Google Translator on Thursday added 110 new languages to its portal, including three Nigerian languages.
The Nigerian languages are Fulani, Kanuri and Tiv. Fulani is Number 35 on the alphabetical list released by Google while Kanuri is Number 44 and Tiv is 96.
A blog spot by Google published on Thursday said the new languages represent more than 614 million speakers, opening up translations for around 8% of the world’s population.
It says, “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 revitalization efforts.
“About a quarter of the new languages come from Africa, representing our largest expansion of African languages to date, including Fon, Kikongo, Luo, Ga, Swati, Venda and Wolof.”
Meteor had reported earlier in the day that Google had announced its largest-ever expansion of language support for Google Translate, to significantly bolsters the platform’s ability to break down language barriers and facilitate global communication.
Before this expansion, Google Translate supported 133 languages.
The addition of 110 new languages is attributed to advancements in AI technology, particularly Google’s PaLM 2 large language model.
According to a Google blog post on Thursday, PaLM 2 played a pivotal role in enabling Translate to learn languages that are closely related to others, such as Awadhi and Marwadi related to Hindi, and French creoles like Seychellois Creole and Mauritian Creole.
The post also gives insight into how Google selects languages for the translation service.
It says, ” There’s a lot to consider when adding new languages to Translate — everything from what varieties we offer, to what specific spellings we use.
“Languages have an immense amount of variation: regional varieties, dialects, different spelling standards.
“In fact, many languages have no one standard form, so it’s impossible to pick a “right” variety. Our approach has been to prioritize the most commonly used varieties of each language.
“For example, Romani is a language that has many dialects all throughout Europe. Our models produce text that is closest to Southern Vlax Romani, a commonly used variety online. But it also mixes in elements from others, like Northern Vlax and Balkan Romani.
“PaLM 2 was a key piece to the puzzle, helping Translate more efficiently learn languages that are closely related to each other, including languages close to Hindi, like Awadhi and Marwadi, and French creoles like Seychellois Creole and Mauritian Creole.
“As technology advances, and as we continue to partner with expert linguists and native speakers, we’ll support even more language varieties and spelling conventions over time.”
The post also lists the peculiarities of some of the new languages added to its portal.
It says, “Afar is a tonal language spoken in Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Of all the languages in this launch, Afar had the most volunteer community contributions.
“Cantonese has long been one of the most requested languages for Google Translate. Because Cantonese often overlaps with Mandarin in writing, it’s tricky to find data and train models.
“Manx is the Celtic language of the Isle of Man. It almost went extinct with the death of its last native speaker in 1974. But thanks to an island-wide revival movement, there are now thousands of speakers.
According to the post, NKo represents a standardized version of the West African Manding languages, consolidating numerous dialects into a shared linguistic form. Introduced in 1949, its distinctive alphabet is exclusive to this language, supported by a dedicated research community continuously enhancing resources and technology for its development.
The post adds that “Punjabi (Shahmukhi) is the variety of Punjabi written in Perso-Arabic script (Shahmukhi), and is the most spoken language in Pakistan.
“Tamazight (Amazigh) is a Berber language spoken across North Africa. Although there are many dialects, the written form is generally mutually understandable. It’s written in Latin script and Tifinagh script, both of which Google Translate supports.
“Tok Pisin is an English-based creole and the lingua franca of Papua New Guinea. If you speak English, try translating into Tok Pisin — you might be able to make out the meaning!”
In 2022, Google introduced 24 languages using Zero-Shot Machine Translation, a method where AI models learn to translate between languages without prior examples.
Here are some of the newly supported languages in Google Translate:
1. Abkhaz
2. Acehnese
3. Acholi
4. Afar
5. Alur
6. Avar
7. Awadhi
8. Balinese
9. Baluchi
10. Baoulé
11. Bashkir
12. Batak Karo
13. Batak Simalungun
14. Batak Toba
15. Bemba
16. Betawi
17. Bikol
18. Breton
19. Buryat
20. Cantonese
21. Chamorro
22. Chechen
23. Chuukese
24. Chuvash
25. Crimean Tatar
26. Dari
27. Dinka
28. Dombe
29. Dyula
30. Dzongkha
31. Faroese
32. Fijian
33. Fon
34. Friulian
35. Fulani
36. Ga
37. Hakha Chin
38. Hiligaynon
39. Hunsrik
40. Iban
41. Jamaican Patois
42. Jingpo
43. Kalaallisut
44. Kanuri
45. Kapampangan
46. Khasi
47. Kiga
48. Kikongo
49. Kituba
50. Kokborok
51. Komi
52. Latgalian
53. Ligurian
54. Limburgish
55. Lombard
56. Luo
57. Madurese
58. Makassar
59. Malay (Jawi)
60. Mam
61. Manx
62. Marshallese
63. Marwadi
64. Mauritian Creole
65. Meadow Mari
66. Minang
67. Nahuatl (Eastern Huasteca)
68. Ndau
69. Ndebele (South)
70. Nepalbhasa (Newari)
71. NKo
72. Nuer
73. Occitan
74. Ossetian
75. Pangasinan
76. Papiamento
77. Portuguese (Portugal)
78. Punjabi (Shahmukhi)
79. Q’eqchi’
80. Romani
81. Rundi
82. Sami (North)
83. Sango
84. Santali
85. Seychellois Creole
86. Shan
87. Sicilian
88. Silesian
89. Susu
90. Swati
91. Tahitian
92. Tamazight
93. Tamazight (Tifinagh)
94. Tetum
95. Tibetan
96. Tiv
97. Tok Pisin
98. Tongan
99. Tswana
100. Tulu
101. Tumbuka
102. Tuvan
103. Udmurt
104. Venda
105. Venetian
106. Waray
107. Wolof
108. Yakut
109. Yucatec Maya
110. Zapotec
