Hi, I'm sending you the links.

The Sociolinguistics of Translating Canonical Religious Texts

THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF BIBLE TRANSLATION, EXEGESIS AND RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE

http://www.bible-researcher.com/nida4.html

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10118063.1984.9724188

Thanks, Diana. I will take a look.

Greetings, Rizwan: I would suggest searching out material on the issue of names, naming, the power to name, etc (traditionally rests on issues of masculinity)? Who has linguistic power in sacred texts?

Hi Rizwan!

As a start, you need to search GOOGLE SCHOLAR to know if there's any previous literature in this area. A simple search yielded the following results which might be useful to you:

https://scholar.google.com.eg/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&q=religious+scriptures+and+sociolinguistics

Second, you might play a little bit with the KEYWORDS or SEARCH TERMS so that you would locate some relevant stuff...See these results as an example:

https://scholar.google.com.eg/scholar?q=%22religious+education%22+and+sociolinguistics&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5

https://scholar.google.com.eg/scholar?q=sociolinguistics+and+religion&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5

https://scholar.google.com.eg/scholar?q=a+religious+approach+to+linguistics&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5

Best wishes

Mahmoud

Dear Jane,

This is interesting. Did the comparison involve materials or methods or both? I will look at your dissertation. Did you publish anything from it?

R

Dear Rizwan Ahmad,

Religious scriptures possess a unique texture and generic foundation differentiating them from other types of discourse. Within the sociolinguistic perspectivization, I would like to refer you to the following useful links. I hope you find them helpful. Wish you lots of luck with your research. 

Best regards,

R. Biria 

http://aejt.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/395193/AEJT_6.10_Holt.pdf

www.davidcrystal.com/?fileid=-4923

http://sites.lsa.umich.edu/webbkeane/wp-content/uploads/sites/128/2014/07/religious_language.pdf

Dear Rizwan Ahmad,

   Probably the most famous example (you were asking about sociolinguistic examples from text, not about translation) is the Biblical story of the word "shibboleth". I copy below a discussion of the metaphorical use of the word in modern English and its original textual use (with undoubtedly inflated results!) by a professor at Rice University in Houston, Texas. The s/sh difference is a common one found in many languages, and exists today between varieties of Arabic, e.g. salaam vs shalaam, where it might have sociolinguistic significance beyond its regional difference. The story of shibboleth reminds me of the report I have heard of the use of words beginning with /w/ as passwords to catch German soldiers trying to infiltrate American lines during World War II, since such words are pronounced with a [v] in German rather than [w]. 

    Rudy Troike

Rice University

Prof. S. Kemmer

                                         The Story of the Shibboleth

A shibboleth is a kind of linguistic password: A way of speaking (a pronunciation, or the use of a particular expression) that is used by one set of people to identify another person as a member, or a non-member, of a particular group. The group making the identification has some kind of social power to set the standards for who belongs to their group: who is "in" and who is "out".

The purpose of a shibboleth is exclusionary as much as inclusionary: A person whose way of speaking violates a shibboleth is identified as an outsider and thereby excluded by the group. This phenomenon is part of the universal use of language for distinguishing social groups. It is also one example of a general phenomenon of observing a superficial characteristic of members of a group, such as a way of speaking, and judging that characteristic as 'good' or 'bad', depending on how much the observers like the people who have that characteristic.

A shibboleth is one specific phenomenon involving observing use of language of "out-group" people. It is a linguistic marker that is characteristic of members of a group, which is used by another group to identify members of the first group. Such identification typically has bad consequences for the members thus identified.

The story behind the word is recorded in the biblical Book of Judges. The word shibboleth in ancient Hebrew dialects meant 'ear of grain' (or, some say, 'stream'). Some groups pronounced it with a [sh] sound, but speakers of related dialects pronounced it with an [s].

In the story, two Semitic tribes, the Ephraimites and the Gileadites, have a great battle. The Gileadites defeat the Ephraimites, and set up a blockade across the Jordan River to catch the fleeing Ephraimites who were trying to get back to their territory. The sentries asked each person who wanted to cross the river to say the word shibboleth. The Ephraimites, who had no [sh] sound in their language, pronounced the word with an [s] and were thereby unmasked as the enemy and slaughtered.

Here is the relevant excerpt from the Book of Judges. The full account is in Chapter 12, verses 1-15.

12, 4 Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim: and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said, Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites, and among the Manassites.

5 And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, art thou an Ephraimite? If he say Nay;

6 Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.

© Suzanne Kemmer