Asked for by name, not by country, for asylum and immigration court work across the US, with certified translation of French and Arabic records.
Prism Linguistics arranges Soninke interpreters for credible fear interviews, immigration court hearings and medical appointments across the United States, in person, by phone or by video, for speakers from Mali, Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia, and provides certified English translation of the French and Arabic records those families carry.
Last reviewed September 2, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Linguistics
Soninke is a Mande language, unrelated to French or Arabic, spoken across the upper Senegal River by roughly 2.1 million people in Mali, a quarter of a million each in Senegal and Mauritania, and around 143,000 in Gambia. Ask for it by name, not by country, because a single West African household can hold three languages at once. A Mauritanian family under one roof may include a Hassaniyya speaker, a Pulaar speaker and a Soninke speaker, and each needs a different interpreter. Our office is in New York and our Soninke interpreters work nationwide, in person where one is within reach and, for a language this scarce in the US, often by phone or video the same day.
The people who need a Soninke interpreter are overwhelmingly in the asylum and immigration system, and the danger is that they are handed a French or Arabic interpreter instead. Many Soninke speakers from rural Mali and the Guidimaka of Mauritania have only school French or none, so a French interpreter at a credible fear interview is left approximating a language the speaker barely uses.
This is not a hypothetical problem. Members of Congress raised the case of Mauritanians detained in 2023 and 2024 whose credible fear interviews were held without adequate interpretation in Hassaniyya, Pulaar and Soninke. We ask the country and the home area at intake, because the Bakel, Guidimaka, Kayes and Kaedi varieties of Soninke differ in accent and some words even though they follow one another well.
The credible fear interview is the assignment that decides everything, and it is exactly where a French or Arabic stand-in fails a Soninke speaker. An officer weighs the applicant's own words and the hesitations around them, so we assign a Soninke interpreter matched to the home region and brief them to render each answer as spoken, adding nothing. A bilingual relative never takes that chair. Many of these applicants are Black Mauritanians left undocumented by the 2010 nationality law, whose whole account rests on oral testimony rather than paper, which makes the interpreter the difference between a claim that is heard and one that is not.
Beyond the asylum office, Soninke is needed in immigration court for merits hearings, bond hearings and removal proceedings, and in the attorney consultations that prepare them. No state runs a certification exam in Soninke, so a court works from a qualified interpreter, usually by phone or video because in-person Soninke interpreters are few. This is the kind of rare language courts and firms come to Prism for. We tell the court what the interpreter's background is, we match the West African variety to the speaker, and we say plainly that we are a private agency and not a vendor appointed by any court.
In a clinic a Soninke-speaking patient is too easily left to a French-speaking relative or a Pulaar-speaking neighbor, and a diagnosis or a consent form is no place for a rough rendering. Any provider that takes federal funding has to supply a Soninke interpreter at no cost to the patient, and most families never learn this. Video covers a consultation or a specialist review. For a mental-health assessment, a discharge plan, or a patient who does better with a person in the room, we send an interpreter in person where one can reach the appointment, and otherwise connect by video without delay.
Soninke is a spoken language, so the documents in a Soninke file are in French, Arabic or English. A speaker from Mali or Senegal holds an extrait d'acte de naissance in French from the mairie or civil status centre where the birth was declared, and very often a jugement supplétif, the court judgment that stands in for a birth that was never registered at the time. One from Mauritania holds ANRPTS records in Arabic and French, or nothing at all. We translate the French and Arabic record and the substitute evidence behind an asylum claim: the Soninke voice messages, letters and attestations that carry the narrative. A jugement supplétif is labeled as the supplementary judgment it is, with the dates kept, because dressing it up as an original birth certificate plants the inconsistency an officer will find. Every piece carries a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy, and names follow the passport. The full document service is at certified translation.
Tell us the date, the city and the setting, or send a clear scan of the document. We reply with a fixed price and, for interpreting, a named linguist. Call +1 (833) 282 8883, email info@prismlinguistics.com, or use the quote form and you will hear back within 60 minutes during business hours.
Our only office is in New York, and our Soninke interpreters work nationwide. For in-person work we assign someone based in or near the city. These are the areas where Soninke work is concentrated; the full list of 288 cities is below it.
Prism Linguistics is rated 4.6 out of 5 across 67 client reviews for its interpreting and translation work in the United States. That is the company-wide figure; we do not publish a separate rating per language because there is no honest way to measure one. If a Soninke assignment ever falls short, tell us and we put it right.