Indonesia is multilingual—to the tune of more than 700 indigenous languages found across its thousands of islands. Indeed, Indonesia is the second-most linguistically diverse country on the planet, and although the majority of people in the country learn Indonesian, for most, it’s not their first language. The mother tongue of most Indonesians is the local language of their community, and sometimes, these minority languages can have quite a few speakers. Such is the case with Mandar.
Mandar clocks in at about half a million native speakers, which places it among the bigger languages in Indonesia. The language is widely used among the Mandar people, although only around half of the ethnic Mandar population speaks it, and encroachment from Indonesian puts Mandar in danger. Finding translation services for Mandar isn’t too easy, either, and that’s where we at TranslationServices.com can make a difference: we’ve just launched a new Mandar translation team.
How about a free quote for our Mandar translation services? Request one today!
Let’s look a little closer at the Mandar language.
To find the native speakers of Mandar, we must venture to the island of Sulawesi—specifically, the southern coastal regions of the province of West Sulawesi. Most people in the regencies of Majene and Polewali Mandar belong to the ethnic group, and the language enjoys vigorous use in these locales. There are various dialects of Mandar, but the two biggest, accounting for most speakers of the language, are Majene and Banggae, with the rest speaking the Pamboang dialect. Ultimately hailing from the Austronesian language family, Mandar is relatively closely related to some other major languages in the region, such as Buginese, Makassarese, and Toraja-Sa’dan.
Mandar grammar can be complicated for a native English speaker. While there’s no grammatical gender or case, it does feature noun classifiers when counting, where different “group” words are used for different nouns depending on the category they fall into. Unlike in some languages, however, Mandar’s noun classifiers are optional. Like many other Indonesian languages, Mandar adds prefixes to verbs to put them in “agent focus” or “patient focus,” which is roughly analogous to the active and passive voices in English. Other verbal prefixes add different nuances, such as stative prefixes that put the verb into more of an adjective role. All the nuance packed into Mandar verbs can make them hard to translate, but that’s why you should rely on native-speaking Mandar translators like the ones we’ve hired.
Mandar translation services of all kinds, for anyone
Given the general lack of Mandar translation services despite the relative prominence of the language, we’re committed to providing the best and most flexible Mandar translation services we can. That’s why we’ve hired translators from all over Majene, Polewali Mandar, and elsewhere in West Sulawesi, with our team members representing the Majene, Banggae, and Pamboang dialects. With the skills to translate both to and from Mandar, our team has you covered, no matter where your Mandar translation needs may take you.
Another area we excel in is the different translation specializations we offer for Mandar. Say you’re a researcher looking to conduct interviews with native Mandar speakers—our academic translators would be happy to help. Or perhaps you run a business and you’d like to set up a branch in Majene or Polewali Mandar—our business translators can guide you through the linguistic challenges. Maybe you’re working on the more creative side of things, as a native Mandar writer telling unique stories or as a language activist aiming to bring a wider body of literary work to the Mandar language—that’s where our literary translators can assist you. Since some of our translators are additionally experts in other fields, we can even work with technical materials.
So, what are you waiting for? Reach out today to place your first Mandar translation order!