The official language of Nigeria is English, but that doesn’t mean all Nigerians speak it. As the third-most linguistically diverse country in the world, Nigeria is home to more than 525 indigenous languages, several of which are spoken by millions of people. The country’s biggest indigenous languages are Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo, but other, smaller groups of languages still account for a sizable portion of Nigerians. For example, the Plateau languages of central Nigeria, concentrated primarily in the states of Plateau, Kaduna, and Nasarawa, are collectively spoken by an estimated 15 million people.
Despite Nigeria’s impressive linguistic diversity, the unfortunate reality is that many of the country’s indigenous languages are endangered, including most of the Plateau languages. The Plateau family, a subbranch of the Volta–Congo languages of the larger Niger–Congo language family that stretches over most of sub-Saharan Africa, consists of several dozens of distinct languages divided into several groups. Although the Berom people, the speakers of Nigeria’s biggest Plateau language, are the dominant ethnic group in the state of Plateau, all Plateau languages suffer from a lack of international recognition, making translation services for them scarce. At TranslationServices.com, however, we’re proud to provide translation services for most Plateau languages.
If you need Plateau translation services, reach out today for a free quote!
A deeper look at the Plateau languages
Of the several dozens of languages in the Plateau family, many are highly endangered, with only a few thousand speakers. Some, however, boast several hundred thousand speakers. Berom is the biggest, with over 1 million speakers, and it enjoys vigorous use in rural Plateau State, even as ethnic Berom people in urban areas are switching to Hausa. Other major Plateau languages include the Kainji languages, a group of roughly 60 Plateau languages that together boast around 1 million speakers. Here are some of the most prominent Plateau languages:
Berom (Birom)
Adara (Eda)
Eggon (Egon, Ero, Mo Egon)
Vadi (Tsuvadi)
Shingini (Tsishingini, Cishingini, Ashaganna)
Lela (C’lela)
Hyam
Jju (Kaje, Kache)
Tyap (Katab, Kataf)
Nghan (Kamantan)
Nyankpa (Yeskwa)
Plateau languages exhibit considerable diversity within the family, with only some languages in the family featuring nominal cases like their cousins in the expansive Bantu language family. The erosion of noun-class prefixes in some of the Plateau tongues has led to highly consonant-dense languages that can present difficulties for learners. In general, Plateau languages place adjectives, possessives, and even determiners after the noun, a pattern also found in most Bantu languages. The languages usually follow a subject-verb-object word order, like in English, although verbal modifiers like negation markers may come after verb, as in Tyap.
Let us translate to and from Plateau languages for you.
The Plateau languages may be endangered, but that doesn’t mean speakers aren’t proud of their indigenous tongues. We’ve taken the liberty of tracking down the top translators of Plateau languages from across Nigeria, and they’re eager to use their skills to help promote their native languages—whether that’s Berom, Tyap, Adara, Hyam, Vadi, or another Plateau language. We’re ready to suit the needs of anyone looking for Plateau translation, with services translating both into and from Plateau languages. Here are some of the translation services we provide:
Business translation. Our Plateau business translation services are a great way for local businesses to step into the international market confidently, knowing their English-language materials are crisp and clear. Similarly, our team can help foreign organizations make an impact in Plateau-speaking areas.
Literary translation. If you’re looking to share Plateau literature with the rest of the world, we can help. The experience and passion of our Plateau translators makes them well suited to tell the region’s stories to the world. We’re also ready to help authors from abroad translate their works into local Plateau languages to wow new audiences.
Pedagogical translation. A key approach to curbing and reserving language death is to immerse children in the language, and one of the best ways to do that is to provide native-language education to young speakers of endangered languages. Our team is eager to help language activists translate educational materials into Plateau languages to equip a new generation of Plateau speakers with a high-quality education.
That’s not all we translate, of course. Whatever you need translated to or from a Plateau language, just get in touch with us to discuss your needs!