Syria - which language do you need an interpreter for?
The oldest "living" language
In Syria, Arabic is the official language. Arabic is a language that is over 1600 years old. Arabic is considered the sacred language, as the Koran is written in Arabic. Many say that it is the oldest "living" language, as thanks to the writing down of the Koran, the written language has been preserved in the same form as the language had then. It has been avoided to change too much in the written language.
Spoken Arabic may, however, deviate somewhat fromMSA (Modern Standard Arabic)and there are relatively large differences in everyday speech between the various countries that use Arabic as an official language today. It is today the official language in 26 countries, and if you count all the variants of Arabic as one language, there are perhaps as many as over 400 million people who have Arabic as their mother tongue. In addition, the language has influenced many other languages (and written languages) around the world.
Dialects
Arabic can be divided into standard Arabic and several local dialects. There are big differences between Arabic dialects (regional differences, dialects of religious minorities, nomadic people, etc.) Sometimes the dialects are mutually intelligible, other times there can be such a big difference between them that Arabic speakers with different dialects can have problems understanding each other. Among other things, some dialects mix in loanwords from French, Spanish, etc. Basically, almost everyone with Arabic as their mother tongue can understand standard Arabic, which is the variant used in news broadcasts etc. - but not all Arabic speakers can use standard Arabic as a conversational language themselves.
However, many Arabic speakers can understand many different dialects, and communicate across dialect differences, often using standard Arabic where the differences become large. Interpreters for the Salita interpreting service often have good competence in several dialects, and can both understand and rephrase their speech to make themselves understood. We have mapped the interpreter's abilities and limitations when it comes to this, so that we best match an interpreter with the right dialect to your assignment.
Salita collaborates with many professional Arabic interpreters from Syria. Many of our interpreters, who are not from Syria themselves, nevertheless know the dialect well, as it has a lot in common with other varieties of Arabic from the Middle East, and they also have no problems with changing and using words and expressions so that the client understands what is being interpreted.
Other languages in Syria
In addition to Arabic, several languages are spoken in Syria - including Kurdish - which is itself divided into three dialects which are considered separate languages; sorani, kurmanci/kurmanji and badini (which itself is often considered a version of kurmanci/kurmanji).
Kurdish is a kind of "continuum" of dialects/languages spoken in Kurdistan - which is an area that stretches from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey. There is a different degree of mutual intelligibility between the languages, some speak and understand several dialects, while others have greater problems.
The main dividing line is between Southern Kurdish and Northern Kurdish – Sorani and Kurmanji – where Sorani is written in Arabic script , and Kurmanji in Latin letters . Although pronunciation and accent in the Kurdish languages there can be big differences in the grammar; as big as between English and German! When ordering an interpreter in Kurdish, it is therefore important to clarify in advance which dialect the people who will use the interpreter speak and understand. We at Salita interpretation service have mapped all our interpreters in order to be able to match an interpreter with the right dialect for the assignment.
Other languages spoken in Syria are Aramaic, Armenian, Assyrian, Azeri etc. and we have interpreters in all these languages should the need arise.
If you are unsure which dialect you should order, call us at Salita interpreting service to speak to one of our experienced interpreters (24/7/365).
Interpreter
