The biggest language in Indonesia is Indonesian—kind of. Indonesian far outpaces the Southeast Asian island nation’s other 700+ indigenous languages, but it only ranks second in terms of number of native speakers—Javanese comes in at number one. Most Indonesians only speak Indonesian as a second language, using a local indigenous language as their primary means of communication at home and in the community. For 290,000 or so Indonesians, that language is Kerinci.
With its 290,000 native speakers, Kerinci ranks as one of the larger languages in the highly linguistically diverse country of Indonesia. However, it remains a minority language threatened by the other, even bigger languages spoken throughout the region, including Indonesian. It’s rare to find dedicated translation services for minority Indonesian languages, including Kerinci, but we at TranslationServices.com have taken it upon ourselves to offer specialized Kerinci translation services.
How about asking about a free quote for our Kerinci translation services?
Discovering the Kerinci language of Indonesia
So, where exactly is Kerinci spoken, anyway? You’ll find it on Indonesia’s western island of Sumatra, nestled at the westernmost edge of Jambi Province. Specifically, Kerinci is spoken widely in Kerinci Regency as well as the city of Sungai Penuh, with many residents also speaking Indonesian and Minangkabau. The language bears a close resemblance to Minangkabau and Jambi Malay and is more distantly related to most other languages spoken in Indonesia.
Kerinci is notable for its high level of diversity within the language itself, with as many as 130 subdialects identified within the following seven primary dialects:
Gunung Raya
Danau Kerinci
Sitinjau Laut
Sungai Penuh
Pembantu Sungai Tutung
Belui Air Hangat
Gunung Kerinci
Kerinci’s numerous dialects can differ quite substantially from one another, with relatively low mutual intelligibility in some cases. In some cases, the dialects of Kerinci are no more similar to one another than the language is to neighboring languages like Minangkabau or Bengkulu. Like most languages in Indonesia, Kerinci is a member of the Austronesian language family, which means it’s a far cry from English, and that can make translation tricky. For instance, pronouns in Kerinci can be quite complicated, with the language featuring several pronouns for the first and second person. Their usage depends on the formality and context of the utterance, but the highest-quality translations require the expertise of an experienced, native-speaking Kerinci translator. That’s what we provide.
We aim to bring you the best Kerinci translation services we can.
Our Kerinci team is here to help you with whatever Kerinci translation needs you may have—regardless of the specificities of your project. We’ve strived to build a Kerinci translation team that covers the full breadth of this highly diverse language, with representatives for each of the major dialects: Gunung Raya, Danau Kerinci, Sitinjau Laut, Sungai Penuh, Pembantu Sungai Tutung, Belui Air Hangat, and Gunung Kerinci. Our translators are native speakers who are proud of their language, and they have the necessary skills to deliver translations both to and from Kerinci.
If you’re looking for a specialized type of Kerinci translation services, we have you covered. We’ve endeavored to hire translators with experience in different types of translation, whether that’s academic translation, business translation, literary translation, or something else. We can help you translate research questionnaires or promotional materials for your organization into Kerinci to appeal to the local population—or we can help you translate your Kerinci-language messages into English to spread them around the world. We’re also happy to help with translations of creative materials such as novels, poems, websites, apps, games, and more into Kerinci, which can help foster this important minority language in Indonesia.
Our team of passionate Kerinci translators can’t wait to help you. If you’re ready to get started with your Kerinci translation project, why not reach out to us today?