Microsoft Translator now supports Odia (ଓଡ଼ିଆ)

Throughout the history of humanity, there have been countless spoken and written languages. Some are still actively used today, while others are no longer common. Sadly, some languages have even been lost forever.

Thanks to translation services, such as Google Translate and Microsoft Translator, it’s possible to converse with someone that speaks a language you don’t understand. Regarding the latter service, it now has support for the written Odia language. While you may not have heard of this language (I hadn’t), it is apparently spoken by millions of people globally.

“Today, we are happy to announce that we have added Odia text translation to Microsoft Translator. Odia is available now, or will be available soon, in the Microsoft Translator  app, Office, Translator for Bing, and through the  Azure Cognitive Services  Translator for businesses and developers. Odia is spoken by 35 million people in India and across the world. It joins Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English as the 12th commonly used language of the Indian subcontinent to be available in Microsoft Translator,” says Microsoft.

The Xbox-maker further says, “Odia (pronounced oṛiā) is an Indo-European language native to Eastern India. It is the official language of the Indian state of Odisha and is also spoken in the nearby states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh. Odia is one of six languages of India to be granted to the status of a ‘Classical Language’ by the Indian government, and has a history of literature stretching back over 1000 years.”

Have you been looking forward to translating some Odia language text? If yes, you can do that here now.

Photo Credit: Aysezgicmeli / Shutterstock