Book of Mormon AudioBook MP3's in different Languages

I really enjoy listening to the Audio book version of the Book of Mormon. Do you think in the future different Language MP3's will be available for download/Streaming?

-Michael

I know that the church sells the scriptures in audio form in other languages, but the person that was recorded for the MP3s is different then the audio CDs sold by the distrubution center.

This is a great idea. I look forward to the day that I will be able to listen to the Tongan translation of the Book of Mormon in my ipod.

Tevita

If they have the Tongan CDs at the Distribution Center then you can buy them and rip them to your iPod/MP3/Zune/PDA or whatever. That is currently how I have my Portuguese scriptures on audio file.

Thank you for the suggestion. But as far as I know, the Distribution Center does not have an audio version of the Tongan Book of Mormon. Maybe the Church is working on it, but I don't know.

Tevita

If you're fluent, do it yourself! Why not? Making an audiobook is fairly easy. I've done it. You just read the book out loud. Make that your scripture study for a few months. And then post it online somewhere. If there was enough interest, it would be kind of fun to organize something like this, finding native speakers of all the various languages and producing BoM audio versions. I myself would be willing to organize a grassroots thing like that.

That is if the Church would be willing to not make a fuss about copyright.

reachtheworld wrote:That is if the Church would be willing to not make a fuss about copyright.

I discussed this with the legal department that handles such requests. Here was their reply:

In accordance with instructions from the Scriptures Committee, to preserve the integrity and accuracy of the scriptures, our office has denied these types of requests. Requests by non-profit entities serving the handicapped have been approved pursuant to an agreement that will appropriately preserve accuracy.

Tom

That's what I would have guessed. Accuracy is more the issue than copyright. We all know there is not always direct translation from one language to another. I imagine the Church would want to reserve the right to pick which phrase or word is used, by consulting many different speakers of the language and through inspiration.

Even then, direct translation may not be what is wanted anyhow. The languague you are translating to might have a way of describing the concept better through a phrase that is not a direct translation.

mkmurray wrote:We all know there is not always direct translation from one language to another.

I'm missing something. I thought we were just talking about turning an existing translation into an audio book, not translating.

Still, there would have to be a review to insure the reader did a accurate job and didn't mis-speak.

RussellHltn wrote: I'm missing something. I thought we were just talking about turning an existing translation into an audio book, not translating.

Still, there would have to be a review to insure the reader did a accurate job and didn't mis-speak.

I think that mis-speaking is the issue. It is so easy for someone to leave out a word, add a word, pronounce a word wrong, etc.

Tom

Yes, I apologize. I think I didn't grasp the concept correctly and went off on a different tangent. My mistake. Thank you for the correction.

It's true, in many languages, a simple misconjugation in the spoken word could change it from present tense to past tense/ past to futures . . . . . . . etc.

tomw wrote:I think that mis-speaking is the issue. It is so easy for someone to leave out a word, add a word, pronounce a word wrong, etc.

And yet that sounds like something that could be addressed. If you get someone to record it, and then having it reviewed by the committee before release that would still be less work then doing it all themselves. One issue is getting a good speaker and a good recording. A recording done in a controlled setting to allow re-takes at a later date.

To make it manageable, one might want to have one speaker do one book. Or better yet use one speaker for each prophet.

Once again, I really think this is something independent people, or an independent organized group, could set off and do on their own. Not everything has to go through official Church channels. It is a slothful servant that thinks the only way to do things has to be through official programs.

For example, W. Cleon Skousen and Wendell Noble produced "Treasures from the Book of Mormon" a series of cassette tapes that read the text of the Book of Morrmon and also provide commentary. http://www.skousen2000.com/religious%20 ... eaudio.htm

So if you're fluent in Swahili, or know someone who is, I say go for it.

reachtheworld wrote:Not everything has to go through official Church channels. It is a slothful servant that thinks the only way to do things has to be through official programs.

Tom has already given us an official Church response:

tomw wrote:I discussed this with the legal department that handles such requests. Here was their reply:

In accordance with instructions from the Scriptures Committee, to preserve the integrity and accuracy of the scriptures, our office has denied these types of requests. Requests by non-profit entities serving the handicapped have been approved pursuant to an agreement that will appropriately preserve accuracy.

Tom

The Church owns all the rights to the scriptures and we should honor their request! The Church may not sue you, but they are obviously concerned about keeping the sanctity and accuracy of the scriptures in tact!

I know the Area Office here has been trying to get a few different Book of Mormon audio files for languages in the region. According to the scripture committee, the process goes like this.

First released in:

Book (Print)
HTML on LDS.org
Audio (MP3, etc)

I'm sure as the scriptures are released online over the next year or so you will begin to see more and more audio scriptures right along with it. Imagine how that will help our missionaries worldwide when they can listen to scriptures in their target language.

Josh

Is it possible to purchase the Book of Mormon in some form of records, CD, or tapes in the language of Italian?

So, I was recently overjoyed when i clicked the headphones icon to listen to my text to speech Mandarin Chinese audio and actual audio, beautiful and pleasing to the ear came out. You can imagine my disappointment when I went from 1 Nephi 16 to 1 Nephi 17 and it was text to speech audio again. Naively I thought it was for the whole Book of Mormon. Any idea when that will happen? How can I stay abreast of the situation? Thank you.