Google launched Google Translate in 2006. Since then, the company has been slowly and steadily adding support for more languages to the platform. Last month, the company added support for 24 new languages, bringing the total number of supported languages to 133.
But Google has never added so many languages to Google Translate before. Announced Google Translate says “The biggest expansion everThe company is adding support for 110 new languages, bringing the total number of supported languages to 243.
In comparison, Apple Translate supports 20 languages and Microsoft Translator supports 135. This gives Google an edge among the top three companies.
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Google Translate currently supports a total of 243 languages
Google says the feat was achieved with the help of its PaLM 2 large-scale language model. Newly supported languages include Afar, Cantonese, Manx, NKo, Punjabi (Shamukhi), Tamazight (Amazigh), and Tok Pisin.
According to Google, the 110 newly added languages are:Representing over 614 million speakers, we provide translation opportunities for approximately 8% of the world’s population.”
Google added:Some of the world’s major languages have over 100 million speakers, others are spoken by small indigenous communities, and a few have few native speakers but are undergoing active revitalization efforts.”
A quarter of the 110 languages are African, including Fon, Kongo, Luo, Ga, Swati, Venda and Wolof, making this the largest expansion of African languages in Google Translate to date.