Bari interpreting and translation

Bari or Juba Arabic? Interpreting the client's choice

Juba is strongly multilingual: Juba Arabic is the everyday lingua franca, English the language of government and schooling. Some Juba residents are more confident in Juba Arabic, while others prefer Bari for personal or medical matters, so we ask the client before booking. If the person identifies as Kuku, Pojulu or Mundari, tell us, because vocabulary differs between the communities. Speakers of these related varieties understand one another to a fair degree, yet a tribunal or a doctor needs more than a fair degree of understanding.

Video interpreting lets the interpreter see the speaker and pick up gestures, which helps in long asylum interviews and court hearings; telephone is practical for short calls, and both are available at any hour. Video works through the SILA Linguists® app or the platform your team uses. Face-to-face interpreting is available for health and social care appointments and police interviews where an interpreter can attend, and church and community gatherings can be covered with consecutive interpreting. A male or female interpreter can be arranged on request.

Bari translation and certified documents

Bari is written in a Latin alphabet with special letters for its implosive consonants, ɓ and ɗ, so documents need fonts that support them. We write public information, health and social care letters and community notices in Bari for readers who prefer it, and translate Bari statements and messages into English.

Official papers from South Sudan are normally in English or Arabic. We certify translations of Arabic documents with a signed statement of accuracy, accepted by HR departments, the courts and other UK authorities. Papers for authorities in the United States, Canada or Australia are certified in the form they specify, NAATI-certified translation among them.

Transcription and LADO

Interview recordings and audio evidence in Bari are transcribed with timestamps and a parallel English text, with Juba Arabic passages marked. For asylum claims, SILA Linguists® also provides language analysis for determining origin (LADO).

Sectors we support in Bari

Our vetted, trained and qualified Bari linguists can support asylum and immigration services, health and social care, police and courts, churches and community organisations. You have one coordinator, vetted interpreters and confidentiality protected by NDAs and UK GDPR. Families who settled abroad after years in Ugandan or Kenyan camps often mix several languages, and our team plans for that from the first call. Bari interpreters can assist resettled South Sudanese families in Australia, the United States and Canada at clinics, courts and schools.