Africa is a linguistically diverse continent, with most countries featuring numerous native languages indigenous to the country. Take Liberia, for example—although its official language is English, most people in the West African country don’t speak it as their first language, instead learning it for educational and administrative purposes as well as to communicate with compatriots from other areas. Liberia has more than 20 indigenous languages that are spoken natively by portions of the population, and one of the biggest ones is Bassa.
Bassa is spoken as a native language by around 600,000 people, which makes it one of the biggest native languages in Liberia. Although most Bassa speakers have learned English (or French) to communicate with people from outside the Bassa ethnic group, use of Bassa remains vigorous, with the language dominating the region where the Bassa people live. Unfortunately, Bassa is poorly supported, with few resources or translation services, and that’s what we at TranslationServices.com want to change: we’re proud to present our new Bassa translation services.
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Taking a quick tour through the Bassa language
Most speakers of Bassa live in the West African nation of Liberia, primarily in the counties of Grand Bassa, Rivercess, Margibi, and Montserrado, as well as the capital of Monrovia, where they form the largest ethnic group. In Liberia, Bassa constitute the second-largest ethnic group, second only to the Kpelle people. Smaller populations of Bassa speakers live in neighboring Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire. The Bassa language belongs to the Kru subfamily of the Niger–Congo language family, making it related to other indigenous languages in Liberia, such as Kuwaa and Grebo. It’s split into a few different dialects, the most prominent of which are Gbor, Gba Sor, Mabahn, Hwen Gba Kon, Central Bassa, and Rivercess Bassa.
Grammatically, Bassa generally structures sentences in a subject-verb-object word order, like the vast majority of Niger–Congo languages, although subject-object-verb word order is also possible. The language is tonal, also like most other Niger–Congo languages. A notable feature of Bassa is that it has its own native script, called the Bassa Vah alphabet, of unknown origins. The script was rediscovered by ethnic Bassa in Brazil and subsequently revived in Liberia, but today, Bassa is predominantly written in the Latin alphabet. It’s not necessarily an easy language to translate, but our native-speaking translators are skilled experts.
If you need Bassa translation services, we’re here for you.
Few translation agencies cater to minority African languages like Bassa—but we’re not like most translation agencies. We’re proud to provide Bassa with the support it deserves, with our team of proud Bassa translators who hail from all over Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d’Ivoire. We represent various Bassa dialects, so if you want translation services tailored for the Gbor, Gba Sor, Mabahn, Hwen Gba Kon, Central Bassa, or Rivercess Bassa dialects, just let us know. We translate documents both into and from Bassa—we’re here to help with whatever you need.
Whether you’re in the market for general Bassa translation services or more niche Bassa translation services, we have you covered. That’s because our team consists of experts in different types of translation, including academic, business, and literary translation services. So, if you have a research questionnaire or interview transcript to translate to or from Bassa, we can help. If you have marketing materials for your business or organization to tailor for a Bassa-speaking clientele, let us serve you. If you want to bring your lovingly crafted book, short story, or poem to a new audience—either internationalizing your work or tailoring it for Bassa speakers—our team is here for you.
High-quality Bassa translation services are our mission. Let us help you—just place your first order today!