Chittagonian interpreting and translation

Chittagonian interpreting where a Bengali interpreter falls short

A Bengali interpreter can be enough for a confident, school-educated client, but older people, those with little formal education and anyone in a stressful situation are far better served by a Chittagonian speaker. We provide face-to-face interpreters for maternity care, police and court interviews, immigration and asylum appointments and social care visits, plus telephone interpreting around the clock, every day of the year, and video interpreting on the SILA Linguists® app or your platform.

Clients commonly use standard Bengali terms for official matters and Chittagonian for personal ones. Our interpreters move between the two without correcting the speaker, and a female or male interpreter can be requested for intimate health or family discussions. They are also used to the Gulf Arabic and Malay words that returning migrant workers sometimes bring into their speech.

Translation for Chittagonian speakers

Chittagonian has no settled spelling, so written translation is almost always into standard Bengali in the Bengali script. Certified translation of Bangladeshi birth certificates, national identity cards, passports, court papers and employment records is done from Bengali, with a signed declaration of accuracy, accepted by UK authorities such as the Home Office and courts. Bengali-language papers for North American authorities are certified to their rules, by US certificate of accuracy or a Canadian provincially certified translator.

Where readers have limited literacy, we record spoken Chittagonian audio for health messages, appointment reminders and safety instructions. This is often more effective than any leaflet. Short recorded messages in Chittagonian can be shared by text or played in waiting rooms.

Chittagonian transcription and language analysis

Police interviews, witness statements, phone recordings and audio health information are transcribed with regular time markers and put into English, with any switches to standard Bengali clearly marked. Chittagonian sits close to Rohingya, and that closeness can matter in asylum claims. For such cases SILA Linguists® offers language analysis (LADO) carried out by specialist analysts.

Sectors we support in Chittagonian

Our vetted, trained and qualified Chittagonian linguists can support maternity and community health teams, police forces, criminal courts, immigration lawyers, workers' welfare organisations, social services and public health campaigns. Book once and one project team handles everything, with vetted linguists, signed NDAs and UK GDPR compliance from start to finish. Chittagonian interpreting is available for immigration hearings, hospitals and family services in the US and Canada, with relay through Bengali where helpful.