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Afrikaans Legal Translator

Perth Translation provides professional Afrikaans legal translation services both in Australia and abroad.

Our team of Afrikaans legal translators are able to prepare large-volume Afrikaans translations for research, business and litigation use, often producing business and legal Afrikaans <> English translations within deadlines considered impossible by other translation companies.

Depending on your requirements, Afrikaans legal translations can be prepared by NAATI Afrikaans translators or non-NAATI, professional Afrikaans translators based around the globe. Example of legal documents translated:

Afrikaans Birth and Death Certificates
Afrikaans Business Contracts
Afrikaans Divorce Papers Or Single-status Certificates
Afrikaans Employee Contracts
Evidence Used in Court
Interview Transcript Translation
Insurance Claim Documents
Intellectual Property
Letters Responding to Complaints
Property Transaction Documents
Research Information for Court Cases
Rental and Lease Letters
Wills

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About the Afrikaans Language

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and, to a lesser extent, Botswana and Zimbabwe. It evolved from the Dutch vernacular of South Holland (Hollandic dialect) spoken by the mainly Dutch settlers of what is now South Africa, where it gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics in the course of the 18th century. Hence, it is a daughter language of Dutch, and was previously referred to as "Cape Dutch" (a term also used to refer collectively to the early Cape settlers) or "kitchen Dutch" (a derogatory term used to refer to Afrikaans in its earlier days). However, it is also variously described as a creole or as a partially creolised language. The term is ultimately derived from Dutch Afrikaans-Hollands meaning "African Dutch". It is the first language of most of the Afrikaners and Coloureds of Southern Africa.

Although Afrikaans has adopted words from other languages, including German and the Khoisan languages, an estimated 90 to 95% of the vocabulary of Afrikaans is of Dutch origin. Therefore, differences with Dutch often lie in the more analytic morphology and grammar of Afrikaans, and a spelling that expresses Afrikaans pronunciation rather than standard Dutch.

Afrikaans Document Translation

Afrikaans has relatively little dialectal variation compared to many languages, though distinctions exist between Cape Afrikaans, Orange River Afrikaans, and East Cape Afrikaans. These regional differences are mostly phonological and rarely affect written documents. However, informal Afrikaans incorporates significantly more English and Malay loanwords than the formal written standard used in legal and civil documents.

Afrikaans Document Types

Key South African civil documents in Afrikaans include the geboortesertifikaat (birth certificate), huweliksertifikaat (marriage certificate), and bestuurderslisensie (driving licence). These are issued by the Department of Home Affairs (Departement van Binnelandse Sake) and traffic departments respectively.

Afrikaans is one of eleven official languages of South Africa, where it remains widely used in government, education, and legal proceedings, particularly in the Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces. It is also recognised as a national language in Namibia, where it serves as a lingua franca despite not holding official status. Documents from both countries may appear in Afrikaans, though South African documents increasingly feature multilingual formatting.

Industry Requirements

The Legal Practice Board of Western Australia governs the legal profession in WA. The Law Society of Western Australia is the professional association, and the Legal Services and Complaints Committee handles disciplinary matters. At the federal level, the Attorney-General's Department oversees legal policy.

Key documents requiring translation include court orders and judgments, statutory declarations and affidavits, powers of attorney, contracts and commercial agreements, wills and probate documents, police clearance certificates from overseas jurisdictions, and family law documentation including custody agreements and divorce decrees from foreign courts.

All foreign-language documents tendered as evidence in Australian courts must be accompanied by a NAATI-certified translation. The Supreme Court of Western Australia and the Federal Court require certified translations for any non-English exhibits, and law firms routinely specify NAATI certification for client documents from overseas.

Perth's legal sector handles substantial cross-border commercial work driven by the resources industry, with firms like Herbert Smith Freehills, Allens, and Clayton Utz maintaining large Perth offices. Family law and migration law practices across the city regularly require NAATI-certified translations of personal documents from South-East Asian, African, and Middle Eastern jurisdictions.