The predominant language in Vietnam is Vietnamese—that’s obvious. With the Viet (Kinh) ethnic group making up around 85% of the country, Vietnamese is easily the native language of the vast majority of Vietnamese residents. But the territory nonetheless encompasses a large range of minority languages, some of which boast large, healthy speaker communities. This is evidenced by the Tày people, the second-largest ethnic group in Vietnam, nearly all of whom speak their native Tày language.
Tày accounted for the native language of around 1.63 million people as of 2009, according to Ethnologue. Since it’s spoken by most ethnic Tày people, the language is in good standing, but of course, Vietnamese is the dominant language of the land, prestigious and ubiquitous, and that poses a threat to the long-term vitality of Tày. Resources in Tày are uncommon, including translation services, as most translation companies overlook the Vietnamese minority language. Not us at TranslationServices.com—we’re proud to cater to this underserved community with our new Tày translation services.
We can provide a free quote for our Tày translation services to anyone who asks—just send a message!
Tày: Vietnam’s biggest minority language
Tày is primarily spoken in northern Vietnam, most notably in the provinces of Cao Bằng, Lạng Sơn, Bắc Kạn, Thái Nguyên, and Quảng Ninh. Small Tày-speaking communities can also be found abroad, specifically in China’s Yunnan and Guangxi provinces and the northern region of Laos. The language contains several different dialects, including Tày Bảo Lạc, Tày Trùng Khánh, Central Tày, Eastern Tày, Southern Tày, Northern Tày, Tày Binh Lieu. Thu Lao (Dai Zhuang) is sometimes considered a Tày dialect and sometimes a separate language.
If you’ve noted that “Tày” sounds quite similar to “Thai,” you’re right—the language is completely unrelated to Vietnamese and is instead related to Thai and Lao. However, Tày’s long and close proximity to Vietnamese speakers has led to it incorporating a great deal of Vietnamese vocabulary. Among the closest linguistic relatives to Tày are the Zhuang languages, a cluster of Tai–Kadai languages spoken mostly in southern China. In fact, Tày dialects slowly merge into Zhuang dialects, creating a dialect continuum between the two languages. Like Vietnamese, Tày is written in a heavily modified version of the Latin alphabet, which distinguishes it from other major Tai languages, such as Thai, Lao, or Zhuang. The language is worlds apart from English, which can complicate translation efforts, but that’s why we’ve hired a robust team of native Tày speakers.
Our Tày translation services are exquisitely tailored to your needs.
We understand that our clients may have various different needs for their Tày translation services. We’ve been careful to source our Tày translators from various parts of northern Vietnam, with team members hailing from different provinces and speaking different dialects of the Tày language. If you’re looking for Chinese or Laotian dialects of Tày, we may even be able to help with that. Our team specializes in translation projects both from English to Tày and from Tày to English—so whatever you need, we’re sure we can help.
For those seeking specialized types of translation services, such as academic translation services, business translation services, literary translation services, or localization, we have the right team for you. Simply tell us the academic discipline, business sector, or literary genre of your work, and we’ll match you to the most suitable Tày translator on our team. The same applies if your text contains technical vocabulary that may be difficult for a general translator to navigate—since our team is filled with subject-matter experts in various fields, we can cater to your niches. Don’t hesitate to make any special requests—our Tày translation team is here to help!
We’d love to help you with your Tày translation project. Take the first step today by sending us a message!
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