You might think that most people in the Philippines are native speakers of Tagalog—but you’d be incorrect. In fact, only about a quarter of the Southeast Asian island nation speaks Tagalog as their first language, and the other 75% speak one of the 180+ indigenous minority languages scattered across the archipelago. Of course, many Filipinos learn Tagalog as a lingua franca to communicate with their compatriots, but at home, they speak their native language—like Kamayo.
Kamayo boasts around 360,000 native speakers, so while it pales in comparison to major Philippine languages like Tagalog or Cebuano, it’s much bigger than many of the other minority languages in the country. Sometimes called Kinamayo, the language is spoken widely in the area it’s native to, divided into numerous dialects. However, many native Kamayo speakers are bilingual in Cebuano, which they frequently use with outsiders. At TranslationServices.com, we’re proud to provide dedicated translation services for Kamayo, unlike many other translation companies.
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What is the Kamayo language like?
Kamayo is the native language of more than 360,000 people living on the central eastern coast of Mindanao, the southernmost main island in the Philippine archipelago. Specifically, it’s spoken natively by residents of both Surigao del Sur and Davao Oriental, although Kamayo speakers live among speakers of Cebuano, Surigaonon, Kalagan, Mandaya, and Davaoeño. Though the language features numerous dialects, they can be broadly divided into North Kamayo and South Kamayo, with certain towns speaking their own, distinct dialect.
Kamayo is like most other languages in the Philippines in that it comes from the Philippine branch of the Austronesian language family. It’s closely related to Surigaonon, a language spoken across the northeastern coast of Mindanao, but it’s closer to Mandaya, Kalagan, and Davaoeño. Grammatically, it’s similar to the other languages of the incredibly linguistically diverse country, with a complex intersection of affixes and a complicated voice system that informs the syntax of a sentence. Kamayo also features the antipassive voice, which is like the opposite of the passive voice in English: where the passive promotes the patient to the subject and may omit the agent entirely, the antipassive voice keeps the agent and eliminates or demotes the patient, even if the verb is transitive. Complicated? Sure. But not for our Kamayo translators, who are native speakers of this unique Austronesian language.
Diverse and customizable Kamayo translation services
We’re proud to provide translation services for native Kamayo speakers and anyone anywhere else in the world who may want to communicate with this indigenous Filipino ethnolinguistic group. We’ve built our team to be as robust and well-rounded as possible, tracking down the top translators in the Kamayo-speaking world. Our team members, who come from all over Surigao del Sur, Davao Oriental, and elsewhere in the Philippines, boast experience translating various types of translation projects. No matter what you have for them, they’re eager to help because they’re passionate about breaking down language barriers.
Drawing from their vast and varied experience, our Kamayo translators have the knowledge and skills necessary to help clients in academia, business, entertainment, and all sorts of other domains. Indeed, we can translate everything from academic dissertations and research surveys, to business reports and ad copy, to movie scripts and flowery literature. What if your text touches on technical subject matter? No worries—we make sure to hire Kamayo translators who are experts in a wide range of fields, so all you have to do is let us know what discipline you’re working with. Whether you’re in Surigao del Sur, Davao Oriental, somewhere else in Mindanao, or somewhere else in the world, our Kamayo translation team is ready to serve you.
Contact us today to get started with your first Kamayo translation project!