Court, medical and USCIS interpreting for Aromanian and Balkan Vlach families across the US, usually by phone or video, plus certified translation of the Greek, Albanian, Macedonian or Serbian records they hold.
Prism Linguistics provides Vlach interpreters, meaning Aromanian, for USCIS interviews, court hearings and medical appointments anywhere in the United States, usually by phone or video and in person where a linguist is based nearby, together with certified English translation of the Greek, Macedonian, Albanian and Serbian civil records that Vlach families actually hold.
Last reviewed September 2, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Linguistics
Vlach almost always means Aromanian, a Balkan Romance language spoken in pockets of Greece, Albania, North Macedonia and Romania. It has never been a language of officialdom, so the honest starting point is that many callers are better served by a Greek, Albanian, Macedonian or Romanian linguist, and Vlach itself is kept for the person, usually an older one, who genuinely needs it. Our office is in New York and the linguist is assigned from wherever the case sits, most often by phone or video because in-person Aromanian speakers are rare here. One more thing to settle up front: whether the family is Aromanian or from the Vlach communities of eastern Serbia, who speak a Romanian variety instead.
Aromanian had around 210,000 speakers at a 2018 estimate, and UNESCO lists it as definitely endangered; it holds recognised minority status in Albania and North Macedonia. That scarcity is the whole shape of the demand here. Almost every Aromanian speaker also has the language of the country they grew up in, so a working-age applicant is usually interviewed in Greek, Albanian, Macedonian or Romanian without trouble. The Vlach booking is for the grandmother, or for testimony where the exact Aromanian word carries weight.
Aromanian, or the Vlach of the Timok valley? Ask first. The 2022 Serbian census recorded 21,013 Vlachs in eastern Serbia, and they speak archaic Romanian rather than Aromanian, so an Aromanian interpreter is wrong for them and a Romanian one is closer. We settle which community the speaker belongs to before we assign. No state runs a court certification exam in Aromanian, so a court accepts a qualified interpreter, and this is exactly the rare language a bench turns to us for once its own list is exhausted.
When a court needs Vlach it is usually because no one else could supply it. No state certifies interpreters in Aromanian, so the court works from a qualified one, and we are often the call after its roster came up empty. The matters tend to be probate, guardianship for an elderly relative, or a deposition where a witness recalls events in the language of a Balkan village. We take the assignment from the attorney or the court, confirm whether the speaker is Aromanian or from eastern Serbia so the right interpreter goes, and say plainly that Prism is a private agency, not a court-appointed vendor.
A hospital that takes federal funding owes a Vlach-speaking patient an interpreter at no cost, and for an elderly Aromanian speaker that duty is not met by handing them a Greek or Romanian speaker they only half-follow. The case that slips is the one where a bilingual grandchild rounds a diagnosis down to something gentler. Most consultations run well over video once the language is right. We send a person in for a mental health assessment or a hard discharge conversation, where an older patient does better with someone in the room than a face on a screen.
Aromanian speakers are scattered thinly across the country, so almost all Vlach interpreting happens by phone or by video, and that is a practical strength rather than a compromise. A video link reaches an interpreter for a short hearing, a benefits interview or a clinic visit the same week, wherever the speaker lives. We keep in-person work for the long or delicate settings that genuinely need it. Tell us the setting, the date and whether the speaker is Aromanian or Serbian Vlach, and we come back with a named linguist.
Vlach translation is mostly not translation out of Vlach. Aromanian has never run the civil registry anywhere, so a family's birth, marriage and death certificates were issued by the town's municipal office in Greek, Macedonian, Albanian or, for the eastern Serbian Vlachs, Serbian, and it is those we translate. A Greek record arrives as an extract from the registry books the municipality keeps. The Aromanian shows up in the names and the villages, and one family can hold a Greek certificate and an Albanian one that spell the same surname two different ways. Where a document really is in Aromanian, a letter or a church entry in Latin script, a Vlach translator renders that too. We translate each record as issued, spell every name to the passport, note the Aromanian form where it appears, and sign a Certificate of Translation Accuracy. The full 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 Vlach interpreters work nationwide. For in-person work we assign someone based in or near the city. These are the areas where Vlach 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 Vlach assignment ever falls short, tell us and we put it right.