Welcome to Java: the most populous island in the world. With more than 151 million people crammed onto this 124,000-square-kilometer island, it accounts for more than half of the entire population of Indonesia. Accordingly, the island is also home to a wide variety of languages, with the biggest native languages being Javanese, Sundanese, and Madurese. The lingua franca of Indonesian ties all the ethnic groups together. But there are many smaller languages also native to Java, and one of them is Osing.
Osing is the native language of around 300,000 people in Java. Even though it’s one of the bigger languages among the 700-odd languages found in Indonesia, it pales in comparison to its larger neighbors, which means Osing is often overlooked. In fact, the language has sustained considerable influence from neighboring Javanese and Balinese—but it persists nonetheless as a proud, independent language. It’s hard to find translation services for Osing—but at TranslationServices.com, we’re proud to present our very own Osing translation team.
If you’d like to know how much our Osing translation services cost, feel free to request a free quote!
Osing: Discovering an indigenous language of East Java
Osing is native to the easternmost reaches of the highly populated island of Java, placing the Osing people’s traditional lands in between those of the Javanese and the Balinese on the nearby island of Bali. Madurese, another major language in the region, has also had a major impact on the language. But Osing is most closely related to Javanese, with some of the language’s many dialects conserving a considerable amount of Old Javanese vocabulary. In particular, the varieties of Osing spoken in Giri, Glagah, and Licin are seen as more “pure,” whereas the variant spoken in Jember is more mixed.
Like most languages in Indonesia, Osing is a member of the expansive Austronesian language family. Closely related to Javanese, Osing features minimal noun inflection, and likewise, verbs are not conjugated for person or even tense (temporal information is expressed through words like “today” or “yesterday” or “already”). However, verbs do take a series of prefixes and affixes to convey different types of grammatical information, including whether the focus is on the actor or the patient, in a way that’s roughly analogous to the active and passive voices in English. The basic word order in Osing is subject-verb-object, although verb-subject-object may be possible in limited cases, particularly in the more conservative dialects. Overall, Osing can be a difficult language to translate to and from, which is why it’s important to work with native speakers—and that’s just who we’ve hired for our Osing translation team.
We’re here to provide the best Osing translation services possible to a wide variety of clients.
The need for Osing translation services can span a diverse clientele hailing from different backgrounds, including academia, business, literature, and beyond. To accommodate the varied translation needs our clients may have, we’ve scoured the eastern portion of Java to locate the best Osing translators we could. Our translators have built up experience translating their unique language and are passionate about helping clients with their Osing translation needs, whether that means translating into or out of the language.
Additionally, we’re always happy to offer specialized translation services to those who need them. Some of our Osing translators are experienced in academic translation, while others have acquired experience n the world of Osing business translation. Other translators on our team are skilled in the art of literary translation, carefully conveying the intended message of a story while staying faithful to the original tone and writing style. We may also be able to accommodate you if you have a technical text and you want an Osing translator with technical expertise to take the job—simply ask!
Our Osing translation team is eager to help you—so why not get started today with your first order?