In terms of geographical area, the Caucasus occupies only a small portion of the world—yet this is one of the most linguistically diverse places in the world, housing countless languages from various families, including three families entirely exclusive to the region. Caucasian languages, known for their incredible complexity, are unfortunately often overlooked on the global stage, threatened by larger regional languages. That’s the case with Mingrelian, which is classified by UNESCO as a “definitely endangered language.”
According to Ethnologue, Mingrelian counted around 345,000 native speakers as of 2015, although no truly reliable figures exist, with estimates ranging from 300,000 to 500,000. Mingrelian speakers typically live in northwestern Georgia, in the regions of Mingrelia and Abkhazia, but civil unrest and ethnic tensions in Abkhazia has significantly reduced the number of Mingrelian speakers in Abkhazia, forcing them out to other regions of Georgia. Most Mingrelians use Mingrelian for everyday, informal conversation and Georgian for more formal or official purposes, which puts Mingrelian under threat. Few translation companies offer dedicated Mingrelian translation services, but we at TranslationServices.com do, with our new Mingrelian translation team.
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The Mingrelian language: Georgian’s long-lost cousin
Like Georgian, Mingrelian is one of a handful of languages that belongs to the Kartvelian language family, but Mingrelian and Georgian are mutually unintelligible, estimated to have diverged from one another more than 2000 years ago. The only language that Mingrelian exhibits any level of mutual intelligibility with is Laz, a Kartvelian language spoken minority communities in Georgia and Turkey. In fact, some Georgian linguists consider Mingrelian and Laz two different dialects of a single language called Zan, although the limited mutual intelligibility between the two lead most linguists to reject this classification.
Mingrelian features two main dialects and three subdialects, namely Zugdidi-Sumarzakano (Northwest Mingrelian), with subdialect Jvari, and Senaki-Poti (Southeast Mingrelian), with subdialects Martvili-Bandza and Abasha. The dialects are remarkably similar, all equally grammatically complex. Mingrelian features nine noun cases, which indicate the role of a noun in a given sentence, and any adjectives modifying a noun are also inflected with the same case markings. Mingrelian verbs aren’t any simpler, with both the subject and object marked on verbs, as well as conjugations that indicate the “version” of the noun (i.e., who the action is intended for—oneself, someone else, etc.). Mingrelian is anything but a simple language, which makes it a challenge for translators—but fortunately, our translators are passionate native speakers of Mingrelian.
Crafting the Mingrelian translations you want
We’re here to serve your Mingrelian translation needs to the fullest, carefully tailoring our offering to meet your specific goals. Our Mingrelian translators are native speakers of the language’s different dialects, so don’t hesitate to request a particular variety of Mingrelian. We’re capable of translating both from Mingrelian to English and from English to Mingrelian, covering a wide scope of Mingrelian translation needs. Our translation services are available no matter what script you’re using for Mingrelian: the Georgian Mkhedruli script, the Latin script, or the Cyrillic script.
If your Mingrelian translation project fits into a particular niche that may be difficult for a general translator to cover, no problem—we have various specialists on our Mingrelian translation team. If you’re a researcher or academic looking to translate a research survey or educational materials, our academic translators can help—for any discipline! If you’re a CEO or business leader who needs help translating business plans or promotional materials for your business ventures in Mingrelia, let our business translators help. If you’re a creative writer who wants a broader audience for your novel, poem, short story, or other work, our literary translators would be delighted to help. In short, whatever your Mingrelian translation needs, we’re here.
Are you ready to take advantage of our Mingrelian translation services? Reach out today to get started!