Buk Ngr Nzangiongr,
Ngr Makxtr Ngr Melanisiz,
Trmctu Daesis,
Szntz Krus (2000)

Book of Worship,
Church of Melanesia,
Temotu Diocese,
Natqgu Language,
Santa Cruz

Natqgu (also called Santa Cruz or Natügu) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 4,000 people on the island of Nendö, largest of the Santa Cruz Islands in the far east of the Solomon Islands. It lies in the Diocese of Temotu of the Church of Melanesia. An early missionary account of Anglican life in this region is Santa Cruz and the Reef Islands Described by the Rev. W. C. O'Ferrall, Missionary in Santa Cruz, 1897-1904 (1908).

This major publication of the Natqgu Translation Project, under the direction of Dr. Brenda H. Boerger of the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, includes all major liturgical services from the Book of Common Prayer, the Psalter, and a Hymnal. The Natqgu Translation Project has also produced separate publications of Morning and Evening Prayer, Holy Communion, a primer for beginning readers, a dictionary, and translations of parts of the Bible. In the orthography used for this publication, c, q, r, x, and z are vowels (See Brenda H. Boerger, “When c, q, r, x, and z Are Vowels: An Informal Report on Natqgu Orthography,” in Notes on Literacy 22:4, 1996: pp. 39-44). Boerger describes the ongoing work of the Natqgu Translation Project in her essay entitled Natqgu Literacy: Capturing Three Domains for Written Language Use (2007).

The Book is presented here as a PDF file (in PDF text, not graphics). Bookmarks in English have been added by the web author; these are his best guess at the content and are not guaranteed to be correct.

Natqgu Book of Worship in PDF, 1.6 MB