Sidama interpreting and translation

Sidama interpreting in the client's first language

Many Sidama speakers also speak Amharic, and some speak Oromo, but people with less formal education may not be fully comfortable in either. For clinical and legal work, Sidama itself is the safest choice. Remote telephone or video interpreting helps us find the right Sidama interpreter quickly, and our phone line operates day and night, every day; video takes place in our app or on Teams, Zoom or your own platform.

Our interpreters take care with dates, which may be given according to the Ethiopian calendar, and with the names of places and kebeles, which can have both Sidama and Amharic forms. Asylum interviews, maternity appointments, GP and hospital visits, and research interviews with coffee-growing and farming communities are typical assignments. Face-to-face attendance and consecutive interpreting are arranged where possible, and women attending maternity services can ask for a female interpreter.

Sidama translation and Ethiopian documents

Sidama was once written in Ethiopic script and now uses a Latin alphabet, similar in style to Oromo's Qubee, with digraphs, doubled letters for long vowels and geminates, and an apostrophe for the glottal stop. Spell-checkers will not help, so a Sidama-speaking proofreader reviews every text. We translate health and maternity information, research consent forms, community notices and personal statements.

Ethiopian identity and civil documents are usually in Amharic. We check the language of each document first, then supply a certified translation with dates converted from the Ethiopian calendar, signed to confirm its accuracy, accepted by UK authorities such as government departments, courts and universities, and by employers.

Transcription and language analysis

We transcribe Sidama interviews and field recordings with time codes and translate them into English, marking Amharic or Oromo passages. Where origin is disputed in an asylum case, SILA Linguists® offers language analysis for determining origin (LADO).

Sectors we support in Sidama

Our vetted, trained and qualified Sidama linguists can support asylum and immigration services, maternity and healthcare providers, humanitarian agencies and agricultural researchers working in the coffee-growing highlands around Hawassa. A single coordinator manages your work, linguists are vetted, and every file remains confidential under NDAs and UK GDPR.