If you’re not overly familiar with the Philippines, you may assume that most people in the Southeast Asian nation speak Tagalog as their first language. Indeed, Tagalog is an important language in the country, functioning as a lingua franca over vast parts of the vibrant archipelago. But in fact, Tagalog accounts for the native language of only about 25% of Filipinos. The other 75% use one of the country’s other 180+ indigenous languages as their native language, speaking their mother tongue in their local area and relying on lingua francas for interethnic communication in other regions.
Among the vast array of languages smattered across the Philippines is Ibanag, which, with around 400,000 native speakers, is one of the larger languages in the country. In fact, based on the 2010 Philippine census, Ibanag ranks as the 19th biggest indigenous language in the nation. Unfortunately, however, that doesn’t mean the language isn’t at risk. With Tagalog dominating many aspects of life in the Philippines—and Ilocano functioning as a local lingua franca in the region—Ibanag is threatened with gradual erosion, and the Philippine government has introduced a program to teach Ibanag in local schools. But that’s still not enough to get most translation companies on board—so we at TranslationServices.com are one of the few proudly offering translation services for Ibanag.
Free quotes for our Ibanag translation services are available at the click of a button—just send us a message!
Diving into the particularities of the Ibanag language
So, where is Ibanag spoken, anyway? The language’s 400,000-odd native speakers live in northern Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines, with most speakers residing in the provinces of Isabela and Cagayan. In terms of cities, Tuguegarao, Solana, Abulug, Cabagan, and Ilagan account for the bulk of Ibanag speakers. Ibanag is part of the Austronesian language family, as are most languages in the Philippines, and it bears a particularly strong relation to Ilocano and Pangasinan.
Turning to grammar, Ibanag speakers structure sentences in a verb-subject-object word order, which is common for Austronesian tongues. English speakers will be relieved to know that Ibanag verbs don’t conjugate for person, like in Spanish or Russian, but verb tense conjugations can be complicated. The pronominal system in Ibanag is also quite distinct from English thanks to the clusivity distinction in the first-person plural. Essentially, that means that Ibanag has two words that translate to “we” in English: one includes the listener, while the other excludes them.
Let us be your guides in the world of Ibanag translation.
Ibanag is a unique, complex, beautiful, precious language from the northern Philippines, and while it’s tricky for English speakers to learn, our Ibanag translators make it easy to communicate with Ibanag people without touching a grammar textbook. We’ve hired translators from all the major Ibanag-speaking cities, giving us coverage over the language’s several dialects. While they may differ in the particular Ibanag dialect they use, what all our translators have in common is a passion for their language, which drives them to provide precision and quality in every Ibanag translation they produce.
Our translators are diverse not only in dialect and location but also in their translation backgrounds, bringing to our team expertise in a wide range of translation domains. This includes everything from business translation and academic translation to literary translation and localization, so whatever your reasons may be for requiring Ibanag translation services, we’re confident our team can serve you well. From opening a thriving business in northern Luzon to sharing traditional Ibanag tales with an audience from around the world, our team is ready to help. We can even translate modern-day entertainment content like novels and games into Ibanag—this makes a great opportunity to support and promote the language’s continued development.
It's important to us to deliver high quality in our Ibanag translation services. Discover our dedication to quality for yourself when you order Ibanag translation services today!
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