| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| Standard document translation | From UAH 600 |
| Written text translation | From UAH 600 |
| Consecutive interpreting | From UAH 5,000 |
| Apostille or legalisation | From UAH 1,900 |
| Notarial certification | On request |
The Italian language
The Italian language is inextricably linked to Italy — a country where language, culture and regional identity have developed side by side over the centuries, though by no means in the same way.
Today, Italian is the main language for the majority of the country’s population. It is used in public administration, education, business, the media and everyday communication. At the same time, Italy itself remains extremely diverse in linguistic terms: local languages, dialects, distinctive pronunciations and specific vocabulary are preserved in various regions.
Italian is also spoken outside Italy. It has official status in Switzerland, San Marino and the Vatican, and numerous Italian communities have historically formed in the USA, Canada, Argentina, Australia and other countries.
As a result, modern Italian has long since moved beyond the image of a language associated with opera, painting or gastronomy. It is used to conduct negotiations, draft international contracts, produce technical documentation, promote brands, and communicate with clients.
For a professional translator, this is an important detail: a language exists within a specific context, and therefore a translation must take this into account just as much as the dictionary meanings of individual words.
From Vulgar Latin to Modern Italian
Italian belongs to the Romance languages, so its historical foundation is Latin.
However, modern language did not emerge directly from the Classical Latin of Cicero or Virgil, but from its living, colloquial forms used by the inhabitants of the Roman Empire in their everyday lives.
Following the decline of the Western Roman Empire, the linguistic landscape of the Apennine Peninsula gradually fragmented. Distinct Romance dialects developed in various regions, their evolution influenced by historical borders, political isolation and contact with other peoples.
Tuscany, and above all Florence, played a special role in the formation of the future literary standard. The works of Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca and Giovanni Boccaccio demonstrated that literature of the highest caliber could be created in the vernacular. Subsequently, the Tuscan tradition became one of the main guiding principles in the formation of standard Italian.
However, the literary standard was not the language of everyday communication throughout the country for a long time to come.
Before the political unification of Italy in the 19th century, the inhabitants of different regions predominantly used local linguistic variants. After the creation of a unified state, the situation began to change: schools, the civil service, the press, and later radio and television gradually spread standard Italian throughout the country.
It is precisely this history that explains why modern Italian has a fairly clear literary standard whilst retaining a strong regional character.
How Italian differs from other European languages
To the ear, Italian often seems like an easy and very natural language. It has many open vowels, a clear rhythm, expressive intonation, and the spelling of many words gives a fairly good indication of their pronunciation.
However, this apparent ease is somewhat deceptive.
One distinctive feature of the Italian language is the use of double consonants. For a native speaker, the difference between a short and a long sound is clearly perceptible, and in certain words it can affect the meaning. Stress is no less important: it is not usually marked in writing, so reading a word correctly depends on knowledge of the word and the context.
Grammar also requires attention. Nouns have gender, adjectives and articles agree with them, and the verb system contains a significant number of tense and mood forms.
A separate topic is the congiuntivo, which is used to convey doubt, evaluation, desire, assumption and other nuances of meaning. In everyday conversation, a mistake may go almost unnoticed, but in legal, corporate, or journalistic texts, an ill-chosen construction can alter the tone of a statement.
There is also a cultural aspect to the language. The distinction between the informal tu and the formal Lei influences the style of a business letter, a client communication or an advertising text.
Therefore, a professional translation into Italian is not a literal reproduction of a sentence. It must sound as though the text was written for an Italian reader from the very beginning.
One Italian language — many regional variations
On the map, Italy appears to be a relatively compact country, but the linguistic differences between its regions can be very pronounced.
Alongside standard Italian, there are Sicilian, Neapolitan, Venetian, Sardinian and many other regional linguistic traditions. Some of these are so distinctive that it would be an oversimplification to speak only of differences in accent.
This is particularly noticeable when working with spoken language.
Recordings of interviews, negotiations, telephone conversations or videos may contain regional vocabulary, abbreviations and constructions that you’ll hardly ever come across in a standard language course.
In written translation, the situation is usually simpler: standard Italian is used for contracts, certificates, instructions and other official documents. However, when localizing adverts, videos, social media posts or content for a specific region, cultural and linguistic nuances can become highly significant.
This is where knowledge of the language gradually gives way to an understanding of the context in which that language is used.
Italian in business, documents and modern communications
In practice, Italian translation can stem from a wide variety of tasks.
A Ukrainian company receives a contract from an Italian partner. A manufacturer commissions a translation of equipment instructions. An online shop is preparing a product catalog for a new market. A student is gathering documents to study in Italy, whilst a private individual is compiling certificates, powers of attorney or references for submission to local authorities.
And although the language pair is the same in all cases, the translator’s work will differ.
A legal document requires precise wording and consistent terminology. In technical translation, it is crucial to accurately convey the names of parts, processes, and specifications. In the medical field, it is vital to avoid ambiguity. Marketing texts, on the other hand, often need to be adapted much more freely, as a literal phrase may be grammatically correct but fail to resonate with an Italian audience.
A separate specialization is the localization of websites, mobile apps, presentations, catalogs and multimedia content. Here, the translator operates at the intersection of language, marketing and cultural adaptation.
That is precisely why the quality of a translation is best assessed not by the principle of ‘all words have been translated’, but by whether the finished text fulfills its purpose.
Professional Italian translation at the STATUS KO Translation Center
At the STATUS KO Translation Center, we handle translations into and out of Italian for private clients, companies, and international projects.
We provide written and oral translation services and handle legal, technical, medical, financial, corporate and marketing materials. We also assist with the translation of personal documents for use in Ukraine and abroad, and, where required, with notarisation, apostille and other related procedures.
We do not select translators solely based on their knowledge of Italian. A contract, a medical report, an industrial manual or an advertising catalog each require different professional expertise.
This is particularly evident in large-scale projects. When translating a website, a set of technical documentation or a series of corporate materials, it is important that the same concepts are not given different names on neighboring pages, and that the style remains consistent from the first document to the last.
Sometimes a client needs just one page. Other times, they need hundreds of pages or regular language support for their business.
In both cases, getting started is simple: send us the document or briefly describe the task. The specialists at STATUS KO will assess the material, help determine the appropriate translation format, and suggest the best way forward.
