The sheer linguistic diversity of Africa is difficult to explain to Westerners, who are more accustomed to countries primarily speaking a single language. In Africa, most countries feature at least a dozen indigenous languages, with some housing more than 100. Though many indigenous African languages are endangered, many others are thriving, spoken vigorously at the community level. Of course, people learn the national lingua francas, often English or French, but locally, languages like Konkomba reign supreme.
Konkomba is spoken by some 920,000 people as a native language, making it a major language in its region. It also boasts a sizable body of literature, which is uncommon for a minority African language. In addition to a full translation of the Bible, storybooks, folk tales, a dictionary, and primers for teaching have all been published in the language—but unfortunately, representation for Konkomba remains scarce, with translation services for the language rare. So, we at TranslationServices.com decided to do what we do best—translation—and launch a new team for Konkomba translation services.
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So, what makes the Konkomba language tick?
You’ll find the native speakers of Konkomba (also called Likpakpaln) in Ghana—specifically the Northern Region, Volta Region, Brong Ahafo Region, Eastern Region, and Accra—as well as Togo, in the Savanes Region, Kara Region, and Plateaux Region. Being spoken across such a wide geographical area has given rise to a number of Konkomba dialects, including Lichaboil, Ligbeln, Likoonli, Limonkpeln, and Linafeel. Zooming out, Konkomba is classified as an Oti–Volta language of the Gur branch of the Niger–Congo macrofamily, making it related to nearby Gourmanché.
Grammatically, Konkomba differs significantly from English. Like many other Niger–Congo languages, it features a number of noun classes that function similarly to grammatical gender, with each class featuring a distinct plural form. Pronouns have multiple forms—a regular form and an emphatic form for extra emphasis. Konkomba builds a lot of nuance into its expression of the past tense, with three different past tense particles to distinguish the immediate past, remote past, and hesternal past (the previous day). There are also two future tenses: a regular future tense and a negative future tense. Additionally, tone determines the aspect—low tone denotes a perfective (completed) action, while high tone indicates a habitual action. The various complications of Konkomba mean it’s not easy to translate—but you don’t have to worry when you work with our native-speaking Konkomba translators.
If you want Konkomba translation services, turn to us.
We’re proud to provide Konkomba translation services—and so are our Konkomba translators. They’re native speakers who’ve grown up in different regions of Ghana and Togo, speaking the Konkomba dialects of Lichaboil, Ligbeln, Likoonli, Limonkpeln, Linafeel, and more as their native language. They’re pleased to provide high-quality translation services both to and from Konkomba—so whatever your translation project is, we’re certain we can cater to your needs.
We also provide speciality translation services to and from Konkomba, offering academic translation services, business translation services, literary translation services, localization services, and more. Our academic translation services span a wide array of disciplines available for everything from research surveys to educational materials for children. For our business translation services, we work with companies across a diverse range of industries to translate ad copy, press releases, and more. Regarding literary translation, we can translate creative works of all genres and subjects to or from Konkomba, reflecting your unique writing style in the translated text—and for localization services, we translate apps, websites, and games of all kinds to or from this proud African language.
Ready for Konkomba translation services? So are we! Send us a message now to place an order for Konkomba translation services today!