Much of Africa is dominated by a single language family: Bantu. If you consider the proposed Niger–Congo macrofamily to which Bantu belongs, even more of the massive continent falls under the wide-reaching umbrella of the same linguistic grouping. But that’s not the case in northern Africa, where Afroasiatic languages reign supreme. Arabic, the family’s largest member, is not indigenous to the region, but many of the indigenous languages still belong to the Afroasiatic family—such as Beja.
Beja—known as Bidhaawyeet (indefinite) or Tubdhaawi (definite) to native speakers—is estimated to have around 2.5 million native speakers across a few different countries in northeastern Africa. Although Arabic, seen as the “language of modernity,” exerts pressure on the minority language, Beja is regarded highly by its speakers, spoken widely in Beja communities as the culturally most prestigious language. This means that Beja is not immediately endangered, although the influence of Arabic certainly poses a looming threat. At TranslationServices.com, we want to support the proud minority language of Beja how we can: with our own Beja translation services.
If you’re interested in our Beja translation services, why not request a free quote today?
Here’s why the Beja language is so unique
Most speakers of Beja live in Sudan—in fact, the country accounts for roughly 2.2 million Beja speakers. Roughly 200,000 more live in Eritrea, and another 77,000 or so reside in Egypt. Across the wide geographic area where Beja is spoken, you’ll find various dialects: Hadendoa, Hadareb, Amarar, Bisharin, and Beni-Amir are some of the most prominent. Beja is considered to occupy the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family, but its exact classification is uncertain, constituting the sole member of the Northern Cushitic group. With significant Arabic influence, Beja is considered the Cushitic language most similar to Arabic.
Grammatically, Beja sentences are constructed in a subject-object-verb word order, which, although perhaps jarring to English speakers, is the most common word order for languages around the world. The language contains two grammatical genders (masculine and feminine) and two cases (nominative and oblique), and nouns can be indefinite (“a”/“an”) or definite (“the”) or in “construct state,” a special noun form for possessed nouns. Beja can form plural nouns in various ways, sometimes adding the suffix -a, sometimes shortening the vowel in the final syllable of the root, and sometimes changing which syllable is stressed. The bottom line is that Beja is a complex language that can be difficult to translate—but not for our Beja translation experts.
We’re happy to provide specialized Beja translation services
We’re here to help anyone in the world—from Sudan, Eritrea, Egypt, and far beyond—who needs high-quality Beja translation services. We’re here for those looking for Beja-to-English translation services as well as those seeking English-to-Beja translation services, across any number of Beja dialects. You can request a translator from a specific region or specialized in a particular area of translation—whatever specifications you’re looking for, we can always guarantee a skilled and passionate Beja translator who’s eager to assist you.
For anyone in need of more specialized translation services, we encourage you to reach out and message us about your needs. Our Beja translation team is well-rounded and diverse, flexible enough to cater to the needs of our varied clientele across the domains of academia, business, literature, and beyond. So, if you’re looking to translate a journal article or research questionnaire, or maybe a financial report or white paper, or perhaps an enthralling novel or informational website, we’re the Beja translation team for you. We can also help if you’re dealing with technical subject matter—if you need a translator who knows your field or industry, we’ll do our best to accommodate.
Don’t hesitate to shoot us a message with the details of your Beja translation project whenever you’re ready!