Oct. 23, 2022

From Wycliffe USA: Better Than Google Translate: The Bible Translator's Assistant

We have crazy amazing wizards in our software development department who create amazing tools for us to use on the field. If you're gifted in programming or in other technology fields, your gifts can help us.

It is exceptionally difficult though, to keep tools up to date with current linguistic theory, which changes faster than software based on said theory can be developed. This tool is one good example of that. Some tools (like Fieldworks and ParaText) are generic enough that they're still useful even as theory and terminology change. But this is one that's based on a model of grammar and semantics (the science of meaning) that new workers (including my generation) no longer learn. Which means it's really mostly useful only for older workers who were trained using the model and terminology of the time.