The sheer linguistic diversity of the world may surprise a lot of people. Did you know that there are more than 7000 languages spoken around the world? A whopping 10% of them are found in Indonesia, the second-most linguistically diverse country on the planet. Of course, most Indonesians—around 80%—speak Indonesian, since they need it to talk to compatriots from other regions, but at home, many speak their indigenous native language.
One of these indigenous languages is called Batak Dairi, spoken in North Sumatra on the island of Sumatra. Estimates put the number of speakers between 600,000 and 1.2 million, as the language faces pressure not only from Indonesian, the national lingua franca, but also Toba Batak, the local lingua franca. Toba Batak is held in higher regard than Batak Dairi, leading some speakers to feel ashamed of their native language. However, efforts to revitalize Batak Dairi are underway, with the Pakpak Dairi Protestant Christian Church adopting Batak Dairi as its language, when most churches in the area use Toba Batak instead. We at TranslationServices.com are also interested in preserving Batak Dairi, which is why we’re so proud to have put together a Batak Dairi translation team.
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Understanding the identity of Batak Dairi
Batak Dairi, which is sometimes called Pakpak, is mostly spoken in North Sumatra, namely in Dairi Regency, Pakpak Bharat Regency, and parts of Humbang Hasundutan Regency and Central Tapanuli Regency, as well as Subulussalam and Aceh Singkil Regency in the neighboring province of Aceh. It’s spoken by both the Christian Pakpak people and the Muslim Singkil people, although the Pakpaks have a tendency to shift to the more prestigious Toba Batak.
Batak Dairi is an Austronesian language, as are most languages in Indonesia. Batak Dairi’s basic word order is verb-object-subject, a rare word order among the world’s languages. However, subject-verb-object, the same word order as English, is also possible, depending on the context. Words in Batak Dairi can be topicalized by being moved to the beginning of a sentence, changing the focus and word order simultaneously. The language also exhibits a complex inflection system filled with prefixes (added to the beginning of the root word), suffixes (added to the end), infixes (added in the middle), and circumfixes (added to both sides).
Translation to or from Batak Dairi: which one would you like?
Regardless of the grammatical complications that Batak Dairi presents, our translators are capable of translating both to and from the indigenous Indonesian language. We’ve taken care to construct a team of diversely experienced translators who specialize in various areas of translation, so we can translate everything from business and academic documents to entertainment content. We can translate historical documents or traditional Batak Dairi folklore into English, allowing clients to share Batak Dairi culture with outsiders. We can also translate surveys and questionnaires or creative content like books, websites, and apps into Batak Dairi, helping to preserve the language by creating more content in it and legitimizing its role in local society.
No matter what kind of Batak Dairi translation needs you have, let our team help—just send a message today!