Quebec is famous as the primary Francophone region of Canada, with the province’s own brand of French known as Quebecois. But French isn’t the only language spoken in this important Canadian province. “Of course, there must be many English speakers in Quebec as well,” you may be thinking, and yes, that’s true. But Quebec’s linguistic diversity goes beyond that. Numerous indigenous languages are still spoken in the province, including Innu, also known as Innu-aimun or Montagnais.
Innu has approximately 10,000 native speakers, according to Canada’s 2016 census, which makes it one of the bigger indigenous languages in the country. Like all other indigenous languages in Canada and the US, it’s vulnerable to encroachment from French and English, but Innu is in better standing than many other indigenous languages in the country, thanks to a successful Innu rock band that released numerous songs in the language. However, there still aren’t many translation services available for Innu, so we at TranslationServices.com would like to do our part to change that. We’re hereby introducing our own Innu translation services.
Contact us today to ask about a free quote for our Innu translation services!
Taking a look at Innu, Quebec’s second-biggest indigenous language
Innu is native to the region known as Nitassinan, which comprises the northeast corner of Quebec, as well as the territory of Labrador, which belongs to Newfoundland. Despite the similar name, it’s not to be confused with Inuktitut or other Inuit languages—while Inuktitut is also spoken in northern Quebec, it’s completely unrelated to Innu. Rather, Innu hails from the Algonquian family and is classified within the Cree dialect continuum, which stretches across much of Canada. In particular, it’s closely related to Naskapi, which is also spoken in Nitassinan.
Like any other Algonquian language, Innu presents a monumental grammatical challenge to any English or French speakers who may want to learn the language. It’s categorized as a polysynthetic language, meaning it’s highly inflectional, filled with affixes that can change the meanings and nuances of words. This grammatical complexity does, however, allow for a relatively free word order, with the order of words further influencing the nuance of a sentence. Innu also distinguishes between animate and inanimate nouns in a similar manner to the grammatical gender of languages like French. It goes without saying that Innu is a tricky language to translate—but that’s not a problem if you’re working with our native-speaking translation team.
Whatever your Innu translation needs, we have you covered
When working with languages that have as few speakers as Innu, it can be difficult to build a well-rounded translation team. Nonetheless, we’ve done our best to recruit the best Innu translators from all over Nitassinan and other parts of Quebec, representing the four main dialects of the language: Southern Montagnais, Eastern Montagnais, Central Montagnais, and Labrador Montagnais. Our translators are native speakers, and they can translate texts both to and from their language—you determine the direction.
To the best of our ability, we’ve also endeavored to hire translators who have the experience and skills necessary to translate documents from different domains and disciplines. For example, anyone conducting research in Nitassinan may be interested in our academic translation services, and businesses and organizations targeting the region may like to connect with their customer base through ad copy and other marketing materials translated into Innu. Our literary translators are available to translate traditional Innu tales into English or to transform English-language media such as novels, poems, short stories, websites, apps, or games into Innu, helping to promote the language for native speakers and ardent learners alike.
Whatever your Innu translation project may be, we’re eager to help. Contact our team today to discuss how our Innu translators can assist you!