Broadening Reaches: Google Translate's Push for Multilingual Adaptation
Google has taken a significant step forward in breaking down language barriers by adding 110 new languages to its translation service, Google Translate. With this latest update, the service now supports a total of 243 languages, bringing it closer to its goal of providing translation services for the world's 1,000 most spoken languages.
The new languages represent over 614 million speakers worldwide, potentially opening up translation services to approximately 8% of the global population. This expansion is particularly significant for African languages, which account for about a quarter of the new additions.
Google's process for adding new languages is complex, considering which languages to include and handling specific spellings. The company prioritizes the most commonly used varieties of each language, acknowledging the lack of a standard form in many languages. Google remains committed to expanding its language support as technology advances.
PaLM 2, Google's next-generation language model, is at the heart of this initiative. This advanced AI model boasts enhanced multilingual, reasoning, and coding capabilities, making it instrumental in the efficient translation and learning of closely related languages.
The inclusion of Siswati and Tshivenda in Google Translate brings the total number of supported South African languages to nine out of twelve. South African Sign Language (SASL) was added to Google Translate in July 2023, further enhancing accessibility for South African users.
Google's approach prioritizes partnerships with expert linguists and native speakers in addition to technology. Siya Madikane, Google South Africa's communications manager, expressed excitement about the expansion, stating that it will make communication more accessible and inclusive on a global scale.
In May 2022, Google added 24 languages using Zero-Shot Machine Translation, including several African languages such as Bambara, Ewe, Krio, Lingala, Luganda, Oromo, Sepedi, Tigrinya, Tsonga, and Twi. The ongoing effort by Google promises to make communication more accessible and inclusive on a global scale.
The newly added languages include Fon (Benin), Kikongo (Central Africa), Luo (East Africa), Wolof (Senegal), Siswati, Tshivenda, Afar, NKo, Tamazight (Africa), among others. Google continues to partner with expert linguists and native speakers to support more language varieties and spelling conventions.
Google views language as essential for communication and understanding. The company's goal is to bring us closer to a world where language barriers are a thing of the past. With each new language added, Google moves one step closer to achieving this goal and fostering a more connected, inclusive global community.
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