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Daily Scripture
 
"The king shall have joy in Your strength, O Lord; and in your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! You have given him his heart's desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah."

Psalm 21:1-2

LANGUAGE IN LIVING COLOR

May 9, 2007

by Debbie Burgett

As far as the Punan people of Indonesia are concerned, a rainbow only contains red and green.

"Punan [language] has only four colors," wrote missionary Rachel Searcy. "Everything is either black, white, red or green. So green and blue have the same name. So does red and yellow."

Therefore, instead of a rainbow having red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, a Punan rainbow could only be described as red, red, green, green, green, skipping orange and violet which don't seem to exist.

Rachel is discovering many such unique oddities as she strives to master the Punan language. And the time-consuming, diligent study will be worth it all someday as she teaches and helps with translation work.

She shared some other interesting words which have caught her attention lately:

Cangluke: furiously digging with one's hands, as a dog does.
Muke: gently digging with one's hands, as a monkey does.
Ngabo: scratch or dig but the dirt is generally used for something, not discarded, as a chicken does.
Kari: dig with a tool like a shovel or stick, as for a grave.

"As you can see, so many things are best defined by a visible, [physical] example," wrote Rachel. "Thinking about these things made me even more thankful our Savior came to earth to live. It's no wonder then that He asks that we go as living ambassadors to tell the world of his love and grace."

"Please continue to pray that Christ's love will shine in this small corner of the world," Rachal wrote. "Also pray for perseverance and wisdom as I continue to learn culture and language."