Google has announced a major upgrade to Google Translate in years, adding 110 new languages to the service. With new languages, the total number of languages Google Translate supports has soared to 243. The company announced the new translations will use the PaLM 2 AI language model, especially for languages related to one another, such as Awadhi, Marwadi, and Chhattisgarhi, which are close to the Hindi language.
In its “largest expansion ever,” Google has added translation support for languages, spoken or written by more than half a billion people, 614 million to be precise. “Some are major world languages with over 100 million speakers. Others are spoken by small communities of indigenous people, and a few have almost no native speakers but active revitalisation efforts,” said Isaac Caswell, senior software engineer at Google Translate.
Among the Indian languages, Awadhi, Chhattisgarhi, and Marwadi will be available on Google Translate for the better localisation of these Hindi dialects spoken in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan, respectively. Pakistan’s most spoken language, Shahmukhi Punjabi, a variety of Punjabi written in Perso-Arabic script (Shahmukhi), will also be available on Google Translate with the latest update.
Some of the other newly supported languages in Google Translate include Afar, a tonal language of Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia; Cantonese, a major Chinese language; Manx, a Celtic language spoken in the Isle of Man; NKo, a standardised form of West African Manding languages; Tok Pisin, an English-based creole and the lingua franca of Papua New Guinea; and Tamazight, a Berber language spoken across North Africa.
Google said its PaLM 2 AI model “was a key to the puzzle,” referring to complexities in languages as their tonality, dialect, and spelling standards vary immensely. It helps translate languages more efficiently, especially the ones with similar characteristics. “As technology advances, and as we continue to partner with expert linguistics and native speakers, we’ll support even more language varieties and spelling conventions over time,” said Caswell.
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