Temne Interpreter

Prism Language Solutions provides Temne interpreters for court hearings, depositions, medical appointments and USCIS and asylum interviews across the United States, working in person where a Temne linguist is close to the venue and otherwise by video or phone. Before we assign anyone we check the speaker’s home area in northern Sierra Leone, because one Temne dialect is hard for other Temne speakers to follow.

Temne is the first language of Sierra Leone’s largest ethnic group, recorded at 31.4 percent of the population in the 2015 census, with around two million native speakers across the north and the Western Area. Its home districts are Bombali, Tonkolili, Port Loko, Kambia and Karene, with Makeni the main town. It is a tonal language with a high and a low tone, and it has nothing in common with Mende, the big language of the south, beyond sharing a country.

• 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

Temne Court Interpreter for Hearings and Depositions

Courts call us for Temne because it is rarely on anyone’s roster. Temne has no court interpreter certification exam in any state, so the judge decides on the record whether the interpreter is qualified, and the federal system would class a Temne interpreter as professionally qualified or language skilled. Our interpreters arrive with a written summary of their training and prior hearings for the clerk.

State criminal, family and civil matters are booked with us directly by the court or by counsel, along with depositions and attorney meetings; the details are on the court interpreting page. In immigration court the hearing interpreter is the government’s to arrange, and attorneys bring us in for the preparation, the declaration and anything that needs checking after.

Temne Dialects and Interpreter Matching

Linguists describe at least five Temne dialects: Western, Yoni, Bombali, Western Kunike and Eastern Kunike, sometimes called Deep Kunike. The first four are broadly understood across the group. Eastern Kunike is the outlier, described as nearly unintelligible to speakers of the others, which is exactly the kind of mismatch nobody notices until a witness starts giving short answers.

So we ask where the speaker grew up before we confirm an interpreter. If it is the Eastern Kunike area, we look for an interpreter from there and tell you plainly if we cannot find one for your date. Everywhere else, a Temne interpreter from any of the other four areas usually serves well.

Temne Interpreter for USCIS and Asylum Interviews

Naturalization and adjustment interviews are mostly about accuracy on dates, addresses and names, and Temne names are spelled several ways across Sierra Leonean paperwork, so the interpreter should see the passport spelling beforehand. The asylum interview is different in kind: the officer weighs the whole account, and the applicant is the one who has to bring the interpreter to an affirmative interview.

Federal rules at 8 CFR 208.9(g) require that interpreter to be 18 or older and fluent in English and the applicant’s language, and bar the attorney, a witness and any representative of the applicant’s government. Beyond the rule, we brief every Temne interpreter to stay in Temne for the whole interview, and not to slide into Krio when a question gets awkward. Book through USCIS interview interpreting.

Temne Hospital Interpreter

Under 45 CFR 92.201 a hospital receiving federal health funding owes a Temne-speaking patient qualified language assistance free of charge, and should not hand the job to an accompanying relative outside an emergency. The patients most affected are older people who joined family here, often seen in emergency departments and cardiology clinics with a son or daughter doing the talking.

For those visits a video Temne interpreter is usually available faster than an in-person one. Where the conversation is a consent for surgery, a new diagnosis or a psychiatric assessment, ask for a person in the room and we will say at booking whether one can be there. The medical interpreting page explains how clinics set this up with us.

Booking a Temne Interpreter by Video or in Person

For anything recorded, video remote interpreting beats audio, because the interpreter can see who is speaking and catch a nod that a transcript would miss. Phone is fine for scheduling calls and short client updates. The in-person option depends on the city, and we say which you are getting in the quote.

Guide pricing for Temne in the room follows the typical US market range of $45 to $95 an hour with a two-hour minimum, and the written quote you receive within 60 minutes in business hours fixes the figure. Send the date, city, setting, expected length and home area on the quote form, or ring +1 (833) 282 8883. Recorded Temne statements and affidavits in the same case are handled by Temne translation.

Questions we get asked