Court and medical interpreting for Tobi speakers from Palau, by phone or video, and certified translation of the occasional Tobi-language letter or statement.
Prism Linguistics provides Tobi (Tobian) interpreters by phone or by video for court hearings and medical appointments across the United States, and certified English translation of the rare Tobi-language letters and statements that a family from Hatohobei may hold.
Last reviewed September 2, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Linguistics
Tobi is one of the smallest languages we are ever asked for, so this page will be honest about what that means. It is the language of Hatohobei, the southernmost state of Palau, spoken on Tobi island and in Echang, a hamlet of Koror. Our office is in New York and our network is national, but almost no Tobi assignment is in person, because there are simply not enough speakers to promise one. Nearly every Tobi request is handled by phone or video, and we tell you before you book exactly who is available.
The numbers set the terms. The most cited count, from 2017, put the language at about 150 speakers, of whom only around 22 grew up with it as a first language. Tobi is also very close to Sonsorolese, and the two are blending in Echang, so the nearest available interpreter for a Tobi speaker may in fact be a Sonsorolese speaker. We will say that plainly rather than let you find out during a hearing.
Most Tobi speakers also use Palauan and English. So the person who genuinely needs a Tobi interpreter is usually elderly, or is giving evidence about life on Tobi that only their first language captures properly. For everyone else a Palauan or an English interpreter is often the honest choice, and we would rather point you to it than bill for a Tobi speaker you do not need. Courts come to us for languages this rare precisely because there is nowhere else to turn.
No US state runs a certification exam in a language with a few dozen native speakers, so a court works from a qualified Tobi interpreter, and the assignment is by phone or video. Give us the court and the case type and we tell you at once whether the person available is a native Tobi speaker or a closely related Sonsorolese speaker, and how far their speech sits from the litigant's. We take instructions from courts, attorneys and law firms directly, and we are candid about the limit: Prism is a private agency and holds no appointment or listing from any court.
A Tobi medical booking is almost always for an older patient who is more at ease in the first language than in Palauan or English. Any hospital or clinic that takes federal funding must supply an interpreter at no cost to the patient, and a rare language does not change that duty. We connect a Tobi speaker by video for a consultation or a specialist review, and where no Tobi speaker is free we say so and offer the nearest option, a Sonsorolese or a Palauan interpreter, rather than leave the appointment without cover.
For Tobi the phone and the video line are not second best; they are how the language is served at all, given how few speakers there are and how scattered they are. A clinic intake, an attorney meeting, a short hearing: each runs well remotely, and a remote assignment lets us reach the one or two people who can actually take it. We book on short notice where we can, and every time we confirm in advance who is assigned and how close their speech is to the person you are booking for.
There is very little Tobi to translate, and it is worth being clear why. Palau registers births through the Clerk of Courts and issues certificates in English, and under the Compact of Free Association its citizens enter the United States without a visa, so a Hatohobei family's file is usually a Palau passport and an English certificate that need no translation at all. What a Tobi translator actually receives is the occasional handwritten letter, or a sworn statement from an elder about a birth or a marriage that was never registered. We translate that in full and attach a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy naming Tobi as the language spoken. 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 Tobi interpreters work nationwide. For in-person work we assign someone based in or near the city. These are the areas where Tobi 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 Tobi assignment ever falls short, tell us and we put it right.