Most people in Russia speak Russian—since it’s the only official language at the national level, Russian is crucial for communicating with people from all over the country. But at the local level, Russia is a remarkably multilingual country. As the largest country in the world, Russia spans an expansive swath of land inhabited by several dozen diverse ethnolinguistic groups, many of which still speak their own languages in addition to Russian. In most cases, these languages aren’t related to Russian at all, as is the case with Permyak.
Today, Permyak, which may also be called Komi-Permyak, is spoken by approximately 63,000 people, although many more adults speak the language than children, leading to concerns about the language going extinct in the future. In light of this situation, UNESCO has classified Permyak as a “definitely endangered” language. Permyak is the dominant language of day-to-day communication for native speakers, although most also speak Russian, and Permyak is taught from grades 1 to 8. However, given the language’s endangerment status, few translation agencies will work with it—leading us at TranslationServices.com to take the initiative and create our own Permyak translation team.
Message us today about a free quote for Permyak translation services based on your project’s specifications!
What kind of language is Permyak, anyway?
Permyak comes from the Uralic language family, meaning it’s related to Finnish and Hungarian but not Russian. It’s most closely related to Komi, sometimes called Komi-Zyrian, and more distantly to Udmurt. Permyak speakers mostly live in Perm Krai, particularly in the area of the former Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug, which is near the Volga River and Ural Mountains. The language is written in a modified version of the Cyrillic alphabet, which is the case for most indigenous languages in Russia.
Permyak is an inflectionally complicated language with a significant number of noun cases. In total, Permyak has 18 cases: 10 grammatical cases and 8 locative cases. The accusative case features a definite–indefinite distinction, a phenomenon also found in related Uralic languages. Permyak adjectives also undergo significant inflection, declining for case agreement with the noun they modify when used predicatively (i.e., after the noun). For adjective-specific declension, aside from the normal comparative and superlative forms that many languages feature, Permyak adjectives also have sative and excessive forms, expressing the nuances of “quite” and “too,” respectively.
No one’s claiming that Permyak is a simple language, least of all our Permyak translators. But they love their language and are passionate about translating it.
Our Permyak translation services are designed to meet your needs.
As a translation company, we have to be ready to serve clients who need translation from Permyak to English as well as those looking for translation from English to Permyak. Our team is equipped to serve both needs for a huge array of materials. For instance, say you want to translate a historical document from Permyak, or traditional Permyak literature and folklore, into English. Our translators can do this easily, allowing you to share Permyak culture with whomever you want. As another example, say you want to translate a questionnaire into Permyak, or books, games, websites, apps, or educational materials into the language. This would allow speakers young and old engage with the language in new ways, promoting its future vitality—something our translators would be thrilled to assist with.
Contact us today and tell us what your vision for your Permyak translation project is!