Google translate adds new languages for the first time since 2016
Google Translate has added five new languages to its accomplished translation software, the first time new ones have been added since 2016.
The languages are Kinyarwanda, Odia (Oriya), Tatar, Turkmen and Uyghur and brings Google’s total number of languages covered by Translate to 108.
In ablog post, Google blamed the scarcity of these languages online as the reason for their late arrival.
“Translate learns from existing translations, which are most often found on the web. Languages without a lot of web content have traditionally been challenging to translate,” said Isaac Caswell, Software Engineer, Google Translate.
Uyghur is the language of the Uyghurs people who reside in China. Given Google services are blocked by the Chinese government, you might not have much luck using Google Translate if you’re trying to talk to anyone who speaks the language, but perhaps we are being to cynical of Google’s achievement.
Translate works excellently via text input, voice input and even using machine learning to translate text from images and photos. As ever with Google, it’s a free app and one of the most useful the company has.
Author: Henry Burrell, Contributor
Previously Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, Henry covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.
