Google significantly expanded its Google Translate service last Thursday (June 27), adding support for 110 new languages. This is the largest expansion in the history of the translation platform, which now covers a total of 243 languages. These additions reach more than 614 million people, or about 8% of the world's population, with a significant number of African languages.
The addition of new languages was made possible by Google's PaLM 2 large language model (LLM), which uses AI to learn languages, especially related languages or regional dialects. Advances in AI, particularly the PaLM 2 language model, have enabled the translation service to learn related languages more easily and efficiently.
Newly added languages include some of the most requested, such as Balinese, Fijian, European Portuguese, Tahitian, and Tibetan.
Meanwhile, Southeast Asian regional languages added to the list include Acehnese, Balinese, Batak Karo, Batak Simalungun, Batak Toba, Betawi, Bikol, Hakha Chin, Hiligaynon, Iban, Jingpo, Kapampangan, Madurese, Makassarese, Malay (Jawi), Minangkabau, Pangasinan, Shan, Tetum, and Waray.
This initiative is part of Google's broader commitment to support the world's 1,000 most spoken languages. In 2022, Google added 24 languages using Zero-Shot Machine Translation and launched the 1,000 Languages Initiative.
Users can access translations in these new languages through translate.google.com and the Google Translate app. This update is designed to improve accessibility and support global linguistic diversity.
