The Caucasus is a geographically complicated region. One of the most ethnolinguistically diverse corners of the world, this small region bridging Europe and Asia is home to three distinct language families: Northwest Caucasian, Northeast Caucasian, and Kartvelian. While the only sovereign countries in the region are Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia, the number of distinct ethnic groups is far greater. Even within Georgia, demographics are hardly clear-cut, and the disputed northwestern region of the country, Abkhazia, is home to its own ethnolinguistic group: the Abkhaz people.
Abkhazia is a de facto country on the border of Georgia and Russia, but its sovereignty is recognized by a mere five countries—all others consider Abkhazia a part of Georgia. Although Abkhazia has declared Abkhaz to be its official language, success in switching to Abkhaz-only education has been limited, with instructors more likely to use Russian. Thus, Abkhaz is considered endangered, although Abkhazia is continuing its efforts to strengthen the language. Finding translation services for Abkhaz can be a challenge, which is why we at TranslationServices.com are so proud to announce our Abkhaz translation team.
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Abkhaz: a phonetically unique language
Abkhaz is a complicated language, both in terms of grammar and pronunciation. Notably, the language has a massive consonant inventory, with 58 distinct consonant phonemes, yet only two phonemically distinct vowel qualities. As a Northwest Caucasian language, Abkhaz is an agglutinative language that relies heavily on inflection, and unlike English and most other languages from Europe, Abkhaz uses an ergative–absolutive alignment, which treats intransitive subjects and transitive objects grammatically identically. Unlike most ergative languages, Abkhaz’s 190,000-odd speakers denote ergativity through word order rather can explicit case marking.
The most important element of an Abkhaz sentence is the verb—in fact, a verb alone can constitute an entire sentence, since information about the subject and object are tacked onto the verb. Abkhaz distinguishes between finite and non-finite verb forms, with the former being able to form a complete sentence and the latter being used for dependent clauses. A total of five aspect markers and ten tense markers can be applied to verbs to alter their meaning, allowing for a high degree of nuance. Abkhaz even has a clitic (similar to a suffix) that functions as a coordinating conjunction (i.e., “and”).
Is Abkhaz difficult? Certainly. But you don’t have to worry, because our translators are native Abkhaz translators who can effortlessly translate between Abkhaz and English.
Abkhaz translations that meet your specifications
We have some clients looking for translation from Abkhaz to English and others who want to translate from English to Abkhaz. No matter what you’re looking for, our Abkhaz translation team is here to accommodate you. Historians or governmental organizations may appreciate translation into English for historical or official documents in Abkhaz, and others may like to translate Abkhaz literature into English with the intention of sharing it with the wider world. We can also help researchers who want surveys translated into Abkhaz, agencies who want educational materials translated into Abkhaz, or language activists who want books, poetry, games, apps, and more translated into Abkhaz—all of which can help cement Abkhaz’s future as a strong language for generations to come.
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