Africa is a continent full of languages, and in stark contrast to the indigenous languages of the Americas, many of them are vigorously spoken by large communities. Most of Africa’s languages come from one language family—the Niger–Congo family—and a huge portion of those languages, particularly those in southern and central Africa, hail from the Bantu subfamily. While Bantu languages share many commonalities, they can also be highly distinct. It’s amidst this plethora of languages that we find Ndau.
Ndau goes various names—you may also hear it called chiNdau, Chindau, Ndzawu, Njao, or Chidanda—and recorded around 2.4 million native speakers in the early 2000s. Since 2013, it’s been enshrined as an official language in Zimbabwe. It’s often considered a dialect of the Shona language, which puts the language’s future vitality under threat. Indeed, resources, including translation services, are usually few and far between, with Ndau being overshadowed by other, bigger, more prestigious languages, including English, Portuguese, and Shona. We at TranslationServices.com are proud to offer dedicated translation services for Ndau with the new Ndau translation team we’re introducing today.
If you’re interested in Ndau translation services, why not send us a message to request a free quote today?
Ndau: the language hiding in Shona’s shadows
Native Ndau speakers can be found in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Mozambique, but Mozambique accounts for the majority of the language’s speakers. It’s part of the Shona cluster of Bantu languages in southeastern Africa and is mutually intelligible with some other Shona varieties, such as Manyika, Zezuru, and Karanga. However, mutual intelligibility may be poor with some other Shona varieties. Since Shona is often treated as a single language rather than a cluster, the individual characteristics of Shona languages, including Ndau, can easily be overlooked.
Like virtually all over Bantu languages, Ndau features a complex grammatical structure based around an expansive noun class system of more than 20 classes. Bantu noun classes are similar to the grammatical gender you’ll find in Spanish or German but more pervasive—each one comes with an agreement prefix that appends to not only the noun itself but also any verbs, adjectives, demonstratives (words like “this” or “that”) that modify it. Nouns also precede all modifiers, with adjectives, demonstratives, and numerals all placed after the noun. Ndau grammar differs significantly from that of English, so translating between the two isn’t easy—but for native-speaking translators like ours, you can rest assured your Ndau translation project is in good hands.
Bringing you Ndau translation services exactly how you want them.
We strive to provide the precise Ndau translation services that you need for your individual project to succeed. We’re all about flexibility—that’s why we’ve hired a diverse roster of Ndau translators from different areas of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. If it’s important for you to have a translator from a particular locale, just let us know. We cater to both clients looking to translate from English to Ndau as well as clients seeking Ndau-to-English translation services: whatever direction you’re going in, we’re here to help.
Another important aspect of our offering is the various translation specialties we offer. Those seeking academic translation services for Ndau can turn to our academic translators, who cater to a wide variety of fields. Our business translators are well suited for representatives of any businesses or organizations looking to make a meaningful splash in an Ndau-speaking area. You can trust our literary translators to help translate the rich body of Ndau literature into English, spreading Ndau stories with the rest of the world—or you can hire our literary translators to translate your English-language literary works into Ndau. Our team covers a wide array of knowledge fields, so don’t hesitate to let us know if your project contains technical language in a particular discipline.
We’re passionate about helping people break the English-Ndau language barrier. Send us a message if you’re ready to get started with translation!
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