Language Key, was published by authority of Big Cove Baptist Church, Cherokee, NC, and distributed by the Global Bible Society.

Northern Paiute

John and Joy Anderson of Wycliffe Bible Translators published a translation into Northern Paiute of Mark's gospel in 1977 and the whole New Testament in 1985.

Hopi

The four gospels was published in 1929 by the American Bible Society. The New Testament was first published in 1972. It seems to mainly have been the work of Jonathan Ekstrom and Starlie "Elsie" Polacca.

Southern Uto-Aztecan

Nahuatl

Shortly after the Spanish conquest of Mexico,

Alonso de Molina Alonso de Molina (1513. or 1514.. – 1579 or 1585) was a Franciscan priest and grammarian, who wrote a well-known dictionary of the Nahuatl language published in 1571 and still used by scholars working on Nahuatl texts in the tradition of th ...

translated the ''

Doctrina christiana The ''Doctrina Christiana'' ('Christian Doctrine') were two early books on the catechism of the Catholic Church, both published 1593 in Manila, Philippines. These are two of the earliest printed books in the Philippines. * The ''Doctrina Chri ...

'' into

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

, which was printed in 1546. The Spanish priest

Bernardino de Sahagún Bernardino de Sahagún ( – 5 February 1590) was a Franciscan friar, missionary priest and pioneering ethnographer who participated in the Catholic evangelization of colonial New Spain (now Mexico). Born in Sahagún, Spain, in 1499, he jour ...

attempted to translate the whole Bible into Nahuatl in order to make the

Nahua The Nahuas ( ) are a Uto-Nahuan ethnicity and one of the Indigenous people of Mexico, with Nahua minorities also in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. They comprise the largest Indigenous group in Mexico, as well as ...

understand the Word of God, but this was forbidden by the

Inquisition The Inquisition was a Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...

in Sevilla on 10 May 1576. It was not until the 20th century that the whole New Testament was translated into this language, when Protestant missionaries, at that time mainly from North America, started to translate the Scriptures into several Native Central American languages. Since then, according to the

Summer Institute of Linguistics SIL Global (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics International) is an evangelical Christian nonprofit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, to expan ...

, the New Testament has been translated into 11 varieties of Nahuatl – Northern Puebla Nahuatl cj(1979), Sierra Puebla Nahuatl zz(1979), Tetelcingo Nahuatl hg(1980), Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl he(1984), Western Huasteca Nahuatl hw(1986), Guerrero Nahuatl gu(1987), Michoacán Nahuatl cl(1998), Central Huasteca Nahuatl ch(2005), Northern Oaxaca Nahuatl hy(2006), Southeastern Puebla Nahuatl pl(2011), and Zacatlán-Ahuacatlán-Tepetzintla Nahuatl hi(2012) –, and the whole Bible into the three varieties Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl he(2005), Western Huasteca Nahuatl hw(2004), and Central Huasteca Nahuatl ch(2005). The Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl translation of the whole Bible and most of the Nahuatl translations of the New Testament have been accessible on internet Bible portals since about 2012. The Protestant Nahuatl Bible translations have been criticized by representatives of the Catholic Church as “full of doctrinal and cultural errors”. After a workshop of Nahuatl-speaking Catholics, mainly priests, from various regions of Mexico, the bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, announced in August 2012 the formation of a catholic National Nahuatl Commission for a single translation of the whole Bible into Nahuatl, which is to be understood by the speakers of different Nahuatl varieties. However, a date for completion has not been mentioned.

Nawat/Pipil

The Bible is being translated into the Pipil or Nawat language, spoken by a minority in

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

. This translation is being done by Alan R. King, a linguist with "Ne Bibliaj Tik Nawat". The Bible is being translated from the original languages. The New Testament is complete, and work is ongoing on the Old Testament.

External links

Ne Bibliaj

O'odham

The New Testament in the O'odham language (

Uto-Aztecan The Uto-Aztecan languages are a family of native American languages, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The name of the language family reflects the common ...

family) of the O'odham of the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...

of southeastern Arizona and northwest Mexico was translated by Dean and Lucille Saxton of Wycliffe Bible Translators. It was published by The World Home Bible League and The Canadian Home Bible League in 1975. Work is being done on the Old Testament.

Pima Bajo

Portions, 1994

Tarahumara, Central

Wycliffe Bible Translators' Tarahumara New Testament was published in the 1972. This was preceded by the gospels and acts being published in 1969. Little Flock Christian Fellowship updated the New testament and published both on the Internet. LFCF's updates were mostly dealing with the orthography. *

Tarahumara, Baja

New Testament, 2007

Northern Tepehuan

The New Testament, translated by Burton William Bascom and Marvel Bascom was published in 1981 by the World Home Bible League.

Yaqui

The Bible League published John and Mary Dedrick's translation of the New Testament in 1977, a second edition was published in 2003.

Huichol/Wixarika (hch)

Wycliffe Bible translators finished a full edition in 2020.

References

{{Reflist Uto-Aztecan languages