A 105th first-edition translation of The Prophet joins the list: Cebuano, spoken by some twenty-one million people across the central and southern Philippines. The find came shortly after Francesco Medici and Glen Kalem-Habib completed the first global study of the book's first-edition translations.
Kahlil Gibran Collective
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KAHLIL GIBRAN COLLECTIVE
By the Kahlil Gibran Collective · Kahlil Gibran Collective · 2018 · kahlilgibran.com
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Following their global study — the first of its kind — of the official number of first-edition translations of Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, research historians Francesco Medici and Glen Kalem-Habib have added another first-edition language translation to the official list: Cebuano, of the Philippines. The total now stands at 105.
Cebuano — often referred to by its speakers simply as Bisaya — is an Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines by around twenty-one million people across Central Visayas, the western parts of Eastern Visayas, and most of Mindanao, most of whom belong to the various Visayan ethnolinguistic groups.
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Medici and Kalem-Habib have also embarked on a study that will take into account all other language editions, which they believe could number in the hundreds — an estimated three to five hundred.
With as many as thirteen editions in Cantonese and Mandarin, twenty-seven in French, and twenty-five in Italian, it is their belief that Gibran's The Prophet is one of the most translated books of modern times.
The study has since been carried considerably further. The current verified count stands at 117 languages — see Still Speaking: The Prophet at 117 Languages.
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Source: Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, "PH Embassy in Beirut Gifts Gibran Museum with The Prophet in Filipino." Language details after Wikipedia.
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