The world of languages is vast, far more diverse than the 200-odd countries in the world make it appear at first glance. With more than 7,000 distinct languages spanning the globe, most are relegated to minority status, spoken by small communities overshadowed by the bigger national or regional languages spoken in the area. But that doesn’t mean these languages aren’t important or vigorous in their communities. Today, we’re looking at a locally vibrant language in Africa: Kunama.
According to 2022 data, there are about 180,000 native speakers of Kunama, and while that may seem like a low number, it’s relatively large for a minority African language. Roughly half of the ethnic Kunama population speaks the language, which competes against larger regional languages, such as Tigrinya, Tigre, Arabic, and English. Nonetheless, Kunama retains vigorous usage in its core communities—but resources and translation services for the language are uncommon. At TranslationServices.com, we value underserved languages like Kunama, which is why we’re proud to introduce our new Kunama translation services.
Contact us today if you’d like to request a free quote for our Kunama translation services!
What kind of background does the Kunama language have?
Kunama is natively spoken in the Gash-Barka Region of western Eritrea, as well as in communities across the border in Ethiopia. The language is somewhat of a mystery to linguists, tentatively classified in the Nilo–Saharan family but with scant evidence, leading to speculations that it’s a language isolated unrelated to any other known languages. It’s sometimes confused with Nara, a nearby language, even though they’re only distantly related at best. Similarities between Kunama and the Meroitic language, an ancient language spoken more than 2000 years ago in present-day Sudan, have also been noted.
In terms of grammar, Kunama uses a subject-object-verb word order, which is the most common word order among the world’s languages. It has no grammatical gender or politeness distinctions, but it does differentiate between two different types of “we”—one that includes the listener and one that excludes them. There are also a number of noun cases in Kunama, indicated by postpositional clitics (i.e., suffixes that can attach to modifiers of a noun rather than the noun itself, such as the possessive marker in “the cat that is sleeping’s tail”). This tendency is more pronounced in Kunama than English, since adjectives, numerals, and demonstratives (words like “this” and “that”) all come after the noun. All in all, Kunama is a difficult language to translate, but don’t worry—our team is filled with passionate native speakers.
Providing Kunama translation services the way you want.
We’re dedicated to building a robust team of passionate Kunama translators who can accommodate the diverse needs of our clientele from around the world. Indeed, we provide our translation services both to and from Kunama, helping people on both sides of the language barrier spread their message. Our translators also cover a diverse array of Kunama dialects, so if you need a translator proficient in Barka, Marda, Aimara, Odasa, Tika, Lakatakura, Sokodasa, Takazze-Setit, Tigray, Ilit, or Bitama, just let us know.
Perhaps you’re looking for specific types of translation services—say, academic translation services, business translation services, or literary translation services. We hire specialists in various domains, so we’re confident we can help you. No matter what academic field you study in or what industry you work in, our experts can help you translate your texts smoothly to and from Kunama. If you’re looking to translate literary works, regardless of the direction, you can count on our literary translators to take into account all the subtle nuances and the unique writing style to produce a veritable piece of art in the translation language. For any technical vocabulary, just notify us—we’ll try to match you with a Kunama translator who’s familiar with the field.
Why not get started today with Kunama translation services? Place an order now!