Across India, people speak more than 450 languages, many of which are small and endangered. Having developed on the Indian subcontinent over millennia, many of these languages are historical and cultural treasures of the various peoples of India. One such language is Gondi, a South–Central Dravidian language hailing from eastern central India. Since many Gond people speak the local language of their region and have abandoned their native Gondi, the language is endangered.
If you’re looking for professional translation services for Gondi, it can be hard to find trustworthy agencies. After all, most translation agencies only focus on the biggest, most profitable languages, ignoring smaller languages like Gondi. But TranslationServices.com is different. We see the value in all languages—including small and endangered ones—even if it isn’t monetary, so we’re proud to offer professional translation services for languages like Gondi.
If you message us today, we can provide a free quote for our Gondi translation services.
Gondi: a language beyond statistics
While Gondi is officially considered endangered, it’s difficult to ascertain the exact number of speakers. Official figures from the Indian census estimate the number of Gondi speakers at roughly 3 million, but the real number may be significantly higher, since many Gondi speakers are not reached by the census. The Gonds predominantly live in more rural, less developed areas of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh. Even though many Gonds have adopted other Indian languages to improve their socio–economic status, surveys have found that younger Gonds are interested in preserving their native tongue, and revitalization efforts are underway.
As a Dravidian language, Gondi is closely related to Telugu and not Hindi, although its geographical proximity to Hindi has resulted in heavy Hindi influence on the language. The language uses several cases and two genders, which influence a word’s plural suffix. Oblique markers are used in addition to other case markers when a noun is not the subject of a sentence. Perhaps most challenging about Gondi, however, is the various scripts it uses for written language. It’s often written in the well-established Devanagari or Telugu scripts, while the native Masaram Gondi script is rarely used, but the recently discovered native Gunjala Gondi script is gaining increasing recognition and use.
As an endangered rural Indian language with various writing systems, Gondi is a challenging language to translate. But we didn’t let that stop us. Get in touch today to find out how we can help you with Gondi translation.
Gondi translation services for all your needs
Considering Gondi’s rich folk literature tradition, you may be interested in translating some of the language’s stories or cultural knowledge into English to share with the world. At the same time, you may want to translate a questionnaire into Gondi to conduct research or children’s books into Gondi to help preserve the language. Our translators, who can handle a number of Gondi dialects in any of the four writing systems, are here to help.
Contact us today for more information on our Gondi translation services.