Chinese isn’t just one language—it’s several. What most people think of as “Chinese” is actually Mandarin, the largest Chinese language and the lingua franca of China, promoted widely by the government. Many smaller Chinese languages—which are not necessarily mutually intelligible with Mandarin—are spoken throughout the country, although most are threatened by the prestige and widespread usage of Mandarin. Wenzhounese is one of these minority Sinitic languages.
Gathering precise speaker figures for minority Chinese languages is difficult, but it’s estimated that around 4 million people speak Wenzhounese. Like other minority Chinese languages, its vitality is threatened, and under these circumstances, finding a translation firm with a Wenzhounese translation team is no simple task. But if Wenzhounese translation services are what you’re looking for, TranslationServices.com is here for you. We’re proud to offer our specialized translation services for the proud minority Chinese language of Wenzhounese, with our translators offering services both into and out of the language.
You can get a free quote for our Wenzhounese translation services by simply emailing us and requesting one.
Wenzhounese: The “Devil’s Language”
Wenzhounese is part of the Wu subfamily of Sinitic languages, the same branch that the larger Shanghainese hails from. It’s spoken by roughly 4 million people primarily in the city of Wenzhou, located in Zhejiang Province. Wenzhounese is sometimes nicknamed the “devil’s language” as an allusion to its stark divergence from other Wu languages, with little to no mutual intelligibility to any other Chinese language. It also exhibits similarities to the southern Min languages, given that it borders the Min-speaking province of Fujian.
Wenzhounese is famous for its divergent phonetics that cement its position as a particularly unusual Chinese language. However, vocabulary and grammatical differences also set this unique language apart from its neighbors. Wenzhounese is known for preserving many words from Classical Chinese that most Chinese languages no longer use, which has earned the language the additional nickname of “the living fossil.” Wenzhounese prefers a word order of subject-verb-object, like Mandarin, but like other Wu languages, it may also use subject-object-verb or object-subject-verb. The subject-object-verb order is often used when the verb is suffixed—there are only a handful of common suffixes.
Wenzhounese may have developed a reputation for being difficult, but for our Wenzhounese translators, it’s easy. We’ll translate to and from Wenzhounese with the utmost ease.
Translating Wenzhounese: we work in both directions!
If you’re looking for professional translation services of the “Devil’s Language,” you’ve come to the right place! As one of the few translation services that offers Wenzhounese, we’re proud to translate both to and from the language. So, if you have historical documents, literature, or notes in Wenzhounese that you want to share with an international audience, just get in touch with our team. If you’re a language activist who would like to see more content published in Wenzhounese—whether books, games, apps, poetry, or something else—just reach out. Our Wenzhounese translators are thrilled to serve a variety of needs from a diverse clientele.
We’re pleased to offer our Wenzhounese translation services to anyone who needs them. To take advantage of our offering, just message us and tell us what you’re looking for.