Google Translate Expands to 110 Languages, Welcomes Tamazight

Marrakesh – Google announced today that its translation service now supports 110 languages, powered by the cutting-edge PaLM 2 AI model.

This latest AI innovation, PaLM 2, is the company’s large language model (LLM) designed to enhance translation accuracy and fluency.

Additionally, PaLM 2 is set to enhance Google’s upgraded Bard chat tool, positioning it as a strong competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The newly added languages include Afar, Cantonese, Manx, Nko, Punjabi, Tamazight, and Tok Pisin.

Tamazight is the indigenous language spoken by populations across North Africa. Despite its numerous dialects, the written form is generally mutually understandable.

It is written in both Latin and Tifinagh scripts, both supported by Google Translate, according to the website.

The company highlighted that these languages represent over 614 million speakers, roughly 8% of the world’s population.

Google highlighted that the newly added languages vary significantly in their usage levels. Some boast over 100 million speakers, while others, although without active speakers, are subject to preservation efforts.

The company also considers regional varieties, dialects, and spelling standards when integrating new languages, ensuring a comprehensive and accurate translation experience.

“Our approach has been to prioritize the most commonly used varieties of each language,” stated Issac Caswell, a software engineer at Google.

“For example, Romani is a language that has many dialects all throughout Europe. Our models produce text that is closest to Southern Vlax Romani, a commonly used variety online. But it also mixes in

elements from others, like Northern Vlax and Balkan Roman,” he added.

The inclusion of 110 languages in Google Translate is a step toward the company’s goal of supporting 1,000 languages through AI, a commitment announced in 2022.

In 2019, La Rando, a French-based organization led by its Moroccan founder Karim Akachar, initiated a petition on Avaaz urging Google to integrate Tamazight into Google Translate. The petition garnered over 36,579 signatures.

In March of the same year, La Rando reported that the Google Translate team responded, acknowledging that the petition had been “taken into account.”