You’ve heard of Thai, the national language of Thailand. But what you may not realize is that a number of other languages share the same—or a remarkably similar—moniker. The Tai languages comprise an entire family of several closely related languages throughout Southeast Asia, with Thai indeed constituting the most prominent member. But over in Indonesia, you’ll find another language, completely unrelated to the Tai languages, called Tae’.
Tae’ boasts an estimated 270,000 or so native speakers, so it pales in comparison to both Thai, with which it may sometimes be confused, and Indonesian, the national lingua franca of Indonesia. But when you consider that Indonesia is home to more than 700 indigenous languages, you realize that having 270,000 speakers makes Tae’ a relatively large minority language in the country. It’s even used as a regional lingua franca in its immediate region—but it’s still under serious threat from Indonesian. That’s where we at TranslationServices.com would like to help: we’re proud to present our new Tae’ translation services.
Why not check out our rates for Tae’ translation services by requesting a free quote today?
An exploration into Indonesia’s Tae’ language
So, where in Indonesia is Tae’ spoken? You’ll find the world’s Tae’-speaking community on the northeastern island of Sulawesi, specifically in Luwu Regency, North Luwu Regency, East Luwu Regency, and the city of Palopo, in the northern part of the province of South Sulawesi. Tae’ is closely related to Toraja-Sa’dan, with 750,000 speakers, and a bit more distantly related to Mandar (500,000 speakers) and Mamuju (60,000 speakers). Most indigenous languages in Indonesia are part of the Austronesian language family, and Tae’ is no exception.
Tae’ is divided into four main dialects: Bua, Luwu Selatan, Luwu Timur Laut, and Rongkong. The dialects are largely mutually intelligible but can sometimes contain significant differences in vocabulary. Grammatically, the language uses an ergative structure, meaning that the subjects of intransitive verbs (e.g., “I” in “I go”) and the objects of transitive verbs (e.g., “me” in “you see me”) are treated grammatically the same. Tae’ verbs are marked for person, a feature absent in Indonesian and many other Malayic languages, making Tae’ a bit more grammatically complicated. But whatever challenges Tae’ grammar may present, it’s no object for our native-speaking translation team.
Tae’ translation services carefully catered to your individual needs
Quality matters in translation—including for minority languages that most translation companies gloss over. We’ve searched for the best Tae’ translators we could find from all over South Sulawesi, bringing you a team of passionate and experienced translators eager to help people from Indonesia and beyond translate to and from their unique language. Just tell us whether you’re looking for Tae’-to-English translation or English-to-Tae’ translation, and specify the dialect you prefer, if applicable—we’ll take care of the rest.
If your document is of a more specialized nature, you may be wondering whether we can still translate it for you. Since our Tae’ translation team is well-rounded and highly diverse, we can generally accommodate the needs of our clients—even for specialized content. Our academic translators can work with everything from research questionnaires to conference papers, while our business translators can help CEOs and entrepreneurs translate their business proposals, white papers, and more. Our literary translators are equally as happy to help Tae’ creatives translate their poems, stories, and novels into English to foster a worldwide audience as they are to assist foreign creators with translating their games, apps, and websites into Tae’ to cater to this niche population. Whatever your goals are, our Tae’ translation team is here to support you.
Ready to place your first Tae’ translation order? All you have to do is message us with the details and files!