Published in Certified translations on 21/03/2024

Sworn translations, also known as certified translations or official translations, are a special form of legal translations that are prepared by sworn and court-certified interpreters (commonly known as court interpreters). In most cases, sworn translations are required for submission to authorities and courts. These include, for example, translations of excerpts from company registers, articles of association and medical reports. In Austria the court interpreters confirm the accuracy of the translation with a stamp and signature. The first page of the translation states that it is a certified translation from language X into language Y.

Sworn translations require more than just legal expertise and linguistic knowledge

Texts that require sworn translation are often peppered with technical terms. So court interpreters not only have to possess specialist legal and linguistic knowledge, but must also be well versed in a wide range of specialist areas. Each legal system has its own peculiarities that need to be taken into account during translation. It is therefore often the case that the translation needs to be supplemented with explanations. This is necessary, for example, if an Austrian legal term has no target language equivalent.

Sworn translations – an example of documentary translations

Like other forms of translation, sworn translations are the reproduction of the source text, i.e. the text to be translated, into another language. However, sworn translations differ from other translations: they are a good example of so-called documentary translations. In documentary translations, the structure and layout are retained as far as possible. The content of the source text is reproduced completely and as accurately as possible.

Changes to sworn translations

Sworn translations are a representation of the respective source text. The entire text must be reproduced unchanged but linguistically correct in the translation. This means, for example, that proper names are used (in the target text) as they appear in the source text. This also includes names consisting of letters that are unknown in the target language. Names such as Hieß, Roßmanová or Černý, for example, must be transferred with all letters and diacritical marks. Otherwise, the documents cannot be assigned to the respective person. There is an exception to this requirement where one of the two languages is not written in Latin script and/or where the name in the documents to be translated is demonstrably misspelled. For example, if the source text is a Ukrainian document, the Cyrillic names in the German translation must be rendered in Latin letters. There are standards that specify the correct transliteration. In most cases, the passport is used as a reference if it contains the correct Latin and Cyrillic spellings of the name. The passport or other proof of identity is also used as a reference if the name has been misspelled in the document to be translated. This change is then also marked as such in the translation and justified.