Swahili is one of the most famous indigenous African languages. Despite being native to the coastlines of Tanzania and Kenya, the language has blossomed into a widely spoken lingua franca all across East Africa and even into Central Africa and southern Africa. Swahili gained its prominence (and its name) thanks to Arab traders, which led to Swahili emerging as a local lingua franca. But since it’s spoken over such a large area, it’s only natural that different varieties of the language have emerged, which brings us to Congo Swahili.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is quite far from the region that Swahili is indigenous to, but the language is still widely spoken across much of the eastern half of the country, and it’s a big country. The language is generally used as a lingua franca, with people learning it as a second language rather than a native language, but in a country as linguistically diverse as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it’s necessary to have a common language to unite all the different ethnolinguistic groups. Despite the language’s importance, translation services are rare—so we at TranslationServices.com are introducing our own Congo Swahili translation services.
See a free quote for our Congo Swahili translation services when you message us and ask!
Congo Swahili: a different kind of Swahili
The Swahili-speaking world has a saying that goes, “Swahili was born in Zanzibar, grew up in Tanzania, fell sick in Kenya, died in Uganda, and was buried in the Congo,” which is meant to demonstrate how incomprehensible Congo Swahili sounds to speakers of other Swahili varieties. A key reason for the poor mutual intelligibility is that unlike Standard Swahili (which has been heavily influenced by Arabic, with up to 40% of its vocabulary coming from the language), Congo Swahili has been influenced by French. It’s also picked up vocabulary from other indigenous languages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which speakers of other Swahili varieties can’t understand.
Congo Swahili differs from Standard Swahili in not only its vocabulary but also its grammar. It’s added some grammatical distinctions that don’t exist in Standard Swahili, such as distinctions between the near past and distant past, the near future and remote future, and the present progressive and present habitual, giving Congo Swahili certain nuances that Standard Swahili lacks. The Katanga dialect is particularly divergent, to the point that some people consider it a separate creole language. It’s clear, then, that a Standard Swahili translator won’t cut it if you’re working with Congo Swahili.
Tailoring our Congo Swahili translation services to fit your needs
Whatever kind of Congo Swahili translation services you’re looking for, our team is ready to help. With translators who hail from all over the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we can cater our offering to match your needs, including if you want a translator from a particular region of the DRC. It doesn’t matter whether you have an English document to translate into Congo Swahili or a Congo Swahili text to translate into English, because we work in both directions.
For anyone who’s looking for a specialized type of translation services, we’re pleased to offer academic translation, business translation, literary translation, localization services, and more. Our team is large and diverse—if you have any special requests, all you need to do is ask. We work with professors, students, researchers, educators, CEOs, business owners, entrepreneurs, marketers, novelists, poets, scriptwriters, bloggers, journalists, software developers, and many others to provide the Congo Swahili translation services they need. Don’t worry if your document contains esoteric vocabulary, either. Just ask whether we have a Congo Swahili translator who understands your field—we very well may!
If you have a Congo Swahili translation project, why not reach out to us today to discuss how we can help you break down language barriers?