More than 520 indigenous languages span the expansive territory of the most populous country in Africa, Nigeria. Its official language is English, and with some 60 million people speaking Nigerian Pidgin English, it’s the most spoken language in the country—but rarely do Nigerians speak it as a native language. Most Nigerians speak a local indigenous language as their first and learn English or another lingua franca to speak to people from other regions. That means minority languages like Epie are the true languages of Nigeria.
Epie, sometimes called Epie–Atịsa, measured some 140,000 native speakers as of 2021, as of Ethnologue. However, it’s worth noting that the Joshua Project arrived at an undated speaker estimate of 31,000, so the precise number of Epie speakers is unclear. Epie is classified as a language in vigorous use, and it’s spoken by people of all ages and generations within the ethnic population, and although it doesn’t have a standardized form, it does have a dictionary. Many Epie speakers additionally learn nearby Izon, which boasts around 2.4 million speakers. This precarious situation is a threat to Epie’s future, but we at TranslationServices.com are proud to support the language with our new Epie translation services.
We’d love to provide a free quote for our Epie translation services—just ask!
What kind of language is Epie?
Epie is spoken natively by the Epie–Atissa peoples of Nigeria’s southern Bayelsa state, specifically in the Local Government Area of Yenagoa, which doubles as the state’s capital city. Izon, Ekpeye, and Engenni are also spoken in the state, with Izon constituting the majority language. Atissa is a dialect of the language spoken by the Atissa subgroup of the ethnic population, the majority of whom also speak Izon. Epie, like most other languages in West Africa, belongs to the Niger–Congo language family, with Epie situated specifically on the Edoid branch.
Epie’s closest relatives are Engenni, also spoken in Yenagoa, and Degema, spoken in the neighboring Rivers State. It’s largely an isolating language, meaning that there’s minimal inflection and grammatical meaning is conveyed through word order, particles, and tone. It primarily uses a subject-object-verb word order, like English and most other languages in the Niger–Congo family, save for the Mande languages. Adjectives, demonstratives, and numerals all come after the noun, unlike in English. The various differences between Epie and English make translation efforts difficult, but for native speakers of Epie, it’s not so hard—and we only hire native-speaking translators.
A robust Epie translation team ready to serve you
If you want high-quality Epie translation services, you’ve come to the right place. We’re careful to hire the best, most experienced Epie translators from across Yenagoa and elsewhere in Bayelsa State, with coverage of the Atissa dialect included. Our translators are native speakers of the language and are proud of its many nuances, and they’re skilled at translating both into Epie and from Epie. So, whatever you need in terms of Epie translation services, we have your back.
Are you in the market for specialty Epie translation services, such as academic translation services, business translation services, literary translation services, or localization services? Our well-rounded team includes experts in various domains of translation, so simply get in touch with us, and we’ll do our best to match you up with an Epie translator who meets your needs. The same applies if you’re working with a text that contains esoteric terminology. We work with academics, researchers, scholars, educators, business owners, CEOs, marketing professionals, event planners, entertainers, speakers, bloggers, novelists, poets, software developers, and all sorts of other people to help them break down the language barrier between English and Epie, and we’d love to help you, too.
Our team can’t wait to get to work on your Epie translation project. Just send us a message to discuss your needs today!
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