IBT has recently published a trial translation of the Old Testament books of Ruth and Jonah in the Gagauz language. Gagauz is a Turkic language spoken by approximately 170,000 people, primarily in southern Moldova and Ukraine.

This is the first time that these two books have been translated into Gagauz. Prior to this, the only portions of the Old Testament translated into Gagauz were Fr. Mikhail Chakir’s translations of the Sacred History of the Old Testament (1907) and Psalms (1936), and IBT’s translation of the Liturgical Six Psalms or Hexapsalmos (2011). IBT also translated the full New Testament (2006) and Children’s Bible (2011) into Gagauz.

IBT has published the book of Proverbs, one of the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament, in Kabardian, a language belonging to the West Caucasian language family. According to the census of 2010, there are more than 500,000 Kabardians in the Russian Federation, primarily in the Kabardino-Balkaria region of southern Russia. Proverbs is the third book of the OT published by IBT in Kabardian, following the Ruth/Jonah publication of 2009. The Kabardian New Testament was published by IBT in 1993. These books can be read online or downloaded from IBT’s website. Work on the OT is ongoing, with the book of Daniel next in line for printing.

The Kumyk people, numbering about 430,000 speakers, are the third largest ethnic group and largest Turkic-language people in Dagestan,  a region in the Caucasus area of south Russia where more than 30 different languages are spoken. 

IBT first published the New Testament in the Kumyk language in 2007.  This was followed in 2009 by the translation of the first Old Testament books – Genesis and Proverbs – in 2016 by the illustrated edition of Parables from the Gospel of Luke and now by the Book of Psalms.

From 14 to 17 February 2017 IBT held in its office a workshop for 18 participants from 10 translation projects (Abaza, Avar, Altai, Balkar, Chukchi, Dargi, Rutul, Siberian Tatar, Tsakhur, and for the first time Russian Sign language).

IBT has published an illustrated edition of “Parables from the Gospel of Luke” in the Dargi language.

The Dargi people live primarily in the Republic of Dagestan (Caucasus region of southern Russia). With a population of about 590,000, they comprise about 16% of the total population of Dagestan and are the second largest ethnic group there. Most live in the mountainous and foothill areas of central Dagestan.

IBT has published a new illustrated Scripture portion, the Noah story, in the Dungan language. The story of Noah and the Flood from the book of Genesis is the first publication in the “Lives of the Prophets” series that the Dungan translation team is working on following the popular edition of the Proverbs of Solomon (published in 2015). The Noah story is presented in parallel columns in Dungan and Russian and is illustrated by beautiful artwork produced by a Dungan painter. An audio CD with the recording of the story in Dungan is included with the book.

After IBT published the New Testament in the Tabasaran language of Dagestan in 2010,  the translation team decided to continue their work by translating the Old Testament. Their first Old Testament trial publication (Ruth and Jonah) came out in 2013.  The translators then turned their attention to further OT books, including Esther and Daniel, which were printed in late 2016. Tabasaran is spoken by about 125,000 people and is considered by many linguists to be the record holder among the world’s languages for the number of grammatical cases, 48.

One more book of the Bible has been published by IBT in the Sakha (Yakut) language, a translation of the Proverbs of Solomon. The main Sakha translator and exegete for this IBT project, Sargylana Leontieva was constantly astonished by the interest expressed in these biblical proverbs by non-religious Sakha people who are not in any way involved in the work of Bible translation. “Apparently, it’s because biblical proverbs remind Yakuts of our own folklore with its many proverbial sayings,” she reflects. “The Proverbs contain the kind of wisdom and advice that is vital for all people.”

The PDF version of this Yakut translation may be found on the Electronic Books page of the IBT website. 

The book of Psalms in the Tuvan language was first published in 2005, and a revised version was included in the full Tuvan Bible (2011). The audio version of this book was recorded in summer 2015 in Kyzyl, the capital city of Tuva, and has now been made available on CD and as a free download online.

Two Old Testament books – Psalms and Proverbs – have recently been published in the Kurmanji dialect of the Kurdish language. Kurds speaking this dialect live primarily in Armenia, Georgia, the Central Asian republics, and several regions of the Russian Federation. Literacy in this dialect of Kurdish was introduced in 1946 on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet with additional letters.

Work on translating the Bible into Kurmanji-Kurdish was begun by IBT in 1993. The translation of the New Testament was published in 2000 and was well-received by Kurdish Christians. A revised version of the New Testament (in both Cyrillic script and Roman script) was published in 2011.