Google is adding 110 new languages to its Google Translate service, a significant expansion of its 18-year-old free translation tool.
According to the tech giant, this update marks the largest expansion in the tool's history, now encompassing languages spoken by over 614 million people worldwide.
Google significantly expands Google Translate to include 110 new languages, marking its largest update yet and further enhancing its language accessibility capabilities.Image via Google, Wikipedia
New Google Translate Update Includes Endangered European Languages
As reported by Euronews, among the newly supported languages are several endangered European dialects such as Sicilian, Manx, Breton, and Romani.
Manx, a Celtic language from the Isle of Man, nearly went extinct with the death of its last native speaker in 1974. However, an island-wide revival movement has led to a resurgence, resulting in thousands of new speakers.
Similarly, Breton, a Celtic language spoken in Brittany, France, and Romani, spoken by approximately 4.6 million people in Europe, are now part of Google Translate's extensive library.
Italian dialects have also been added, including Sicilian from Sicily and Venetian from Venice. Additionally, Northern Sámi, a language spoken in northern Scandinavia, is now supported, further broadening the tool's European language offerings.
Google Translate Expands Available African Languages
About a quarter of the new languages in the update come from Africa, marking Google's largest expansion of African languages to date. Languages such as Fon, Kikongo, Luo, Ga, Swati, Venda, and Wolof are now available.
Afar, a tonal language spoken in Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, received the most volunteer community contributions among the newly added languages.
Google has also added major world languages like Cantonese, which has long been requested due to its complex overlap with Mandarin in writing. Punjabi (Shahmukhi), the most spoken language in Pakistan, and Tamazight (Amazigh), a Berber language spoken across North Africa, are now included.
AI and Machine Learning Technology Driving Google Translate
The expansion was made possible by Google's advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies. Since 2016, the company has been using neural networks, algorithms inspired by the human brain, to analyze patterns, context, and linguistic structures, delivering natural-sounding translations.
Google's latest PaLM 2 large language model, which features improved multilingual, reasoning, and coding capabilities, played a crucial role in this recent update.
This model allowed Translate to efficiently learn languages closely related to others, such as Awadhi and Marwadi (related to Hindi), and French creoles like Seychellois Creole and Mauritian Creole (creoles are languages developed from a mixture of different languages, typically in situations of cultural blending or colonization.)
Google also utilizes Zero-Shot Machine Translation, a method where the AI model learns to translate a language without ever seeing an example.
This technique was employed in 2022 to add 24 new languages and continues to support Google's goal of eventually covering the 1,000 most spoken languages worldwide.
