Malay is one of the biggest languages in the world, constituting an official language in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Brunei—although in Indonesia, it goes by the name “Indonesian.” However, Malay is far from the only language spoken in these linguistically diverse countries. Hundreds of languages span Maritime Southeast Asia, and though many are endangered, many nonetheless are supported by strong and sizable communities of speakers. One of the biggest minority languages in the region is Iban.
Iban has about 2.4 million native speakers, with an additional 1.9 million people speaking it as a second language in Malaysia, making Iban a strong and prosperous minority language in Southeast Asia. It’s ranked as “safe” from endangerment, putting it in a much more stable position than nearby minority languages. However, that doesn’t mean translation companies are lining up to translate it, as Iban translation services are uncommon. At TranslationServices.com, we’re making them more accessible with our new Iban translation team.
How about checking out a free quote for our Iban translation services? Ask our team for one today!
What is Iban, a major indigenous language in Southeast Asia, like?
The Iban people are native to the island of Borneo, which is shared by Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. Iban is spoken natively in all three countries, with Indonesian Iban speakers living mostly in the province of West Kalimantan and their Malaysian counterparts concentrated in the state of Sarawak. Iban is divided into several dialects, with the dialects in Sarawak displaying high mutual intelligibility and the West Kalimantan dialects showing more diversity. Vocabulary can sometimes differ substantially between dialects, rendering communication difficult.
Iban is a language of the Austronesian family, like most languages in Indonesia and Malaysia, and more specifically inhabits the Malayic branch. It’s grammatically complex, with a high degree of inflection that changes the meanings of nouns and especially verbs. Iban inflection comes in the form of not only prefixes and suffixes but also infixes and circumfixes, which are affixes inserted into the middle of the root word or that have two parts and wrap around the root word, respectively. In terms of pronouns, Iban follows normal Austronesian conventions in that it makes a distinction between inclusive “we” and exclusive “we”—the first includes the listener, and the second doesn’t. The intricacies of Iban grammar mean it’s not always easy to translate, but that’s why we only hire experienced, native-speaking translators for our Iban team.
We’re flexible when it comes to Iban translation services.
People may need Iban translation services for a wide variety of needs, spanning different types of projects across various dialects of Iban. Our mission is to help people from all over Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and indeed the world access top-level Iban translation services, and to that end, we’ve made sure to hire a diverse selection of translators. With native-speaking team members representing the various dialects of Iban, including Saribas, Betong, Saratok, Balau, Sebuyau, Ulu Ai, Rejang, Remun (also known as Milikin), Bugau, Seberuang, Mualang, Chengkang, Sebaru, and Dau, we make Iban translation services maximally accessible.
Whether you’re looking for English-to-Iban translation services or Iban-to-English translation services, our team has you covered. Our translators also have experience in a diverse range of translation domains, including academic translation, business translation, and literary translation, so we can cater to the individualized needs of students, researchers, professors, entrepreneurs, business managers, marketers, authors, poets, bloggers, software developers, and anyone else in need of Iban translation services. Whether you’re looking to spread a message to the Iban people or you’re an Iban speaker looking to connect with the rest of the world, our multifaceted team is eager to help you—even with esoteric or technical content.
Anyone who wants Iban translation services can access them with us—reach out today to place an order with us!