Historic text first published in 1816.

Bullom So

Bullom So is an endangered Niger-Congo language used in Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Prayer Book Selections

This translation into Bullom So of the orders for Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and a portion of the Litany in the Anglican 1662 Book of Common Prayer, was prepared by Gustavus Reinhold Nyländer (1776-1825), a German Lutheran missionary of the Church Missionary Society.

Nyländer translated the Morning and Evening Prayers, as they were in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer Book. He kept as close to the original as the Bullom Language would permit. He omitted words and sentences that could not be expressed in Bullom, and introduced simpler ones, but tried not to alter anything major. He then worked on St. Matthew's Gospel.

Scripture Selections

The Scripture selections are the liturgical sections and canticles: Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17); Psalm 8, Psalm 51:3, and Psalms 67, 69 and 98; Ezekiel 18:27; The Song of Mary or Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), The Song of Zechariah or Benedictus (Luke 1:68-xx), Song of Simeon Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2:29-32) and Luke 15:18-19; The Grace (2 Corinthians 13:14); and 1 John 1:8-9.

Gustavus Reinhold Nyländer

Gustavus Reinhold Nyländer (1776-1825, Kissy, Sierra Leone) was a German Lutheran missionary and linguist who worked in Sierra Leone. He worked under the auspices of the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS).

Nyländer grew up in Lithuania and then attended a seminary in Berlin. He came to London in 1805. Nyländer arrived in Sierra Leone in September 1806 with Leopold Butscher and Johann Prasse, all three of them Lutherans. Their instructions were to leave the settlement to work amongst the Susu people as soon as possible. He married Anne Beverhout, the daughter of the African-American Methodist minister Henry Beverhout.

Between 1812 and 1818 Nyländer was based on the Bullom Shore (Kaffu Bullom). In 1814 he published Grammar and Vocabulary of the Bullom Language and Spelling-book of the Bullom Language: With a Dialogue and Scripture Exercises: He subsequently moved to Kissy a village founded to cater for enslaved Africans liberated by the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron near Freetown. He died in Kissy 1825 from an illness which affected many missionaries. 

Other Publications

He was a talented missionary and linguist, and Nyländer also published A Spelling-book of the Bullom Language: With a Dialogue and Scripture Exercises. London: For the Church Missionary Society in 1814; a Grammar and Vocabulary of the Bullom Language. London: For the Church Missionary Society in 1814; Book Hoa Matthew: The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, in Bullom amp English. London: Tilling and Hughes in 1816.