Latin America is known for speaking Spanish (or Portuguese in the case of Brazil)—the Latinate languages these countries speak are how the region became known as Latin America. Not everyone knows there are exceptions, however—for example, the official language in Belize is English (although an English-based creole is used in both formal and informal situations). But in the pre-Columbian era, the region was rife with linguistic diversity, with countless languages from various language families, and today, many of these languages are still spoken by minorities—such as the Mopan language in Guatemala and Belize.
Although many Mayan languages and other pre-Columbian languages are still spoken in Latin America, most are endangered, spoken only by ethnic minorities. Such is the case with Mopan, which only has around 13,000 speakers. The Guatemalan government is making efforts to revitalize Mopan (and Guatemala’s 21 other Mayan languages), but still, it’s hard to find services like translation for Mopan, especially when you’re dealing with English instead of Spanish. At TranslationServices.com, we fill this gap proudly with our Mopan translation services, available both to and from Mopan.
Want Mopan translation services? Just send us a message and inquire about a free quote to see the price.
Discovering pre-Columbian Latin America with Mopan
The 13,000 or so speakers of Mopan are divided between Guatemala and Belize, with around 3,000 to 4,000 in Guatemala’s Petén department and around 6,000 to 8,000 in the Maya Mountains region of western Belize. Mopan comes from the Yucatecan branch of the Mayan language family, although it diverged from Yucatec Maya, spoken on the Yucatec Peninsula, around 1,000 years ago.
Many features of Mopan are tricky for those used to European languages to grasp. For one thing, Mopan speakers frequently employ a verb-subject-object word order, although subject-verb-object—the same as in English—can also be used. Mopan also features a long list of noun classifiers, which categorize nouns based on their characteristics or qualities—there’s a classifier for round objects and one for long, thin objects, for example. There’s also one for humans and animals and a default “inanimate object” classifier. These classifiers are obligatorily appended to numerals and can even indicate gender, since there are separate classifiers for male and female.
Our Mopan translators grew up speaking the language, so they’re familiar with all the idiosyncrasies of the grammar and are committed to providing high-quality Mopan translations.
Mopan translation services designed to accommodate your needs
When you’re looking for Mopan translation services—which are pretty hard to find—you want a translation team flexible enough to cater to your individual needs. That’s what you’ll find with us, since our diverse team of translators has worked on a wide range of projects. How about translating traditional Mopan stories and folklore so others can learn about the rich culture of the Mopan people? We can do that. How about translating surveys into Mopan so academics can conduct research, or translating books, websites, or apps into Mopan so speakers can use their language in more domains of life? That’s right up our alley as well.
Ordering Mopan translation services is as easy as contacting us and letting us know what you’re envisioning.