Xhosa translation services

Xhosa translation is priced per word for text and per minute for audiovisual, depending on volume, subject matter and turnaround, with confirming the audience's region and language included as part of the brief rather than billed as an extra step. Send your files and we will come back with a free, itemised quote, backed by our Price Match Promise.

Yes. Native Xhosa linguists handle every translation, and a second native linguist independently reviews each text, checking among other things that no Zulu vocabulary has slipped in from a related file or a shared term list.

Yes — Xhosa translation, subtitling and voice over all come from one team, working to a single glossary throughout, so the subtitles and the recorded narration are in the same language for the same audience.

Not well. isiXhosa and isiZulu are separate official languages, and they differ in everyday vocabulary from the first greeting. A Zulu version shown to a Xhosa-speaking audience reads as material made for another audience, which is the opposite of what translation is for.

Where the audience is Xhosa-speaking — above all the Eastern Cape, where 81.8 % of people named isiXhosa as the language they speak most at home at the 2022 census, and the Western Cape, where 31.4 % did. For KwaZulu-Natal the answer is isiZulu, and a national campaign usually needs both.

Yes — audiovisual is our specialisation. We deliver spotted SRT/VTT and timed two-column voice-over scripts, plus translated text when you need it.

We can start from it, but it needs splitting. Terms that look shared often are not, and a single list used for both languages is how Zulu words end up in a Xhosa file. We review it with native linguists of each language and keep two aligned glossaries.

Yes. isiXhosa was the home language of 16.3 % of South Africans at the 2022 census, second only to isiZulu, and many projects need both. Each is translated by its own native linguist and reviewed separately, with a shared glossary keeping the terms aligned.

Most short documents are delivered within 24 to 48 hours. Word count, subject complexity and turnaround all move the date, and your project manager will confirm the timeline at the start.

Less than people expect: the document, script or subtitle file, its word count, what the text is actually for, and the date you need it by. A draft is fine — we would rather quote on what exists than wait for a final version that eats your deadline. A named project manager comes back with an itemised quote, normally within four working hours.

More than half of enquiries get a reply within thirty minutes during office hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm UK time), and the itemised quote normally follows within four working hours. After that you have one dedicated project manager who owns the job from brief to final file — not a ticket queue, and not a different name on every email. If it is easier, call +44 207 095 5730 and ask for them by name.

Yes, and it is one of the commonest reasons people get in touch. Tell us it is for a pitch and you get a figure you can put in front of your own client, itemised so it stands up to being picked apart, with no obligation and no follow-up sales calls if the pitch goes elsewhere. If it lands, the quote still holds and we already know the project.