According to a recent United Nations report, Africa is the home to roughly 10% of the world’s population. It contains 10 of the world’s fastest-growing economies. In Africa, at least 75 languages have more than one million speakers to their name. The rest of the languages are being communicated by populations that range from a few hundred to several hundred thousand speakers.
In fact, there are four important language groupings in Africa. They are Niger-Congo, Afro-Asiatic, Khoisan, and Nilo-Saharan. Niger-Congo language family is spoken by the largest group of Africa. It consists of between 1,300 and 1,700 languages. Afro-Asiatic language groups are found principally in the northern regions of Africa, including Niger, Somalia and Nigeria, as well as the Middle East, Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel. Nilo-Saharan is spoken at the eastern and north-eastern regions of Africa which include the countries of Uganda, Chad, Kenya, Tanzania, and Sudan, as well as southern parts of Egypt. Khoisan is spoken in southern areas of the continent.
Due to the presence of foreign influence, there are other notable language groups in Africa which include the group of Indo-European and Austronesian families. On the southern tip of the continent, Indo-European is spoken. Madagascar natives speak Austronesian. The challenge also lies in the fact that there are numerous unclassified languages. The vast majority of these languages are primarily oral and therefore these are not available in written form. Many sign languages are also used which are isolates in nature.
Africa has become one of the world regions targeted for ongoing economic growth. More and more companies are looking towards the continent as an important market for consumer products, telecommunications, manufacturing, agro-processing, medicine, and large-scale infrastructure services. The languages spoken in Africa are so varied and different in nature that it poses a challenge to the upcoming businesses and trade. It can be simply gauged by the feature that including the local dialects there are 2,000 spoken languages within Africa. At least 242 African languages are used by the media. 63 African languages are used in the judicial systems, and 56 types of different languages are used by the public Administration.
These myriads of languages pose the biggest challenges in African translation and localization. Any localization agency needs to have the “linguistic equivalence,” or the ability to directly translate African languages into one or several other languages. As the African community has opened to trade and globalization, and with the growth of the economy, MNC’s and organizations need to hire translation agencies to know more languages and communicate with more people from different countries. The localization of their data will reach the audience better and will be able to connect with them.
When you are marketing in Africa, Translating and Localization into local languages are important. When people search online or if you want people to use your Apps, most people still prefer to search online in their own language.
Localization of the website and its products captures the real importance of the translation profession to the future progress and well-being of the African continent. Localization of the products according to the needs of the demand of the clients and audiences will make both the parties knowledgeable about the products.
if you need us you can always call us or fill in the form underneath.
