What exactly is meant by English-German Legal Translation?
While translation in general can be more nuanced than people think, a legal translation into German or from German is much more than just moving words from one language to another.
Legal translation is focused on a wide variety of documents such as wills, court and financial documents, declarations, patents or court decrees.
Legal translators of German must have a good knowledge of the legal system of the country from which the document originates. In order to avoid misleading translations, they must also have an extensive knowledge of both English law and the law that applies to Austria, Germany, Switzerland.
In a globalized world where companies from all over the world can do business, legal translation takes on a very important role. We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that not all legal translations need to be official (certified). Translations from or into German should only be officially certified when requested by an official institution, agency or department. So be sure to check if an official, certified or sworn translation is required in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, or if maybe a simple translation German<>English will do.
German Legal Translation differ from other types of translation
Legal documents in German, unlike other documents such as a general web site, have a specific terminology. Our German Legal Translators are able to correctly translate these concepts into English or Spanish. They do not simply replace one word for another.
The choice of certain words in a legal text has a very specific and precise meaning. On the other hand, any ambiguity or inaccuracy can invalidate a legally binding document. A small mistake could have significant financial and/or legal consequences.
Legal jargon of each country (UK, Austria, Germany, Switzerland…) is complex and its terminology can be very specific. Add to this the cultural and regional differences in territories where German is spoken, and you can understand how difficult legal translation can be.
Legal translators translate a legal concept from English into German or vice versa. To be legally binding, the English and the legal German terminology must be unambiguous.Â
Textual references for German Legal Translators
All legal translators of German turn to reference works to do their job. For example, specialized dictionaries and glossaries, codes, laws and legal doctrine, both in English and from countries like Austria, Germany, Switzerland.
Legal translators frequently check out civil and criminal procedure codes and regulatory rules. In these reference books they usually find precise descriptions in German and in English of each legal concept.
Referral sources help translators confirm that they are using the appropriate terms used in a given legal proceeding. The work of a legal German-English translator is very precise and painstaking. In addition to these specialised legal researches, German translators use computer aided translation tools like TM (Translation Memories) and Multilingual Term Bases. Translation Memories let them find pieces of text already translated by them or by other translators. Specific German Machine Translation engines are also used in combination with TM and have proven to be very useful.
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Where is German spoken?
German-speaking countries, with almost 100 million speakers, account for almost 6% of the world economy. Of these speakers, almost 70% have access to the Internet. German (Deutsch in German) is an official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland...
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A quick overview of the German language
German was formed during the migration of several peoples and became part of the Germanic language family.
The term means "belonging to the people" and refers to its detachment from Latin, as the academic language, and Welsch, the popular Romance language. As a written language, German first appeared in a document, at the end of its last evolutionary stage (more than 1000 years ago), written in Old High German (750 to 1050).
The intermediate stage, Upper Middle German and Lower Middle German (1050-1500) is characterized by the loss of the final and intermediate vowels ("nd"), the beginning of diphthonging (formation of the double vowels: "au", "ei", "eu") and also by partial monopthonging. With the eastward expansion (colonization), the first attempts to find a written, supra-verbal form of High German emerged.
In the most recent stage, New Low German and New High German, a written language of High German was formed in the east (Elbe region) and spread throughout the German-speaking area thanks to the translation of Luther's Bible ("Sächsisches Kanzleideutsch") and the invention of the printing press. The New Low German became, during this stage of evolution, a dialect.
In general, there are three dialectal groups of German: Low, Medium and High German.