Kjell Magne Yri (born 5 November 1943) is a Norwegian priest, linguist and translator.
He hails from
HareidHareid is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Hareid...
. He was interested in linguistics at an early age; during Norwegian classes in secondary school he read books in
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
and Esperanto. During his spare time he read
SwahiliSwahili is spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Indian Ocean coastline from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique, including the Comoros Islands...
. He combined the language interest with religious studies after a friend encouraged him to become a bible translator, eventually graduating from the
MF Norwegian School of TheologyMF Norwegian School of Theology in Norwegian Det teologiske Menighetsfakultet , is a private, independent, accredited Norwegian specialised university institution...
with the
cand.theol.Candidatus theologiæ , Candidata theologiæ , abbreviated cand. theol. is an academic degree with a long tradition, awarded after a six year higher education in theology in Denmark and Norway...
degree in 1970.
Kjell Magne Yri (born 5 November 1943) is a Norwegian priest, linguist and translator.
He hails from
HareidHareid is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Hareid...
. He was interested in linguistics at an early age; during Norwegian classes in secondary school he read books in
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
and Esperanto. During his spare time he read
SwahiliSwahili is spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Indian Ocean coastline from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique, including the Comoros Islands...
. He combined the language interest with religious studies after a friend encouraged him to become a bible translator, eventually graduating from the
MF Norwegian School of TheologyMF Norwegian School of Theology in Norwegian Det teologiske Menighetsfakultet , is a private, independent, accredited Norwegian specialised university institution...
with the
cand.theol.Candidatus theologiæ , Candidata theologiæ , abbreviated cand. theol. is an academic degree with a long tradition, awarded after a six year higher education in theology in Denmark and Norway...
degree in 1970. He also minored in Greek at the
University of OsloThe University of Oslo is the oldest, largest and most prestigious university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.It was founded in 1811 as The Royal Frederick University...
, as well as studying Latin and
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...
. He was eventually given an assignment to translate the
New TestamentThe New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christian Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament, both terms being associated with Supersessionism...
for the
Norwegian Lutheran MissionThe Norwegian Lutheran Mission is one of several independent Lutheran organisations in Norway. They are often considered one of the most conservative Christian Evangelical organisations in Norway. They consider themselves committed to the inerrancy of the Bible as the Word of God.NLM owns several...
, who found the official Norwegian translation too
liberalLiberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century and onwards...
. He was occupied with this translation from 1968 to 1973.
In 1973 he travelled with his family to work as a priest in
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
. He learned both the
AmharicAmharic is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia by the Amhara. It is the second most-spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Thus, it has official status and is used nationwide...
and
Oromo languageOromo, also known as Afaan Oromoo, Oromiffa , Afan Boran, Afan Arsi, and sometimes in other languages by variant spellings of these names , is an Afro-Asiatic language, and the most widely spoken of the Cushitic family...
s, and was later sent to work in the
Sidama ZoneSidama is a Zone in the Ethiopian Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region . Sidama is named for the Sidama people, whose homeland is located in this zone....
. While staying here, he translated the New Testament into
SidamoSidamo is an Afro-Asiatic language, belonging to the Cushitic branch, part of the Highland East Cushitic group. It is spoken in parts of southern Ethiopia...
. It took twelve years, and he was finished in 1988.
In 1989 Yri reached what he describes as a "crossroads" in his life. He left the Norwegian Lutheran Mission, and took up studies again at the University of Oslo. He ultimately took the dr.philos. degree in 1996, and in 2000 he was appointed as an associate professor. From 2002 to 2007 he conducted a large research project on languages in Ethiopia.
His marriage broke down in 1989, but he later remarried, this time to a
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an linguist. This prompted Yri to learn
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
, and to attempt to learn Mapudungun. Yri resides in
NittedalNittedal is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Romerike. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Rotnes....
, and from 1998 to 2002 he was the local church organist there.