What exactly is meant by English-Norwegian Legal Translation?
While translation in general can be more nuanced than people think, a legal translation into Norwegian or from Norwegian 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 Norwegian 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 Norway.
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 Norwegian 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 Norway, or if maybe a simple translation Norwegian<>English will do.
Norwegian Legal Translation differ from other types of translation
Legal documents in Norwegian, unlike other documents such as a general web site, have a specific terminology. Our Norwegian 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, Norway…) is complex and its terminology can be very specific. Add to this the cultural and regional differences in territories where Norwegian is spoken, and you can understand how difficult legal translation can be.
Legal translators translate a legal concept from English into Norwegian or vice versa. To be legally binding, the English and the legal Norwegian terminology must be unambiguous.
Textual references for Norwegian Legal Translators
All legal translators of Norwegian 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 Norway.
Legal translators frequently check out civil and criminal procedure codes and regulatory rules. In these reference books they usually find precise descriptions in Norwegian 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 Norwegian-English translator is very precise and painstaking. In addition to these specialised legal researches, Norwegian 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 Norwegian Machine Translation engines are also used in combination with TM and have proven to be very useful.
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A quick overview of the Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language with about 5 million speakers, mainly in Norway. There are also some Norwegian speakers in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Canada and the United States.
The first Norwegian literature, mainly poetry and historical prose, was written in Western Norway and emerged between the 9th and 14th centuries. Later, Norway became to be ruled by Sweden and, later on, by Denmark. Norwegian was still spoken, but Danish was used for official purposes, as a literary and academic language.
After Norway separated from Denmark in 1814, Danish continued to be used in schools until the 1830s, when a movement emerged to create a new national language. The reason for this movement was that written Danish differed so greatly from spoken Norwegian that it was difficult to learn. They also believed that each country should have its own language.
There was much debate about how to create a national language and two languages emerged: the Landsmål (national language), based on colloquial Norwegian and regional dialects, in particular the dialects of Western Norway, and Riksmål (national language), which was mainly a written language very similar to Danish.
The Landsmål was renamed Nynorsk (New Norwegian) in 1929, and Riksmål is now officially known as Bokmål (language of books). Some people over 60 still use Riksmål, which is considered a conservative form of Bokmål and is slightly different.
Today, schools in Norway teach both versions of the language. Students are supposed to learn both, and they can choose which one they want to learn as their main language. Public officials are often familiar with both forms.
For a while there was a movement to create a single standard language that would be called Samnorsk (Norwegian Union). Politicians liked the idea of unifying the Norwegian language, while the others found it a bad idea and a waste of time. The Samnorsk project was officially disregarded on 1 January 2002.