As reported in a news article on the organization’s official website jw.org, a revised edition of the official Mandarin New World Translation Bible has been released.
Note that while the above article refers to “the revised edition of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in Chinese”, a later short news article elsewhere on jw.org clarifies that the revised edition is in these languages:
- Chinese Mandarin (Simplified) - 中文简体（普通话）
- Chinese Mandarin (Traditional) - 中文繁體（國語）
It’s good to have this clarification because publications are now available on jw.org in various languages used by Chinese people, as shown in this screenshot:
The first article mentioned above provides these further details:
The revised New World Translation was…released in three editions. Traditional and simplified Chinese are available both in printed and digital format, while the edition including Pinyin is available on Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY™.
(While Pīnyīn linguistically qualifies as a full writing system for Modern Standard Mandarin, the organization currently categorizes its official Pīnyīn publications under the language category of Chinese Mandarin (Simplified) - 中文简体（普通话）, which mainly uses Simplified Chinese characters as its writing system. When that language is selected in the Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY, an option becomes available to add Pīnyīn above the Simplified Chinese characters.)
Corresponding downloads for the new Simp. & Trad. Chinese editions are also available in the JW Library app. Hopefully Pīnyīn material soon will be available in the JW Library app as well.
The previous Simp. & Trad. Chinese and Pīnyīn editions of the Mandarin NWT in the Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY and the previous Simp. & Trad. Chinese editions of the Mandarin NWT in the JW Library app will remain available with the identifying text “(bi12)”, while the new editions will have the identifying text “(nwt)”. (In the JW Library app, updates to the previous Simp. & Trad. Chinese editions of the Mandarin NWT will have to first be downloaded in order for the identifying text “(bi12)” to appear for them.)
On the Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY, scripture links in Mandarin publications now point to the new edition of the Mandarin NWT (nwt). The linked-to full text of cited scriptures in existing Pīnyīn Plus material will similarly be revised as time allows, and the new edition of the Mandarin NWT (nwt) will be used as the basis for such material in Pīnyīn Plus resources going forward. The existing Pīnyīn Plus resource for the previous edition of the Mandarin NWT (bi12) will continue to be available, but the bulk of new development work will be focused on the separate resource for the new edition (nwt) that should become available soon.
Interestingly, in addition to the revisions to the Chinese characters used in the new Mandarin NWT editions, the renderings of at least some Pīnyīn expressions have also been revised in the new official Pīnyīn edition. E.g., right in the title, we can see:
- bi12: “…Xīnshìjiè-Yìběn…”
- nwt: “…Xīn-shìjiè Yìběn…”
It’s hard for those of us who have just become aware of the revised edition to say at this point how much this one example is indicative of a larger pattern, but it does match in principle the recent tendency in Pīnyīn Plus material to break up long words into shorter words that are easier to parse, or read.
This new edition of the Mandarin NWT was obviously the result of much hard work, and of much careful thought that was put into continuing to work out how the thoughts in the Bible should be expressed with Mandarin words. Evidently, that hard work and careful thought was extended to be applied to continuing to work out how Pīnyīn should be used to write those Mandarin words. It is evident that to Jehovah and his organization, it matters what words we use in the Mandarin field, and it matters how we write them, regardless of whether we use characters or Pīnyīn to do so.
Because these things matter, serious efforts are also made to apply hard work and careful thought to all aspects of the design, translation, production, etc. involved in making Pīnyīn Plus material available. However we serve in the Mandarin field, may we all seek to apply hard work and careful thought so as “to find delightful words and to record accurate words of truth”, as those who worked on the new edition of the Mandarin NWT have obviously done.—Ec. 12:10.
