The Laks are one of the indigenous peoples of Dagestan. Their language belongs to the Nakh-Dagestanian group of languages and is spoken by around 146,000 people. It is one of the 14 official languages of Dagestan. A newspaper is published in Lak and Dagestan radio broadcasts programs in Lak.

The Institute for Bible Translation’s Gospel Parables series began in 2007 with the Agul language edition, followed in 2015-2020 with the addition of versions in Bezhta, Tatar, Rutul, Tsakhur, Dargi, Dungan, Kumyk, Nogai, Kabardian, Even, Digor and Nenets...

According to the 2010 census of Russia, there are 485,705 speakers of Dargi. There are a number of Dargi dialects, with the literary dialect being taught in most schools in traditionally Dargi regions. Books, newspapers, magazines, and a regional theater all use this literary dialect, so it was chosen as the language of the Bible translation project.
Previously, IBT published the Gospel of Mark (2002, 2007), the Gospel of Luke (2010), the Gospel of Matthew (2013), and a collection of Gospel Parables (2017) in Dargi. For the translation of Ruth, Esther, and Jonah, a new translator joined the project.

Several speakers of Tuvan, Altai, and Gagauz took part in a webinar on the production of Scripture-based media from July 7 to 11. The webinar focused on practical skills, such as how to use Vegas Movie Studio and Photoshop. 

The Tsakhur people are indigenous to the Caucasus region, historically residing in southern Dagestan and northern Azerbaijan (about 25,000 people in all, according to censuses taken in 2009 and 2010). They profess Sunni Islam. Their language belongs to the Lezgic family of the Nakh-Dagestanian group of North Caucasian languages.

IBT held a translation workshop on two of the Minor Prophets via Zoom on June 11-18. This was the first time in IBT’s history that one of our workshops has been conducted as a webinar.

The online format of this workshop was necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic and the related quarantine measures. Nevertheless, its advantages quickly became apparent. Many IBT translators are university instructors, and for them, June is traditionally a very busy time, full of summer courses and entrance exams. Translation team members who would not have been able to come to Moscow for a face-to-face seminar were still able to find time in their busy academic schedules for full participation in the virtual workshop.