With us, you can enjoy professional Navajo interpretation services wherever you are.

​

With English as the de facto official language of the United States, it can be easy to forget the other languages native to the territory. No, we’re not talking about all the immigrant languages, like Spanish, Mandarin, or Arabic, which immigrants to the US have brought along with them. We mean the languages that have been spoken on the American continent for thousands of years before Europeans ever stepped foot on land. We mean languages like Navajo, a proud indigenous language still used by more than 170,000 native speakers today.

​

The Navajo Nation is located at the intersection of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, which places it squarely inside the US—so most Navajo speakers have also mastered English. But not all of them—an estimated 5% of Navajo speakers are, in fact, monolingual in the indigenous tongue. We at TranslationServices.com are dedicated to providing high-quality interpretation services for Navajo, with passionate interpreters hailing from all four states and beyond.

​

You may be wondering how much our Navajo interpretation services cost. Request a free quote today to find out!

​

Navajo: a proud and extremely complicated Native American language

​

With its 170,000 or so native speakers, comprising roughly half of the ethnic Navajo population, Navajo is by far the largest indigenous language in the US and Canada. Navajo, known as Diné bizaad to native speakers, comes from the Athabaskan subfamily of the Dené–Yeniseian language family, and most of its Athabaskan cousins are found significantly further north in Canada and Alaska. Navajo is infamous for its incredibly complex grammar, having even been deployed as a code language during World War II.

​

Navajo is classified as a polysynthetic language, characterized by heavy inflection, particularly on verbs. The language draws a strict distinction between animate and inanimate nouns, with an animacy hierarchy determining the word order of sentences—and changing the grammar along with it. Navajo famously also doesn’t use tenses in its verbs—rather, it relies on aspect, such as whether an action is complete, incomplete, repetitive, continuative, and more. A mixture of aspect, mode, and context allows Navajo speakers to place actions on a timeline just as well as an English speaker—but it’s not easy to learn.

​

Online or in person: how do you prefer your Navajo interpretation services?

​

Our goal is to provide Navajo interpretation services to anyone who needs them—no matter where they are. Your options are on-site Navajo interpretation or online interpretation.

​

If you’re located in or near the Navajo Nation, we have tons of passionate Navajo interpreters on our team ready to assist you. But it’s not just Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah—we have Navajo interpreters all over the country. And if we don’t have anyone in your area, we can always send them over to you—as long as you’re willing to pay extra for their travel expenses.

​

Maybe remote Navajo interpretation services are more your speed, especially since they’re accessible from anywhere in the world. You need only an internet connection or a phone line, and with a username, invitation link, or phone number, our Navajo interpreter will join. The rest proceeds just like in on-site interpretation: you start speaking, and our Navajo interpreter starts translating!

​

Making the choice between simultaneous and consecutive Navajo interpretation services

​

We offer both simultaneous and consecutive interpretation services for Navajo, so the choice is up to you. Here’s a rundown of the differences.

​

Simultaneous interpretation services are faster and allow the original speaker to speak uninterrupted, which allows for a more natural flow of information. The downside, however, is that it’s extremely taxing on the interpreter, which makes errors or inaccuracies more likely. We recommend simultaneous interpretation for one-way communication such as speeches or presentations, or for large meetings with many participants, where constant interruption would be too cumbersome.

​

Consecutive interpretation services are more accurate and dynamic, since the interpreter plays a more active role in the conversation, with the ability to ask for clarification. The disadvantage is that it slows down the dialogue and impedes the natural flow, since speakers constantly have to pause for the translation. Consecutive interpretation is appropriate for multidirectional communication between a small number of participants, such as interviews or small business meetings or conferences.

​

Our Navajo interpreters can even handle technical jargon.

​

Finding the right interpreter for technical content can be difficult, since your interpreter needs specialized expertise in your field to understand the vocabulary and nuances. Fortunately, our Navajo interpretation team is filled with passionate interpreters who represent a wide range of disciplines; so if you’re looking for a Navajo interpreter in a specific niche, we just may be able to help. Tell us exactly what you’re looking for, and we’ll do our best to match you up with the right interpreter for you.

​

Though many people in the US may not be aware, the proud indigenous language of Navajo is still spoken by more than 170,000 people, and they deserve great interpretation services. That’s what we provide—message us to get started today!