Book and Literary Translation Service in Shona

Working together with our experienced and qualified translators, voiceover artists, interpreters, audiovisual translators, transcribers and subtitlers, we offer a wide range of language services.

Available in over 200 languages within the UK and beyond, our linguists can get you heard in any language of your choice. While we do not offer a walk-in service, we are only one phone call away from discussing your language requirements.

Completed by qualified Shona literary translators

Literary translation is probably one of the most challenging forms of translation and we are delighted to be able to offer a very strong team of experienced Shona translators.  The art of translating prose or poetry into or from another language is in some ways a lot less straightforward than translating an operating manual.  The technical translator must of course be familiar with the specific terms of his or her area of expertise, but for the literary linguist, the challenge is different every time.

To translate a book, script or piece of poetry from or into another language the linguist will need to know how to handle abstract language, find the right rhythm, idioms and adapt culturally dependent references in order to produce a piece of the work that works as well in the target language as it did in the source.  We would argue that literary translation is an art form in its own right.

Our team of Shona literary linguists can also abridge, edit, proofread and prepare written texts ready for audio book production.

Just let us know how we can help you.

Whom do we work with?

• Published authors
• Not yet published authors
• Script writers
• Poets
• Individuals and agents

What sort of material?

• Books
• Poetry
• TV and film scripts
• Drama
• Audio book scripts
• Fiction and non-fiction

How is the cost for Shona literary and book translation calculated?

• The cost depends on the volume
• Translation is calculated per source word of original content
• Proofreading/revision is calculated by the hour

Get in touch with one of our lovely project managers and they would be very happy to discuss all the available options with you. Do also take a look at the security procedures and infrastructure we already have in place to protect your data.

While you’re here… some quite interesting facts about the Shona language.

Shona is a member of the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo language family. It is spoken by about 10.8 million people mainly in Zimbabwe, where more than 80% of the population are Shona speakers. In particular it is spoken in Harare, and in the provinces of Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Midlands and Manicaland. A standard written form of Shona was codified in the 1930s and revised in the 1950s. The standard written language is based on the Karanga dialect (Chikaranga), which is spoken mainly in the Midlands province in southern Zimbabwe. The first novel in Shona, Feso by Solomon Mutswairo, was published in 1957. Shona is taught in some primary schools in Zimbabwe. Courtesy of Omniglot

Where is Shona most widely spoken?