Did you know that there are more than 520 languages spoken natively in Nigeria? This positions Nigeria as the third-most linguistically diverse country on the planet, after only Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. This diversity isn’t reflected in the West African country’s official language designation, as English is Nigeria’s only official language, but Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba are all recognized as national languages. But most people in Nigeria speak a local indigenous language as their first, so many of Nigeria’s languages are in strong standing—such as Urhobo.
Urhobo is a large minority language of Nigeria, boasting some 1.1 million native speakers as of 2020—up from around 550,000 in 1993. The language is thus growing along with the ethnic population, with nearly all ethnic Urhobos speaking it as their native language. Ethnologue classifies the language as “developed,” and indeed, it’s used vigorously in the local community, complete with native literature and a standardized orthography. It’s also taught in local elementary schools. However, Nigerian Pidgin English poses a threat to this proud indigenous language, which is rarely catered to by international translation companies. We at TranslationServices.com want to change the status quo with our new Urhobo translation services.
How about contacting us about a free quote for our Urhobo translation services today?
Taking a closer look at the Urhobo language
The Urhobo people reside in southern Nigeria, around the northwestern Niger Delta, comprising one of the three major ethnic groups of Delta State. Additional Urhobo speakers can also be found in the states of Bayelsa and Edo. Within the Edoid subfamily of languages within the larger Niger–Congo macrofamily, it belongs to the Southwestern branch, where it easily overshadows its much smaller cousins. More distantly, it’s related to Edo, a major Nigerian language with more than two million native speakers. Urhobo includes four main dialects: Agbarho, Agbon, Udu, and Ujevwe.
Urhobo adopts a basic word order of subject-verb-object, the same as English and the vast majority of Niger–Congo languages. Also like most other languages in its family, it’s a tonal language, composed of two tones—high and low—which can be combined to form rising or falling tones. Urhobo includes a pronoun even when explicitly referencing an agent, such as in the sentence Òtítí ò chó ọhọ ná, literally “Òtítí he stole hen the.” This example sentence also demonstrates that Urhobo places the definite article after the noun. Urhobo certainly isn’t an easy language to translate, but don’t worry—working with our native-speaking translators makes it a breeze.
Flexibility and reliability in our Urhobo translation services
Whatever you’re looking for in Urhobo translation services, we’re here to provide it. Our translation experts are native speakers of the Agbarho, Agbon, Udu, and Ujevwe dialects of Urhobo and are proud to use their linguistic skills to help clients from across Nigeria and the world break down the language barrier between English and Urhobo. We work in both directions—English to Urhobo and Urhobo to English—so whichever side of the language barrier you’re on, we’d love to help.
We strive to make our Urhobo translation services available to a diverse array of clients, which is why we’ve hired translators experienced in different niches of translation services. Academic translation services are available for everything from research questionnaires to children’s lesson materials, while we proudly offer business translation services for business plans, white papers, ad copy, and more across a wide spectrum of industries. We provide literary translation services for both traditional and contemporary literature to or from Urhobo, helping spread the joy of literature across new cultures. Of course, our localization experts are also happy to help digitalize Urhobo by translating websites, apps, games, and more into the language. We can also navigate esoteric language—just ask!
If you’re ready to get started with Urhobo translation services, now’s the time! Send us a message today to discuss your needs!