The translation of the Wolaitta Bible took years. Further most in the surrounding dialects were prejudiced against a Wolaitta dialect book and wouldn't use it, even though they understood Wolaitta speakers.

Well now, 3 languages, Dawro, Gofa and Gamo (really dialects), are using the Wolaitta Bible as the base from which they are enthusiastically translating the Bible into their own languages.

In turn, the Dawro Bible will be adapted into Konta, and the Gofa Bible into the Malo and Oida Bibles. Six Bibles adapted from the Wolaitta! And they are doing it in record time! They plan to have their Bibles done by 2008. And they'll do it! One team produced a first draft of Genesis, chapters 1-25 in 7 hours. Wow! See down below how it works.

The Seed Company (Wycliffe Bible Translators) and Word For The World have teamed up to help the Dawro, Gofa, and Gamo churches use the Adapt It computer program to adapt from the Wolaitta Bible into their languages.

The Gofa translator (who knows Wolaitta also) enters the Wolaitta Bible into his computer. As he reads the Wolaitta and translates the words, the Adapt It program memorizes the translated words. The next time the Wolaitta word occurs, the computer automatically puts the translation it had memorized into a first draft. As the program memorizes more and more words and whole phrases, the first draft of the translation gets faster and faster.

That's just the first draft. Careful editing and then checking by a consultant still needs to be done.