In terms of ethnolinguistic diversity, no place on Earth is more vibrant than Southeast Asia. With hundreds of distinct ethnolinguistic groups scattered across the region stretching from southern China to the countless islands of Indonesia. Within this region we also find the Philippines, a vibrant Southeast Asian island country home to more than 180 different ethnic groups. While almost all of them speak an Austronesian language, there’s significant linguistic diversity across the country, with many languages boasting a sizable speaker population. One such language is Aklanon, spoken in the central Philippines.
With a total of roughly 560,000 native speakers, Aklanon is the 15th-most widely spoken native language in the Philippines. It’s indigenous to the province of Aklan on the island of Panay, located in the Visayas region of the country, and is spoken by 95% of the mostly ethnically Aklanon population. Hiligaynon, as the largest language in Panay, is commonly spoken as a second language, especially as a lingua franca, and more broadly in the Philippines, English and Tagalog are used for country-wide communication. This puts Aklanon in a potentially vulnerable position—which is why we’re proud to present our Aklanon translation team.
Request a quote for our Aklanon translation services at no cost today!
Let’s dive into the background of Aklanon.
Aklanon, which may also be called Akeanon, belongs to the Bisayan group of Philippine languages, part of the larger Austronesian language family that accounts for most languages in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia. It’s chiefly divided into two dialects: Aklanon and Malaynon. Today, Aklanon is written in the Latin alphabet, as are most of its fellow Philippine languages, but in the past, the Aklanon people wrote their language in the native Filipino Baybayin script.
Aklanon word order is relatively flexible, especially compared to a language like English, with extremely rigid word order. Changing the word order of a sentence can give rise to different nuances, which a translator must pay careful attention to. Verbs are one of the most complicated aspects of Aklanon, with a range of suffixes, prefixes, and infixes contributing to different grammatical meanings. This can result in inflected words that look quite different from their roots, confusing non-native speakers. Aklanon also features the infamous Philippine trigger system, where affixes are attached to verbs to focus the sentence on a particular element, such as the subject, object, or location.
We proudly offer Aklanon translation services—in both directions!
Aklanon is a tricky language—but not if you’re a native speaker! That’s why we’ve scoured the Filipino province of Aklan for the top Aklanon translators and welcomed them onto our translation team. With their expertise, we’re proud to offer seamless translations between English and Aklanon for nearly any application.
Say you run a business in Aklan and want to take it abroad. We’ll help you translate your Aklan materials into English. That’s not all—we’ll also help you translate Aklan literature and stories to share with the world. Or, maybe you have an old historical document in Aklanon, written in the historical Baybayin font. If you want it translated, we can help you!
Maybe you want translation services into Aklanon instead. You might be looking to promote your organization to Aklanon speakers or produce Aklanon-language learning materials for native-speaking children. Or perhaps you want to translate apps, websites, novels, poems, or games for the Aklanon-speaking population. That’s right up our alley—let us help!
Our Aklanon translators are waiting for you—message us today about your Aklanon translation project!