Frisian Translation Services

Prism Language Solutions translates Frisian and handles the Dutch documents that come with it. Demand for Frisian on its own is small and we will say so before taking your money: almost everything a family from Fryslan holds is available in Dutch, and a good part of the paperwork is bilingual by law. What we do is read the file properly, quote the Dutch pages as Dutch, and assign a Frisian linguist where Frisian is genuinely what is in front of us.

Last reviewed September 12, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Language Solutions

West Frisian is a language of the northern Netherlands, spoken in the province of Fryslân, and it is not a dialect of Dutch. It is closer to English in origin than Dutch is, which is why a Dutch speaker who has never heard it catches fragments and guesses the rest. Every adult speaker is also fluent in Dutch.

• Certified translations prepared to meet USCIS requirements
• Human linguists only, matched to the subject
• Fixed written quote within 60 minutes in business hours
• One office in New York, linguists in every state

Bilingual Frisian and Dutch Civil Records from Fryslan

In practice the two languages sit alongside each other, with the standing text in both and the entered details recorded once. The pattern is not uniform across municipalities and it has changed over the decades, so we do not assume: we look at the document and translate what is on it, saying on the certification which language each part was in.

Marriages in the province may also be solemnized in Frisian, and the record follows. None of this is unusual in the Netherlands and none of it needs defending. It only needs describing, because a US reviewer reading a certificate with two columns of unfamiliar language will otherwise wonder what the second one is.

Which Documents from Fryslan Need Certified Frisian Translation

Start with the international extract. Any Dutch municipality can issue a multilingual extract of a birth or marriage record whose headings are printed in several languages including English, and many US recipients take it without a translation. Ask the receiving office before you pay anyone. Where it is accepted, that is the cheapest correct answer and we would rather tell you than sell around it.

What the extract cannot do is carry the history. A full copy of the record, the afschrift, with its marginal notes on a later marriage, divorce or recognition, is the document a US filing usually needs, and it does require certified translation. So do divorce decrees, notarial deeds, diplomas and police certificates. USCIS applies 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) here as everywhere, and the certificate is described on the certified translation page.

• Full copies of birth and marriage records with their marginal notes
• Divorce decrees and court orders from a Dutch district court
• Notarial deeds, wills and powers of attorney for a US estate
• Diplomas and transcripts and certificates of conduct

Where the pages are purely Dutch we quote them as Dutch work, which is faster to schedule and costs less: see Dutch translation. The apostille, if a receiving body asks for one, is issued in the Netherlands by a district court rather than a ministry, and we translate the apostille sheet with the record.

Frisian Names and Place Names on a Certified Document

One place has two names and both are official. Ljouwert and Leeuwarden, Snits and Sneek, Dokkum written the same in both: a family file can name the same town two ways across three papers, and a reviewer who does not know that sees an inconsistency. Given names carry â and û, which US systems drop, and Frisian surnames often end in -stra, -sma or -inga, which survive intact and are the easiest thing on the page.

Our practice is unvarying: the passport spelling of the applicant’s own name runs through the English text, every other form is reproduced as the document prints it, and a translator’s note lists the Frisian and Dutch forms of any place name that differs. Nothing is quietly harmonized.

Frisian Interpreters, and When to Book Dutch Instead

Most people who search for a Frisian interpreter need a Dutch one, and we say so at intake rather than after the invoice. Where Frisian is genuinely the right booking is narrower and real: an elderly speaker giving a deposition or describing symptoms, someone who under stress returns to the language of a childhood near Snits or Dokkum, or a witness who is entitled to testify in their first language and chooses to.

A Frisian assignment has one feature a Dutch interpreter cannot cover even in principle: speakers switch mid-sentence, dropping Dutch words and whole Dutch clauses into Frisian speech, so the interpreter needs both languages live. In-person Frisian interpreters in the United States are very few, so nearly every assignment runs by video or telephone and we will tell you plainly if a courtroom needs someone in the room. Formats are under court interpreting, medical interpreting and video remote interpreting. A court or a law firm hires Prism as a private agency; no bench appoints us to its roster.

Frisian Translation Cost, Timing and What to Send

Send every page and both sides. A single civil record is quoted from around $24.95 per page as a US market guide and normally goes back within two business days; the extra day over a common language reflects a small translator pool rather than a rarity surcharge. Longer material runs per source word from roughly $0.10. If we open the file and find it is entirely Dutch, we requote it as Dutch rather than leaving you on the higher rate. Ranges are set out on the pricing page.

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