Did you know that Indonesia is the second-most linguistically diverse country on the planet, housing more than 700 indigenous languages across its thousands of islands? The only country with more indigenous languages is Indonesia’s next-door neighbor, Papua New Guinea. In fact, Papua New Guinea occupies merely half of the island of New Guinea, with the other half belonging to Indonesia. Many of Indonesia’s languages hail from this region, including Papuan Malay, used widely across the Indonesian half of New Guinea.
The exact number of Papuan Malay speakers is unknown, but estimates put the figure at roughly 500,000, combining native speakers and second-language speakers. Indeed, Papuan Malay began as a contact language for the disparate tribes of Western New Guinea to communicate with one another, but today, the language has a growing number of native speakers. But that doesn’t mean translation services for Papuan Malay are readily available. That’s where TranslationServices.com comes in, proud to offer dedicated Papuan Malay translation services.
For a free quote for our Papuan Malay translation services, simply reach out and make a request!
A closer look at the variety of Malay spoken in Western New Guinea
Papuan Malay is spread all across the western portion of New Guinea, which is governed by Indonesia. Papuan Malay is, in essence, a variety of Indonesian that has developed in Western New Guinea, shaped by the influences of the 270+ indigenous languages of the region. Some linguists have proposed that Papuan Malay is derived from the nearby Malayic languages of North Moluccan Malay or Ambonese Malay. In recent years, the language has sustained increasingly more influence from Standard Indonesian, the national lingua franca, but it retains notable differences that distinguish it from Indonesia’s national language.
Grammatically, Papuan Malay is highly similar to Indonesian and the other Austronesian languages that abound all across Maritime Southeast Asia. Its basic word order is generally subject-verb-object, as in Indonesian, and it lacks verbal tense markers, instead indicating the time of actions through adverbial words like “already” or “yesterday.” Certain aspects differ significantly from Indonesian, such as the word pu, meaning “to possess,” which is punya in Standard Indonesian. In Papuan Malay, if the possessor noun ends in a vowel, possession can be marked simply by adding -p to the end of the noun phrase. If you want a high-quality Papuan Malay translation, hiring a Standard Indonesian translator won’t do—you need a native-speaking Papuan Malay translator like the ones on our team.
We offer flexible Papuan Malay translation services that adapt to your needs.
No matter where you’re located or why you need Papuan Malay translation services, we’re committed to serving you. With our diverse team of native-speaking Papuan Malay translators who come from all over Western New Guinea, we’re confident that we can help clients from all over Indonesia and the rest of the world. Some of our clients seek translation from English to Papuan Malay, while others look for translation from Papuan Malay to English—we’re proud to say we offer both.
Our translation flexibility also extends to the type of translation services we render. Looking to translate your research questionnaire into Papuan Malay to survey the locals? Let our academic translators help. Maybe you’d like to disseminate promotional materials for your organization in Papuan Malay to better connect with people in Western New Guinea? Our business translators are here for you. Or maybe you’re working with a creative text, whether that’s a story in Papuan Malay that you’d like to share with the rest of the world or English-language content (such as books, poems, apps, websites, or more) that you’re looking to translate into Papuan Malay. For all your Papuan Malay translation needs, we’re here.
Let us help you with your Papuan Malay translation project. Place an order with us now if you’d like to get started!