What exactly is meant by English-Swedish Legal Translation?
While translation in general can be more nuanced than people think, a legal translation into Swedish or from Swedish 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 Swedish 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 Sweden.
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 Swedish 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 Sweden, or if maybe a simple translation Swedish<>English will do.
Swedish Legal Translation differ from other types of translation
Legal documents in Swedish, unlike other documents such as a general web site, have a specific terminology. Our Swedish 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, Sweden…) is complex and its terminology can be very specific. Add to this the cultural and regional differences in territories where Swedish is spoken, and you can understand how difficult legal translation can be.
Legal translators translate a legal concept from English into Swedish or vice versa. To be legally binding, the English and the legal Swedish terminology must be unambiguous.
Textual references for Swedish Legal Translators
All legal translators of Swedish 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 Sweden.
Legal translators frequently check out civil and criminal procedure codes and regulatory rules. In these reference books they usually find precise descriptions in Swedish 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 Swedish-English translator is very precise and painstaking. In addition to these specialised legal researches, Swedish 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 Swedish 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 Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language spoken by about 10 million people in Sweden (Sverige). In 2007 there were 290,000 native speakers of Swedish in Finland, and 2.4 million speakers as a second language. It is estimated that in 2010 there are about 300,000 speakers of Swedish in countries other than Sweden or Finland. Many of them live in the United States, United Kingdom, Spain and Germany, and also in other Scandinavian countries, France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia.
Swedish is closely related to Norwegian and Danish, and its speakers often understand each other.
Finland was governed by Sweden from the 12th century until 1809. During that period, Swedish was the main language of government and education. Today, Finnish and Swedish are official languages in Finland.
There used to be Swedish-speaking communities in Estonia (Estland). About a thousand of these Swedes emigrated to southern Ukraine after Estonia became part of the Russian Empire in the 18th century. There they built a population known as Gammölsvänskbi (Old Swedish Town), which is now part of Zmiivka (Зміївка). Very few people still speak Swedish in this area. During World War II, other Swedish speakers fled from Estonia to Sweden. Only very few people in Estonia still speak Swedish today.
Between 800 and 1100 AD, an ancient northeastern dialect known as Runic Swedish was spoken in Sweden. It was written in the runic alphabet. It differed only slightly from the ancient Nordic dialect of Denmark, or runic Danish.
The two languages began to separate during the 12th century.
Swedish first appeared in the Latin alphabet in 1225 in the Westrogoda (Äldre Västgötalagen), the legal code used in the province of West Gothland (Västergötland). The language of this text is known as Early Old Swedish (klassisk fornsvenska or äldre fornsvenska), which was used until about 1375. Grammatically it was much more complex than modern Swedish.
Between 1375 and 1526, the language of Sweden was known as Late Old Swedish (yngre fornsvenska). It had undergone a grammatical simplification and a change of vowels, and by the 16th century it had more in common with modern Swedish. During this time, the Swede borrowed many words from Latin, Low German and Dutch.
The translation of the Bible into Swedish in 1526 is considered the beginning of modern Swedish. It helped to establish a consistent spelling for Swedish, although the spelling used in the translation was not entirely consistent. For example, the letters ä and ö were used instead of “æ” and “ø”, and “å” replaced “o” in many words.
The modern rules of Swedish spelling were created by the author Carl Gustaf af Leopold, on behalf of the Swedish Academy (Svenska Akademien). His proposal was published in 1801, and finally adopted by the Academy in 1874. The spelling was reformed in 1906, and the reform was only fully endorsed by the Swedish Academy in 1950.