Google Translate gets quintet of new languages

Things would be much easier if everyone in the world spoke the same language, but sadly, we do not. Inconvenience aside, I suppose there is beauty in each and every language — it might be boring to only have one.

Thankfully, thanks to translation technology, it is much easier to communicate with people that speak a different language nowadays. Google Translate, for instance, is a great service that can help people around the world speak with each other. Today, the service gets even better, as the search giant adds five new languages.

"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, but through advancements in our machine learning technology, coupled with active involvement of the Google Translate Community, we’ve added support for five languages: Kinyarwanda, Odia (Oriya), Tatar, Turkmen and Uyghur," says Isaac Caswell, Software Engineer, Google Translate.

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Caswell further says, "These languages, spoken by more than 75 million people worldwide, are the first languages we’ve added to Google Translate in four years, and expand the capabilities of Google Translate to 108 languages. Translate supports both text translation and website translation for each of these languages. In addition, Translate supports virtual keyboard input for Kinyarwanda, Tatar and Uyghur."

I’d be lying if I said I had heard of any of these languages before, but still, it is very cool that Google has added them. It is nice to know that if I ever cross paths with someone that speaks Tatar, for instance, I will be able to have a conversation. And that is a beautiful use of technology.

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