Prism Linguistics provides certified English translation of the Namibian records that Damara speakers hold, and Damara (Khoekhoegowab) interpreters for USCIS interviews, court hearings and medical appointments in Arlington and across the United States.
Certified Damara to English translation at Prism is mostly a matter of Afrikaans-era Namibian records and of getting Damara names right, since the Namibian state issues its certificates in English. Each translation is delivered in full with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy, prepared to meet USCIS requirements.
Damara speakers hold English documents. Damara is a variety of Khoekhoegowab, the click language of Namibia, but nobody issues a birth certificate in it. English has been Namibia's only official language since the 1990 constitution, so a Damara family's records come in English from the Department of Civil Registration at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security: the full birth certificate (the abridged version is no longer issued), marriage and death certificates and the national identity document. Records from before 1990 can be in Afrikaans, and those we translate in full.
The Damara layer is in the names. Khoekhoegowab writes its four clicks with the letters ǀ, ǁ, ǃ and ǂ, and a Damara surname can begin with one. Our Damara translators reproduce the name exactly as the Namibian record prints it, spell it to match the passport and note any variant between the two.
Every certified Damara translation is a complete, word-for-word rendering with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy, prepared to meet USCIS requirements. It is done from a clear scan, so a client in Arlington gets the same translator, the same price and the same turnaround as one anywhere else in the country. See certified Damara translation for the document service in full.
Prism Linguistics provides qualified Damara translators in Arlington and professional Damara interpreters for the USCIS appointments, courts, hospitals and attorneys that serve Namibian families in Arlington. Our Damara translation services cover the English and Afrikaans records a Damara speaker holds and the click-letter names inside them, delivered as a certified translation for USCIS.
Arlington sits in Tarrant County, where felonies and larger civil matters are heard in the county's district courts and Class A and B misdemeanors in its ten county criminal courts, both sitting at the Tim Curry Justice Center in Fort Worth. Class C misdemeanors, traffic citations and city ordinance violations stay closer to home in the Arlington Municipal Court, which also handles civil parking matters. Attorneys often need a court interpreter at one level and a USCIS-compliant certified translation of records for the other.
Arlington ISD identifies the languages its families speak through a home language survey at enrollment, supports Spanish-speaking students with an articulated PK-6 bilingual program, and runs a Multilingual Welcome Center with bilingual English and Spanish staff and language line interpreting for other languages. Prism works from a single head office in New York and assigns a linguist based in or near Arlington for in-person jobs. Courts come to us specifically for rare languages other providers cannot supply.
Our Damara interpreters in Arlington are professional, experienced linguists who work in immigration and state courts, hospitals and USCIS field offices, and who treat a Damara interpreting assignment as a rare-language booking that has to be matched to the right Khoekhoegowab variety rather than to the nearest available speaker.
Damara or Nama? The same language, usually the same interpreter. Khoekhoegowab has around 200,000 speakers in Namibia; Damara is its west-central variety and Nama the southern one, and a Damara interpreter can normally work with a Nama speaker. The Haiǁom variety spoken near Etosha is further away, so we ask before we assign. Most Damara speakers who reach the United States also speak English; the request for a Damara interpreter usually comes for an older relative, a witness describing a childhood lived in Damara, or a patient who is more exact in Damara than in English. No state runs a court certification exam in Damara, so courts use a qualified Damara interpreter, almost always by phone or video; Damara is the kind of rare language that courts come to us for. Hospitals that take federal funds must provide an interpreter at no cost. At USCIS the Damara interpreter renders each answer as given.
For an in-person assignment in Arlington we assign a Damara interpreter based in or near the city. Telephone and video interpreting can usually be arranged the same day. We serve courts, attorneys, hospitals, USCIS applicants and private individuals; we are a private agency, not a court-appointed vendor, and we say so up front.
Damara is a Khoekhoe (Khoisan-family) language spoken by around 200,000 people in Namibia, primarily by the Damara people, a long-established Namibian ethnic group with their own distinctive history. The language is notable for click consonants, written with special characters. The US Damara-speaking community is essentially non-existent; translation requests are extremely rare and typically academic or anthropological rather than practical document translation.
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Damara translators and Damara interpreters from Prism's nationwide network cover Arlington and the surrounding area, so a certified Damara translation or a Damara interpreter by phone or video is arranged the same way for every city listed below.
Our only office is in New York. For in-person work in Arlington we assign a Damara translator who is based in or near the city, and the same Damara linguists cover the surrounding area:
No. Namibian civil records are issued in English and USCIS accepts them as they are. An older record in Afrikaans we translate with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy. Where a Damara name contains a click letter we reproduce it exactly as printed and match the passport spelling.
Usually yes. Damara and Nama are the two main varieties of Khoekhoegowab and their speakers understand each other, though we ask where the person is from before we assign a Damara interpreter. No state certifies court interpreters in Damara; we are a private agency, not a court-appointed vendor.
No. Our only office is in New York. Damara translation is done remotely from a scan, so location makes no difference to the document work. For in-person interpreting in Arlington we assign a Damara interpreter who is based in or near the city, and phone or video interpreting is available anywhere in the United States.
We are committed to excellence, at the same time we ensure to meet regulatory and customer’s requirements.
Our team consists entirely of native Damara linguists vetted for subject-matter expertise. They provide unmatched precision, translating exclusively into their native tongue to ensure cultural and linguistic accuracy.
We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. Our company takes pride in offering excellent customer service to all our clients.