How much do you know about the languages of Iran? You may be aware that the national language of the prominent Middle Eastern country is Persian, but what you may not know is that less than half of the Iranian population speaks Persian as their native tongue. The country is home to dozens of other languages, some of which bear no relation whatsoever to Persian. Some of them are languages leaking in from neighboring countries, such as Azeri, Arabic, Turkmen, or Armenian, while others are minority languages indigenous to the land, such as Luri, Gilaki, and Qashqai.
Today we’re looking at Qashqai, a prominent minority language in Iran that boasts around 1 million native speakers. The language is known under many spellings, with Qaşqay, Qashqayi, Kashkai, Kashkay, Qašqāʾī, Qashqa'i, and Kaşkay all acceptable—what remains constant is the Qashqai people’s sense of identity, which ties into their unique language. Unfortunately, Qashqai’s vitality is threatened by the widespread usage and prestige of Persian, as all Iranians effectively must learn Persian to participate in wider Iranian society. This means there aren’t a lot of resources available in Qashqai, and few translation agencies offer services for the language. We at TranslationServices.com are proud to present our new Qashqai translation team, however.
If you’re interested in our Qashqai translation services, perhaps you’d like to see a free quote—just reach out and ask!
Qashqai: a minority Iranian language with no relation to Persian
Though many minority languages in Iran, such as Luri or Gilaki, come from the same language family as Persian, that’s not the case with Qashqai. Rather, Qashqai is much more closely related to Azeri, which hails from the Turkic language family. Despite the linguistic similarities, however, the Qashqai homeland isn’t that close to Azerbaijan. You’ll find the majority of Qashqai speakers in southern and central Iran, especially in the province of Fars but also in Isfahan, Bushehr, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, and Khuzestan.
As a Turkic language, Qashqai is characterized by a lack of grammatical gender, a default word order of subject-object-verb, and an adherence to vowel harmony, which can cause the vowels in case suffixes to change depending on the vowels in the rest of the word. Like Azeri, Turkish, and other Turkic tongues, Qashqai is an agglutinative language, meaning it “glues together” affixes and other grammatical particles to form meaning within a sentence. Qashqai’s numerous cases make it intimidating to English speakers, which is why you should always rely on experienced professionals when you need Qashqai translation services.
We’re here to provide the Qashqai translation services you want.
Our goal is to ensure you have access to the type of Qashqai translation services you need. With Qashqai’s status as a minority language in Iran, it’s hard to come by translation agencies that work with the language, but we take Qashqai translation to the next level with our robust team of passionate, native-speaking Qashqai translators with experience translating both from English to Qashqai and from Qashqai to English. We’ve hired our Qashqai translators from all over the province of Fars as well as the other areas of Iran with a Qashqai-speaking presence, ensuring a wide coverage of different Qashqai dialects.
Since our translators have experience in many different translation domains, it’s also easy for us to accommodate your translation needs, no matter why you’re looking for Qashqai translation. Maybe you’re a business owner who’s looking to set up shop in Fars and wants to really connect with the local clientele. Perhaps you’ve found an old manuscript handwritten by your grandfather in Qashqai, and you want to know what it says. Or maybe you’re a language activist who wants to strengthen Qashqai’s future by translating books, poems, apps, games, and more into the minority language. Whatever the reason you’re looking for Qashqai translation services, our team is happy to provide their Qashqai expertise.
We’re eager to help you with your Qashqai translation project. Simply send us a message if you’re ready to get started!