Google said on Tuesday that it has added 110 more languages to its language translation service, Google Translate, marking a significant growth. Google created Google Translate, a multilingual neural machine translation tool, to translate webpages, documents, and text between languages.
According to a statement from Google’s Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, Communications and Public Affairs Manager for West Africa, this update is a component of the company’s 1,000 Languages Initiative. According to Kola-Ogunlade, the project leverages AI models to support the 1,000 most widely spoken languages globally, which is a big step towards removing linguistic barriers and promoting intercultural dialogue.
He claimed that the eight new additions were from all around Africa and joined the list of Nigerian languages that Google Translate already supported, including Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Fulani, Kanuri, and Tiv. He states that the goal of Google is to make it possible for everyone, anywhere, to comprehend the world and communicate in any language.
‘’We are providing almost half a billion individuals with additional means of communication and connection with the addition of these 110 new languages, many of which are from Africa. “A major focus of this expansion is Africa with its rich linguistic diversity,” he stated. As per his statement, Google’s dedication to promoting marginalised languages and elevating perspectives from all over the continent is demonstrated by the incorporation of multiple African languages.
Kola-Ogunlade stated that much thought had been given to the new language additions for Google Translate, from the inclusion of certain languages to the use of particular spellings. Since many languages lack a single, standard form, it is more practical, according to him, to acquire the particular dialect that is most widely spoken in a given location.
“We have prioritised the most widely used versions of each language in our approach.” He claims that 110 new languages are spoken by about 614 million people worldwide, or around 8% of the total population.
He mentioned major world languages that are spoken by more than 100 million people, languages spoken by small Indigenous populations, and languages that are being revitalised. Kola-Ogunlade did, however, emphasise the languages that Google Translate can translate into, including Swati, Ndebele in South Africa, Fon, Wolof in West Africa, Luo, Swati, Venda in East Africa, and Kikongo in Middle Africa.
