The Philippines is a more linguistically diverse country than most people give it credit for. The official languages are English and Filipino, a standardized version of Tagalog, and roughly 40% of the population speaks Tagalog as their native language, with another 22% speaking Cebuano natively. Other major languages in the archipelagic nation include Hiligaynon, Ilocano, Bikol, Waray, and Kapampangan, but there are well over 100 smaller minority languages spoken by communities across the Philippines’ many islands. One of them is Tboli.
Tboli—which also goes by the easier-to-pronounce names of Tau Bilil, Tau Bulul, Tagabili—is spoken by around 100,000 people in the Philippines as a native language. Tboli is in relatively strong standing, spoken widely among its ethnic members, but naturally, it’s threatened by the much bigger languages spoken in the region: specifically, Tagalog, Hiligaynon, and English. Tboli speakers are typically multilingual, which poses a threat to the continued vitality of this minority language. Translation services focused on Tboli are few and far between, which is why we at TranslationServices.com wanted to take matters into our own hands and present our own Tboli translation services.
If you’re interested in Tboli translation services, you can request a free quote today!
Discovering the nuances of Tboli
You’ll find Tboli speakers in the south of the Philippines, specifically in the province of South Cotabato on the southern island of Mindanao. Specifically, Tboli speakers tend to reside in the Mount Busa area. However, you can also find communities of Tboli speakers in the neighboring provinces of Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat. The language comprises three main dialects, namely Central Tboli, Western Tboli, and Southern Tboli. It belongs to the Austronesian family, like virtually all other languages in the Philippines, but is not mutually intelligible with most others.
Grammatically, Tboli exhibits a basic verb-subject-object word order, meaning the verb comes first in a sentence, although other constituents of the sentence may precede the verb in some cases for emphasis. Pronouns in Tboli are complex, with nearly all coming in four different varieties, depending on whether they’re “focused” or “nonfocused” and “dependent” or “independent.” There are also four different types of first-person pronoun: first-person singular, first-person dual (i.e., “me and you”), first-person plural inclusive (i.e., “me, you, and others”), and first-person plural exclusive (i.e., “me and other people but not you”). Complexities like these can make Tboli difficult to translate, which is why it’s best to work with native speakers like our team members.
Serving you with highly flexible Tboli translation services
We take our dedication to providing high-quality Tboli translation services seriously. We’ve sourced our native-speaking translators from all across South Cotabato, Sarangani, and Sultan Kudarat, recruiting representatives of Central Tboli, Western Tboli, and Southern Tboli alike. If you’re looking for translation services for a particular dialect, don’t hesitate to request it. Our translation services are available both from English to Tboli and from Tboli to English, so whatever you need in terms of Tboli translation services, we’re here to serve you.
Our Tboli translation services even extend to specialties like academic translation, business translation, literary translation, and localization services. Researchers, academics, and educators may be interested in our academic translation services for research surveys, lesson materials, and more in any field, while CEOs, business owners, and marketing professionals may want to take advantage of our business translation services for everything from financial reports to press releases. Our literary translators are always happy to help translate traditional Tboli tales into English to share with other cultures or English-language literature into Tboli to bring more stories to the southern Filipino community. Our localization experts work with digital media in the form of websites, apps, games, and more to expand Tboli’s online presence. Our translators are here to help you with your Tboli translation project, whatever it may be.
Would you like to get started with Tboli translation services? Message us today to place your first order!
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