Google adds 24 new languages to its ‘Translate’ platform. 11 of them are African languages

Published

3 years ago

May 12, 2022

Tech giant Google has revealed that it has added 24 new languages, ten of which are African to its Google Translate platform.

The new includes are in Africa, including Lingala – Democratic Republic of Congo, Twi – Ghana, and Tigrinya – Eritrea.

Others are languages from Togo, Sierra Leone, Mali, South Africa, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Namibia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

Google Translate is a multilingual neural machine translation service developed by Google to translate text, documents, and websites from one language into another.

The US-based company through Isaac Caswell, a senior software engineer, Google Translate, said the new addition is aimed at helping those whose languages “aren’t represented in most technology”,

“For years, Google Translate has helped break down language barriers and connect communities all over the world …this is also a technical milestone for Google Translate,” Caswell added.

See the new languages below:

Assamese, used by about 25 million people in Northeast India
Aymara, used by about two million people in Bolivia, Chile and Peru
Bambara, used by about 14 million people in Mali
Bhojpuri, used by about 50 million people in northern India, Nepal and Fiji
Dhivehi, used by about 300,000 people in the Maldives
Dogri, used by about three million people in northern India
Ewe, used by about seven million people in Ghana and Togo
Guarani, used by about seven million people in Paraguay and Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil
Ilocano, used by about 10 million people in northern Philippines
Konkani, used by about two million people in Central India
Krio, used by about four million people in Sierra Leone
Kurdish (Sorani), used by about eight million people, mostly in Iraq
Lingala, used by about 45 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo,
Central African Republic, Angola and the Republic of South Sudan
Luganda, used by about 20 million people in Uganda and Rwanda
Maithili, used by about 34 million people in northern India
Meiteilon (Manipuri), used by about two million people in Northeast India
Mizo, used by about 830,000 people in Northeast India
Oromo, used by about 37 million people in Ethiopia and Kenya
Quechua, used by about 10 million people in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and surrounding countries
Sanskrit, used by about 20,000 people in India
Sepedi, used by about 14 million people in South Africa
Tigrinya, used by about eight million people in Eritrea and Ethiopia
Tsonga, used by about seven million people in Eswatini, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe
Twi, used by about 11 million people in Ghana

The new additions make it 133 the number of languages it can interpret using its algorithms.

Related Topics:Featured Google Google Translate

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Facebook returns to Uganda after 4-year ban

Published

1 day ago

December 24, 2024

Isaac Dachen

After four years of being in the cooler as a result of suspension by government, Facebook, now Meta, is making a return to Uganda after prolonged negotiations saw the Ugandan government reverse the ban it placed on the platform since 2021.

The suspension of the social media platform had stemmed from accusations by the government that Facebook was meddling in the country’s political affairs during the 2021 presidential elections which arose after it deleted government-affiliated accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation.

This ban of Facebook has led to widespread disruptions across the nation, affecting not only political discourse but also personal connections and business operations.

But according to reports, with a potential re-launch on the horizon for December 2024, Facebook’s comeback could be a game-changer with approximately 2.5 million Ugandans poised to reconnect on the platform, while the Uganda Revenue Authority stands to gain financially from its revival just as businesses, especially smaller enterprises, stand to benefit from advertising incomes.

Tech

20 African tech-preneurs embark on Korean innovation tour

Published

3 days ago

December 22, 2024

Isaac Dachen

The African Development Bank Group’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab has selected 20 promising tech entrepreneurs from various African technology ventures and enterprise support organisations to embark on a two-week study tour of the Republic of Korea, with the aim of seeking investment and insights from the country’s innovative tech ecosystem.

The selected entrepreneurs are from 133 ventures that participated in last month’s Africa Tech Startup Forum.

The forum which will hold under the auspices of the lab’s “Leveraging the Entrepreneurial and Innovation Success of Korea to Strengthen African Enterprise Support” project, had selected entrepreneurs who pitched the best business models during the week-long virtual market access and acceleration programme preparing, training, and connecting technology ventures with opportunities.

The 20 young tech-preneurs were selected from eight African countries including Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda, with the delegates spanning various sectors in the technology space.

While in Korea, the African delegates will pay visits to prestigious institutions such as Global Startup Centre, LG Science Park, the Korea Software Technology Association, and the Global Digital Innovation Network.

Speaking on behalf of the delegates, founder of Kenya-based health technology venture Zuri Health, Uche Ezadinachi said:

“I am excited to go to Korea because the country has made serious technological developments. The country is a technology-driven society, and this tour is an opportunity for me to see how we can bring such technology to Africa.

“We will share experiences with our Korean counterparts; they will learn from us as much as we learn from them,” he added.