Google Translate expands its support to 110 languages, representing 614 million speakers

Google has announced that it is expanding its translation service to support 110 additional languages, using its PaLM 2 AI model to enhance translations. These newly added languages include Afar, Cantonese, Manx, Nko, Punjabi (Shahmukhi), Tamazight (Amazigh), and Tok Pisin, among others. This expansion covers over 614 million speakers, representing roughly 8% of the global population.

Google highlighted that the new languages are at various stages of usage. Some have around 100 million speakers, while others have no active speakers but are being preserved by dedicated communities. In its approach, Google considers factors like regional varieties, dialects, and different spelling standards when adding new languages.

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

This update is part of Google’s broader initiative to support 1,000 languages through AI, which was announced in 2022. That same year, Google added support for 24 languages spoken by over 300 million people using its one-shot model. With these latest additions, Google Translate now supports a total of 243 languages.

In comparison, Apple recently announced at WWDC that it is adding support for Hindi to its translation app. However, Apple Translate currently supports just over 20 languages.