“Niswah, I accept you!” Belief, even unto salvation, could not have been seemingly stronger.
To translate the Christian Bible into the languages spoken by those among whom missionary effort is put forth, has always been regarded as a necessary step to successful apostolic work. It would be an herculean, if not impossible task in a country where languages are so numerous and dialects so diverse as in Africa. Even if not so, the task requires scholarship of a high order, patience such as few mortals possess, time which might count for much if otherwise employed, and an exchequer which can be drawn upon indefinitely. Bishop Taylor has reversed the old procedure in his missionary contact with the African natives. Still recognizing the necessity for learning their languages in order to facilitate communication, he, however, insists that they shall learn ours, as a means of fuller expression of ideas, and especially of those ideas which represent newly acquired knowledge and quickened spiritual emotions. But how should he overcome the formidable obstacle our language presents, in its complicated grammar and orthography, to all foreigners? Especially, how should the African boy and girl, in the mission school, be taught what our own more favored boys and girls find so appallingly difficult? The Bishop’s way out of it was to introduce the phonetic, or natural sound, element into his mission schools. It proved, in common parlance, a hit from the start. Here is a sample of his English, as phonetically adapted for his African pupils:
“Bishop Taylor findz our English mod ov speling wun ov the gratest drabaksin teching the nativz; and also wun ov the gratist obstiklz in redusing the nativ languajez to riting. Mishunarez evri whar hav kompland ov thez dificultez. Bishop Taylor haz kut the Gordian not; or at lest haz so far swung los from komun uzaj az to adopt Pitman’z fonetik stil ov reding, riting and teching.
“Just rit a fu pajz, speling az we do her; and then, ‘just for the fun ov it,’ rit a few letrz to frendz in the sam stil. Bi the tim u hav dun so, u wil be enamrd with its ez, and son will pronouns it butiful az wel az ezi. Tech it to sum children and se how qikli tha wil mastr it.”
Probably no better description can be given of what has already
been accomplished, than that found in his report to the Missionary Committee, which we give in full, and in extracts from his recent letters.
BISHOP TAYLOR’S REPORT TO THE MISSIONARY COMMITTEE.
“Dear Brethren and Fellow-laborers in the work of the Lord:
“I respectfully submit the following report of our new missions in Africa. The report of the African Conference I sent, as usual, to the missionary secretaries immediately after its adjournment last February. I might repeat the same here, but did not retain a copy, and leaving Liberia in April, and ever since moving on, I have not received a copy of the printed minutes.
“I will, in this report, note the stations in the order in which I visited them this year, and not in the order of time in which they were founded.