Sicilian Interpreter

Prism Language Solutions supplies Sicilian interpreters for guardianship and capacity hearings, depositions, hospital and hospice appointments and attorney meetings anywhere in the United States, in person, by phone or by video. In practice a Sicilian interpreter is an Italian interpreter who grew up speaking Sicilian, and for many speakers from Sicily a standard Italian interpreter is the right booking. We ask before assigning, and we say so when Italian will do.

Sicilian is a Romance language in its own right, not a rough version of Italian, with around 4.7 million native speakers at a 2002 estimate. It is spoken across Sicily and its smaller islands and, as Calabro-Sicilian, in the south of Calabria around Reggio. Emigrant communities carried it to the United States, and Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst and Gravesend and the Buffalo area still have Sicilian speakers.

Sicilian was never the language of the classroom, the registry office or the court in Italy. That shapes every Sicilian booking: the question is not only whether someone speaks Sicilian, but whether the setting calls for Sicilian or for the Italian the person learned in school.

• 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

Sicilian Interpreter or Italian Interpreter: Which to Book

A standard Italian interpreter trained in the north can lose exactly the words that matter in that situation: the name of a symptom, a family term, a phrase about money or land. For those cases we assign an Italian interpreter raised with Sicilian and ask which province the speaker comes from, since the Sicilian of Palermo, Catania and Ragusa differs.

Sicilian Interpreter for Guardianship, Capacity and Elder Cases

The Sicilian court booking belongs to a particular kind of matter: a guardianship or conservatorship petition, a contested will, an elder-abuse case, or a personal injury deposition where the witness is in their eighties. In a capacity hearing the interpreter carries a special weight, because an interpreter who misses dialect words can make a lucid witness sound confused to the judge deciding whether they can manage their own affairs.

No state certifies interpreters in Sicilian, and the federal exam covers Spanish only. The court therefore qualifies the interpreter on the record, usually an Italian court interpreter who grew up speaking Sicilian, and we tell the judge and counsel in advance which credential the person holds and where Sicilian stops and Italian starts. See court interpreting.

Sicilian Medical Interpreter at the Bedside

In a hospital the risk is the willing relative. A grandson with kitchen Sicilian is handed a consent form or a diagnosis, and the distinctions that decide a treatment quietly disappear. Any provider receiving federal money must offer the patient an interpreter at no cost and may not rely on the family except in an emergency or at the patient’s own request.

Hospices, memory clinics and hospital social workers are the usual callers. A Sicilian interpreter can often join by video at short notice; for a psychiatric assessment, a discharge plan or a frail patient who does better with a person present, we send someone in where one can reach the bedside. See medical interpreting.

Sicilian Recordings and Letters: Transcription and Translation

Some Sicilian work has no live speaker at all. A recorded call in a probate dispute, an old family tape, a statement taken from a relative in Sicily, or letters written phonetically by someone with little schooling can all turn up as evidence, and an Italian linguist without Sicilian will misread them.

We transcribe recordings in the language actually spoken, which may switch between Sicilian and Italian mid-sentence, translate alongside, time-stamp each passage and mark what is genuinely unclear rather than guessing at it. See transcription, and for the Italian civil records from a Sicilian comune, Sicilian translation.

Booking a Sicilian Interpreter: Mode, Notice and Rates

Around New York and in western New York an in-person Sicilian-speaking Italian interpreter is often available with a few days’ notice. Elsewhere, video or phone is usually the quickest way to reach one, and for a short attorney call or a clinic follow-up it is all that is needed.

Sicilian on-site work sits in the typical US market range of $45 to $95 an hour with a two-hour minimum. Sicilian requests reach the intake desk through the quote form or +1 (833) 282 8883; include the setting, the date, the speaker’s age and home province, and any sign that Italian might serve. We send back a fixed written price within the hour in business hours, and an honest view on Sicilian versus Italian.

Questions we get asked