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 Swahili 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. Union Version precedent over invention — where the Swahili Union Version already has a settled rendering (Mungu, Yesu, Bwana, Roho Mtakatifu, agano), this glossary follows it rather than proposing an alternative.
2. Shared vocabulary, explicit disambiguation — where a term is shared across Christian and Islamic Swahili usage (imani, neema, mtume, nabii), this glossary keeps the shared word rather than inventing a Christian-only neologism, and instead uses the notes field to state explicitly where the underlying theology diverges.
3. Explicit rejection, not silent avoidance — every Critical-risk term records why an alternative is wrong, whether a traditional-religion spirit-world term or an Islamic theological framework, 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 (see the AI Translation Requirements’ Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions).

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, and for Swahili specifically, whether the underlying risk is theological contestation from Islam, syncretism with traditional African religion, or both at once.