Sipakapense interpreting and translation

Interpreting for Sipacapa

Most Sipakapense speakers also speak Spanish, and some understand K'iche' or Mam, so we first establish which languages the client uses and which they prefer for the matter in hand. If Sipakapense is required for a legal or medical matter, we provide a community interpreter, working by video with relay through Spanish into English.

Community consultations need time for discussion in the language and for questions to be answered fully. Our interpreters support that process rather than compressing it, and we can provide consecutive interpreting for assemblies and meetings with engineering, mining and energy companies, public bodies and NGOs. For individual appointments, the interpreter joins through the SILA Linguists® app or your conferencing tool, or by telephone at any hour, and the client can choose a male or female interpreter.

Translation and certified translation

Sipakapense is written using Guatemala's official Mayan alphabet, but there are few written materials. Every translation project is therefore checked by a community language specialist, whether it is a consultation document, a health notice or an educational text, and we can add an audio version so that information reaches people who do not read the language, recorded by a speaker from Sipacapa itself.

Official documents from Guatemala are in Spanish. We provide certified English translations from Spanish, signed with a statement of accuracy, accepted by UK authorities such as tribunals, the Home Office and universities, and by employers.

Transcription and documentation

Consultation meetings, interviews and narratives recorded in Sipacapa can be important both as evidence of what a community said and as documentation of a small language. We produce time-coded Sipakapense transcripts with English or Spanish translation, labelling any K'iche', Mam or Spanish, and flagging uncertain words for the community specialist to check. Names of hamlets, families and community bodies are reproduced exactly as speakers give them.

Settings for our linguists in Sipakapense

Our vetted, trained and qualified Sipakapense linguists can support community consultations, extractive and energy companies, human rights and legal organisations, health services and language documentation projects. SILA Linguists® gives each request one coordinator, and every linguist signs a non-disclosure agreement and handles information under UK GDPR.