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Interpretation, Translation and Transcription Services.

Language Interpreters is one of the prominent translation agencies in London that offers interpreting, translation, and transcription services in and out of London / within UK for over 100 Languages. We offer reasonable and competitive rates that comply with Legal Aid guidelines.

Afrikaans Interpreters

We have a database of handpicked Afrikaans interpreters who are dedicated, qualified and skilled. They are accredited with a minimum of one or more formal interpreting and translation qualifications that permits them to provide services at Courts, Tribunals, Offices of Law Firms, GP Practices, Councils, Hospitals, Detention Centres and many more. These freelance interpreters are most sought-after linguists as they cover several dialects and language combinations for our three services at short notice

Interpretation
Telephone interpretations – Over the phone interpreting
Video Translations – Video conferencing or virtual interpretations
Onsite Interpretation – Consecutive and face to face interpreting

Afrikaans Translators

Our freelance Afrikaans translators are proficient, skilled, and experienced in translating documents for all kind of industries. They have all the prerequisites to assist as per the Legal Aid Agency requirements. The certified Afrikaans translations from Afrikaans into English or English into Afrikaans are signed, stamped, and certified for every official purpose.

Legal translations– Court documents, witness statements, social service-related matters, mental health assessments, medical reports etc for the private and public sector, businesses, government bodies and law firms.

Personal translations– IDs, passports, (birth, death, divorce, marriage) certificates, education, and professional certificates and more, for immigration, asylum, childcare, family, crime, housing, mental health, and civil matters.

Technical translations– reports, contracts, leaflets, books, journals and more.

We also provide Afrikaans transcription services for videos, audios, CDs, YouTube links and more.

Afrikaans language, origin and dialects spoken over the world.

Origin and History

Afrikaans is a Western Germanic language. It originated from the Dutch vernacular of Holland (Hollandic dialect) spoken in South Africa by the Dutch settlers, where it eventually started to establish distinctive features in the course of the 18th century. The language is also closely similar to Dutch, the most recent of which is Germanic, as well as one of the newest in general.

While Afrikaans has borrowed words from other languages, including German and Khoisan, an estimated 90 to 95 percent of Afrikaans’ vocabulary is of Dutch origin. Thus, differences with Dutch also lie in Afrikaans’ more analytical-type morphology and grammar, and a spelling that expresses rather than traditional Dutch Afrikaans pronunciation. Between the two languages, particularly in writing, there is a great degree of mutual intelligibility.

During the 18th century, the Afrikaans language emerged in the Dutch Cape Colony, through a slow separation from European Dutch dialects. As early as the mid-18th century and as recently as the mid-20th century, Afrikaans was regarded as a “kitchen language” in standard Dutch (Afrikaans: kombuistaal), without the status given.
Any doggerel verse from 1795 and a dialogue transcribed by a Dutch traveller in 1825 were the first Afrikaans books. Around this time, Afrikaans used the Latin alphabet, while the Arabic script was used by the Cape Muslim community. L.H. In 1861, His Zamenspraak tusschen Klaas Waarzegger en Jan Twyfelaar, which is believed to be the first book written in Afrikaans, was published by Meurant.

Dialects

Until the early 20th century, Afrikaans was officially considered a Dutch dialect in South Africa, when it was accepted under South African law as a separate language, alongside Standard Dutch, which it gradually replaced as an official language. Afrikaans was deemed inadequate for informed dialogue until the Boer wars, “and indeed for some time afterwards.” It was theorised that three primary historical dialects persisted during the Great Trek in the 1830s, after early dialectal studies of Afrikaans. The Northern Cape, Western Cape, and Eastern Cape dialects are those dialects. The Northern Cape dialect between the Great Karoo and the Kunene and the Eastern Cape dialect between the Dutch and the Xhosa may have arisen from contact between the Dutch settlers and the Khoi-Khoi people. Remnants of these dialects persist in present-day Afrikaans, while in modern times the standardising influence of Normal Afrikaans has led to the great levelling of distinctions.

Countries spoken

It is the third-most-spoken language in the world, with around 7 million native speakers in South Africa, or 13.5 percent of the population. Estimates range from 15 to 23 million for the overall number of Afrikaans speakers. Of all the 11 official languages of South Africa, it has the largest regional and ethnic range and is commonly spoken and understood as a second or third language. It is the dominant language of 75.8 percent of Coloured South Africans (4.8 million people), 60.8 percent of White South Africans (2.7 million), 4.6 percent of Asian South Africans (58,000 people) and 1.5 percent of Black South Africans (600,000 people) in the western half of South Africa, the provinces of the Northern Cape and Western Cape, and the first language.

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