Let’s take a trip to Kenya. One of the most prominent and well-known African nations, this East African country is more diverse than you may realize. Kenya is renowned for its biodiversity, with safaris constituting a major driver of tourism in the country, but this diversity also extends to Kenya’s human population, with more than 120 estimated ethnic groups speaking roughly 70 languages. To ensure these disparate ethnic groups can smoothly communicate with one another, Kenya has designated English and Swahili as its official languages, but most Kenyans speak their local indigenous language first.
The biggest indigenous language in Kenya is Kikuyu, but Mijikenda is also one of Kenya’s top languages, boasting 1.9 million speakers in the country and an additional 100,000 or so in neighboring Tanzania. The Mijikenda people are also one of Kenya’s biggest ethnic groups, split up into nine smaller groups—Chonyi, Digo, Giriama, Jibana, Duruma, Kambe, Kauma, Ribe, and Rabai—but they’re united by their collective Mijikenda language. This results in a vibrant language with many dialects, a small-scale representation of Kenya’s overarching diversity. Unfortunately, however, it’s hard to find reliable translation services for Mijikenda—most translation companies prefer to focus on larger languages. But we here at TranslationServices.com are proud to present our Mijikenda translation team.
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A deeper exploration of Mijikenda
Mijikenda is a big language in Kenya and constitutes the native language of the several bands of Mijikenda peoples, but unfortunately, it remains underdocumented by linguists, just like many other indigenous languages of Africa. We believe this makes it all the more important to support it, as underdocumented languages are at greater risk of endangerment.
Like most other languages in Kenya, Mijikenda comes from the Bantu family, which comprises a huge proportion of the languages in sub-Saharan Africa. This makes it related to other major Kenyan languages, such as Swahili and Kikuyu. Mijikenda shares the typical Bantu features of a subject-verb-object word order, an extensive noun class system that permeates all aspects of the language, and prefix-dominant inflection that allows several prefixes to be stacked onto the same root word, which can make it a tricky language for English speakers to master. A unique feature of Mijikenda—more specifically, the Digo and Duruma dialects—is the use of clicks in ideophones, which could be the result of influence from nearby endangered language Dahalo.
Dedicated to quality in our Mijikenda translation services
We’re serious about delivering high-quality, reliable Mijikenda services every time. This desire has driven us to build the best, most robust Mijikenda translation team we can, scouting out professional translators of all nine dialects from across Kenya and Tanzania. We’ve ensured our translators can translate both from Mijikenda to English and from English to Mijikenda, so no matter what direction you’re going, we’re here to help. We’ve also made sure to hire translators with knowledge in supplementary fields, as that allows us to translate technical documents in an array of disciplines with ease.
We’re also dedicated to flexibility—we want to help as many people in need of Mijikenda translation services as possible. That’s why we’ve searched out translators with experience translating business documents, academic writing, creative projects, and more. Now we have a robust Mijikenda translation team that can seamlessly convert your business plans, employment contracts, ad copy, press releases, research questionnaires, theses, novels, poetry, games, apps, and more between Mijikenda and English. As native Mijikenda speakers, our translators are the foremost experts on the language, and their passion for their native tongue drives their undying dedication to quality in every translation they produce.
What kind of Mijikenda translation project do you have? Let us know how we can help by sending a message today.