Shina interpreting and translation

Shina interpreters for detailed and sensitive conversations

Immigration interviews, witness statements, detailed medical histories, mental health assessments, family disputes, education meetings and employment advice are where Shina interpreting is most valued. Many speakers are confident in Urdu for everyday matters, but people return to their first language when a conversation becomes emotional or complex. We offer face-to-face interpreting, video remote interpreting through the SILA Linguists® app and telephone interpreting at any hour of any day.

Shina has a pitch accent, so a rising or falling voice can separate words that otherwise sound the same. Our interpreters listen for intonation as closely as for vowels and consonants. Clients may request an interpreter of a particular gender.

Shina translation and certified Pakistani documents

Shina is written right to left in an Urdu-based Arabic script with extra letters for retroflex and other sounds Urdu lacks. Several orthographies have been proposed and none is universal, so we confirm conventions before any written Shina project begins. Community information, letters and recorded audio can be prepared for Shina-speaking families.

Pakistani identity cards, school and university records, and legal documents are in Urdu or English. We certify translations of these with a translator's signed accuracy statement, accepted by UK authorities such as the Home Office, courts and universities, and by employers. Urdu or English papers for US, Canadian or Australian authorities are certified to their rules, NAATI included. Names of villages, clans and valleys are transliterated consistently across a file, which matters when documents must agree with interview evidence.

Shina transcription and LADO

Recorded interviews in Shina are transcribed in full with time codes, then rendered into English, with switches into Urdu or English clearly marked. Where an asylum claim depends on whether a speaker comes from Gilgit-Baltistan, Kohistan or across the Line of Control, language analysis (LADO) can be arranged through specialist analysts.

Sectors we support in Shina

Our vetted, trained and qualified Shina linguists can support immigration services and legal representatives, courts, NHS and mental health teams, schools and colleges, employment advisers and community organisations. You work with one project team, vetted linguists, and signed NDAs and UK data protection law at every stage. They are also prepared to help families from Gilgit-Baltistan who have settled abroad after time in Karachi, Islamabad or Rawalpindi. Shina interpreters can also support immigration hearings, hospitals and legal advisers in North America and Australia, mostly by telephone or video.