Core Glossary

translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.

Composition

The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:

• The approved Punjabi translation and transliteration
• The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
• Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons
• Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice

Governing principles

1. Established usage over invention, except where established usage is itself the risk — where Punjabi Bible tradition already has a settled rendering (ਪਰਮੇਸ਼ੁਰ, ਯਿਸੂ, ਪ੍ਰਭੂ, ਮਸੀਹ), this glossary follows it. The one deliberate exception is ਮੁਕਤੀ, where established usage carries genuine syncretism risk that this glossary manages through mandatory glossing rather than replacement.
2. Distinguish “avoid the natural word” from “manage the natural word” — ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ and ਗੁਰੂ are rejected outright despite being the most fluent options available; ਮੁਕਤੀ is retained with a required clarifying gloss. These are two different risk-mitigation strategies, chosen based on how deeply each term’s competing meaning contradicts the doctrine and how entrenched its Christian usage already is.
3. Explicit rejection, not silent avoidance — every Critical-risk term records why the tempting alternative is wrong, so a translator or reviewer understands the reasoning rather than just following a rule.
4. Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document.

Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry

Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary matters.