Q'anjob'al interpreting and translation

Q'anjob'al interpreters for high-stakes settings

The stakes in Q'anjob'al interpreting are often high. For legal and immigration matters we recommend a Q'anjob'al interpreter rather than relying on a related language or on a client's limited Spanish, and we provide one for those settings. Akateko and Jakalteko are related but separate languages, and the Q'anjob'al of Santa Eulalia, Soloma and Barillas differs somewhat, so please give us the client's home municipality.

Our qualified Q'anjob'al interpreters work by remote video, joining through the SILA Linguists® app or the hearing room's own platform, and by telephone, which can be booked at any time of day or night. Hearings, solicitor consultations, medical appointments and child welfare meetings are interpreted consecutively. Young people and families can ask for a male or female interpreter, and we brief interpreters on safeguarding and school vocabulary before sessions involving children, so that words such as guardian, foster carer or school place are explained clearly.

Q'anjob'al translation and certified translation

Q'anjob'al is written with Guatemala's official Mayan alphabet. The apostrophes in q' and b', which appear in the language's own name, mark glottalised consonants and must be kept in every text. Legal notices, school information and health materials are typical translation projects, and we can add audio recordings for family members who read little.

Guatemalan civil records are issued in Spanish. We certify their English translations with a signed declaration of accuracy, accepted by UK authorities such as tribunals, the Home Office and schools, and by employers. A Canadian authority may ask for a provincially certified translator, while US immigration asks for a translator's certificate of accuracy; we arrange either.

Transcription and language analysis

Interviews and recorded evidence in Q'anjob'al are transcribed line by line with time codes and an English version, with passages in Spanish, Akateko or Popti' clearly labelled. Where an asylum claim turns on origin, we can arrange language analysis for the determination of origin (LADO) with specialist analysts.

Where we can help in Q'anjob'al

Our vetted, trained and qualified Q'anjob'al linguists can support immigration and asylum services, courts and legal representatives, hospitals and clinics, schools, social services and child welfare teams. SILA Linguists® assigns a dedicated coordinator to each case, and every linguist works under a signed non-disclosure agreement and UK GDPR. Q'anjob'al interpreters can support immigration courts and attorneys in the United States, refugee hearings in Canada, and hospitals, schools and social services in both countries.