Akateko interpreting and translation

Akateko interpreting services for hearings and appointments

Akateko and Q'anjob'al are partly mutually intelligible, but a legal or medical conversation should be in the client's own language wherever possible. If a Q'anjob'al interpreter is used at the client's request, we check comprehension carefully and record the arrangement. Limited Spanish should never be mistaken for full understanding in a hearing or consultation, particularly with younger speakers who know some Spanish from school or work.

We provide Akateko interpreting mainly by video, on the SILA Linguists® app or a court's own video system, and over the phone whenever a hearing or appointment demands it, drawing on linguists in Guatemala, Mexico and North America. Immigration and asylum hearings, solicitor meetings, school meetings and child welfare assessments run in consecutive turns, and an Akateko-speaking woman or man can be chosen to suit the client. Tell us the client's home town so we can match their speech.

Akateko translation and certified translation

Guatemala's official Mayan alphabet is used for written Akateko, and its apostrophes signal glottalised sounds. Written use is less common than spoken, so for important information such as hearing notices, care plans or school letters we may suggest a translation together with an audio recording. We translate both into and out of English, keeping names spelt consistently across every file.

Guatemalan identity documents, birth certificates and civil records come in Spanish, so that is the language we certify from; the English version is signed off as accurate, accepted by UK authorities such as immigration judges, the Home Office and schools, and by employers. For Guatemalan papers filed in Washington or Ottawa, we arrange whichever certification the office specifies, from a US certificate of accuracy to a provincially certified Canadian translator.

Transcription and origin analysis

Recorded Akateko interviews, statements and evidence are turned into time-coded transcripts with English alongside, and any Spanish or Q'anjob'al is marked. For asylum and immigration matters that depend on where a person grew up, a LADO report by specialist analysts can be commissioned through our team.

Settings for our linguists in Akateko

Our vetted, trained and qualified Akateko linguists can support asylum caseworkers, immigration judges and lawyers, hospitals and clinics, child welfare and social services, and schools working with newly arrived families. One SILA Linguists® project team handles every booking, with every Akateko linguist under a signed NDA and UK GDPR, so a vulnerable client deals with a consistent, careful service from first contact onwards. Akateko-speaking families in the United States and Canada can be supported by phone or video during removal hearings, consultations with lawyers, refugee claims and pediatric appointments.