Kenya is a highly multilingual nation, with more than 65 languages spoken natively within the East African country’s borders. Such multilingualism is par for the course across the remarkably ethnolinguistically diverse continent of Africa, but Kenya is relatively unique in that its indigenous languages hail from different families. While many countries in Africa are dominated by the Niger–Congo family—the largest in the world by number of languages—Kenya’s languages are split between the Niger–Congo family and the Nilo–Saharan family. In the latter, we find tongues like Turkana.
Despite the name, Turkana bears no relation to Turkish or the Turkic language family. It’s the native language of the Turkana people of northwestern Kenya, who make up the more than one million people who speak the language as their first. Turkana is the dominant language in the region, but on a national level, speakers generally need to turn to Swahili or English to communicate with people from other parts of the country. This results in few translation agencies offering translation services for Turkana, but at TranslationServices.com, we’re proud to step in with our new Turkana translation team.
We can provide a free quote for our Turkana translation services if you make a request.
Uncovering the identity of the Turkana language
Turkana is primarily spoken in Turkana County, the homeland of the Turkana people, where it constitutes the dominant language. Turkana County is found in the northwestern portion of Kenya, west of Lake Turkana. Smaller communities of Turkana speakers may also be found in neighboring Ethiopia, but the majority reside in Kenya. Turkana is closely related to other languages in the region, particularly Karamojong, Jie, Teso, Toposa, and Nyangatom. Together, these languages form the Ateker language branch of the Nilo–Saharan language family.
Unlike English, which exhibits a subject-verb-object word order, Turkana places the verb at the beginning of a sentence, with both verb-subject-object and verb-object-subject serving as common basic word orders. Turkana is unique among the world’s languages in various ways, such as that it features six noun cases, whereas most verb-initial languages have at most three. Objects are left unmarked while the subject is marked, another rarity among world languages. Additionally, Turkana has no true passive construction, which can complicate translation between Turkana and English. But when you have the native Turkana-speaking translators on our team at the helm, you don’t have to worry about the nuances of your text getting lost in translation.
A Turkana translation team ready for any type of translation work
We aim for flexibility and quality in our translation services. In building our Turkana translation team, we’ve strived to recruit translators from all over the vast landscape of Turkana County, encompassing the various dialects and regional differences present in the language. Since our team members work with translation jobs both from English to Turkana and from Turkana to English, you can rest assured that no matter who your target audience is, your project is in good hands with our passionate Turkana translators.
Our Turkana translation team is also diverse enough to handle translation projects from all over the spectrum—whether it entails academic translation, business translation, literary translation, or another specialty. Whereas some of our clients wish to translate research surveys or academic interview transcripts as they venture forth to uncover new information, other clients are preparing internal corporate documentation or promotional materials to expand their businesses—either bringing them to Turkana County or moving them out to the wider world. We also have clients eager to publish their novels, poems, short stories, movies, online videos, games, and other creations with new audiences inside or outside of Kenya. Our Turkana translators proudly stand ready to help all these groups and more.
Want Turkana translation services you can trust? Contact our team today to place your first order!