formal pronoun: common people addressing Jesus

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff.), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

Here, the crowd (or individuals within the crowd) addresses Jesus with the formal pronoun, expressing respect.

complete verse (Luke 11:27)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 11:27:

  • Noongar: “After Jesus said this, a woman among the crowd said to Jesus, ‘How happy, the woman who bore you and breast-fed you!'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “While Yesus was speaking, a woman in the midst of the people said loudly: ‘The woman who bore you (sing.) and nursed you (sing.) is indeed very blessed/fortunate!'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Then, when Isa had just finished saying that, a woman from the crowds spoke loudly, she said, ‘Really very happy is the woman who gave birth to you and who nursed you.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then, when Jesus had finished saying that, there was there a woman who said loudly, ‘How big the joy is of the woman who gave birth to you and who nursed you!'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Upon Jesus’ saying that, there was a woman who was-included-with the many-people who raised-her-voice saying, ‘The one who gave-birth-to and nursed you (sing.) is surely fortunate indeed!'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “What Jesus was saying hadn’t yet ended when a woman in that crowd voiced, saying, ‘The woman can really be happy who was-pregnant-with you and who nursed you!'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 11:27

Exegesis:

egeneto de ‘and it happened,’ cf. on 1.8.

eparasa tis phōnēn gunē ek tou ochlou eipen autō ‘raising her voice a woman in the crowd said to him.’ tis and gunē, though separated by phōnēn, go together. ek tou ochlou may go with tis … gunē ‘a certain woman in the crowd,’ or with eparasa … phōnēn ‘raising her voice from the crowd,’ preferably the former.

makaria hē koilia hē bastasasa se ‘blessed the womb that carried you.’ For makarios cf. on 1.45. bastazō ‘to carry,’ here of a pregnant woman.

kai mastoi hous ethēlasas with makarioi understood, ‘and (blessed) the breasts which you have sucked.’ mastos also 23.29.

thēlazō (also 21.23) ‘to give suck’ (21.23), ‘to suck’ (here).

Translation:

Raised her voice and said, or, “called out” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation, New English Bible), ‘spoke with a loud voice (or, loudly).’

Blessed, or, ‘happy,’ see on 1.45.

The womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked, or making the clause structures parallel, “the womb that carried you and the breasts that suckled you” (New English Bible, similarly Tae’). To use the parts (‘womb,’ ‘breasts’) for the whole (‘woman’) is unacceptable in some languages; hence, ‘the person/woman who bore you (in her womb) and suckled you’ (Ekari, Kituba, Tzeltal, Batak Toba, Balinese). Womb; the literal meaning of the Toraja-Sa’dan term used here is ‘place of men.’

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.