formal pronoun: angels addressing people

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, angels address people with the formal pronoun, expressing respect.

In most Dutch as well as in Western Frisian and Afrikaans translations, the angels are addressing people with the informal pronoun.

See also angel.

complete verse (Luke 24:5)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 24:5:

  • Noongar: “The women were very afraid. They knelt to the ground. The men asked, ‘Why do you look for a living person among the dead people?” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “Those women were terrified and they fell-face-forward to the ground. Those two said to them: ‘Why do you hunt for a living person in the midst of the dead?” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The women were terrified and they bowed-down-low. But the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek a living person here where they bury the dead?” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And as for these women, they knelt down, bowing their heads because they were very much afraid. And those men said to them, ‘Why are you looking for a person who is alive, here in the place where they bury dead people?” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The women bent-their-heads because of their excessive fear, but those men said to them, ‘Why are you looking for the one-who-came-alive in the place of the dead?” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “The women were afraid. They bowed down and hung-their-heads. And then they were questioned by those two men. They said, ‘Why are you looking for the living here with the dead?” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)