Editing Gilbertese language (section)

===Vocabulary===
{{Unreferenced section|date=November 2021}}

One difficulty in translating the Bible was references to words such as "[[mountain]]", a geographical phenomenon unknown to the people of the islands of Kiribati at the time, heard only in the myths from [[Samoa]]. Bingham substituted "[[hill]]y", which would be more easily understood. Such adjustments are common to all languages as "modern" things require the creation of new words or the usage of loan words.

For example, the Gilbertese word for airplane is ''te wanikiba'', "the canoe that flies". Some words changed to translate Western words into Gilbertese. For example, ''te aro'' (species or colour) is now used in translating religion. ''Te kiri'' (the dog), found in 1888 vocabulary, is now less used than ''te kamea'' (from English, loan word).{{clarify|date=December 2021}}

Catholic missionaries arrived at the islands in 1888 and translated the Bible independently of Bingham, which led to differences (Bingham wrote [[Jesus]] as "Iesu", but the Catholics wrote "Ietu") that would be resolved only in the 20th century. In 1954, Father [[Ernest Sabatier]] published the larger and more accurate Kiribati to French dictionary (translated into English by Sister Olivia): ''Dictionnaire gilbertin–français'', 981 pages (edited by South Pacific Commission in 1971). It remains the only work of importance between the Kiribati language and a Western language. It was then reversed by Frédéric Giraldi in 1995 to creating the first French-Kiribati dictionary. In addition, a grammar section was added by Father Gratien Bermond (MSC). The dictionary is available at the [[Bibliothèque nationale de France|French National Library]] Rare Language Department and at the headquarters of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC), [[Issoudun]].