The Americas are a hotspot for linguistic diversity—but it’s hard to see that beneath the European languages that constitute the official languages in every country in North and South America and that dominate life in each one of them. English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese are easily the most spoken languages in the Americas, yes. But if you look past these European tongues, all imported languages brought to the Americas through colonization, you can catch a glimpse into what the Americas used to look like, with Amerindian languages such as Ojibwe abundant across the lands.
Ojibwe only has around 50,000 native speakers, but that still makes it Canada’s second-biggest indigenous language (the biggest is the closely related language of Cree). Many different dialects of Ojibwe exist, some of which boast more than 20,000 speakers, and since no dialect has been selected as the standard or prestige dialect, they each thrive in their own way. One of Ojibwe’s many dialects is called Central Ojibwe, and with around 8,000 speakers, it’s not the biggest one—but that doesn’t mean it’s any less important. In fact, we’re so passionate about Central Ojibwe that we even built a translation team specifically dedicated to the Ojibwe dialect.
Why not message us today to ask about a quote for our Central Ojibwe translation services? Quotes are free!
Shining a light on the Ojibwe dialect of Central Ojibwe
The Canadian province of Ontario accounts for the bulk of Ojibwe speakers, and Central Ojibwe is spoken across a large geographical area between Lake Nipissing and Lake Nipigon in Northern Ontario. Geographically and grammatically in between Eastern Ojibwe and Western Ojibwa (Saulteaux), Central Ojibwe faces a stronger threat of endangerment than some of its larger Ojibwe siblings.
Hailing from the Algonquian language family, Ojibwe features complex grammar that makes translation to and from English tricky. Algonquian languages, and Central Ojibwe is no exception, distinguish between animate and inanimate nouns, treating the categories grammatically differently. There’s also a fourth-person pronoun in Central Ojibwe, adding to the three-person distinction in most languages—the fourth-person pronoun is used to avoid confusion with an existing third-person referent. Central Ojibwe also has two separate first-person pronouns, allowing speakers to clarify whether they’re including the addressee when they say “we.” When it comes to word order, Central Ojibwe is quite free—thanks to the language’s extensive inflection, the grammatical relationship between words is well established by default, so a strict word order is unnecessary.
Our Central Ojibwe translation services are flexible and high-quality.
In scouting out translators for our Central Ojibwe translation team, we’ve focused not only on their skills and experience but also on their passion for Central Ojibwe. All our translators are native speakers of Central Ojibwe, and they really love their language—that’s what drives them to overcome the challenges of translating to and from the incredibly grammatically complex language of Central Ojibwe and deliver precise translations you can rely on. With our services covering both translation into Central Ojibwe and from the Amerindian language, you’re likely to find what you need with us.
Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of Central Ojibwe speakers, which means it’s not always possible to cater to specific niches. That said, our Central Ojibwe team is pretty diverse, featuring translators with different skill sets and experience in different translation domains. From business translation, great for business or promotional documents, to literary translation, ideal if you want to share traditional folk tales in Central Ojibwe or bring new content in the form of books, poems, games, apps, and more to Central Ojibwe, which can be a powerful way to help preserve the language, our team can handle a lot. In some cases, we may even be able to accommodate texts with esoteric language, depending on whether we have a subject-matter expert in your discipline on our team.
We’re making Central Ojibwe translation services more accessible than ever. To get started with your project, reach out and send us a message today!