2021-03-22 00:00:00, Sophie Hardach, BBC
Content Categorization
/Reference/Language Resources
Word Count:
2246
Words/Sentence:
29
Reading Time:
14.97 min
Reading Quality:
Adept
Readability:
13th to 15th
The languages that defy auto-translate(Image credit: Seyllou/Getty Images)There are more than 7,000 languages in the world, 4,000 of which are written.
But many other languages still defy machine translation, including languages spoken by millions of people, such as Wolof, Luganda, Twi and Ewe in Africa.
The European Parliament alone produces a data trove of 1.37 billion words in 23 languages over a decade.
No such data mountain exists, however, for languages that may be widely spoken but not as prolifically translated.
But this amounts to a narrow dataset, and is not enough to train accurate, wide-ranging translation robots.
Google Translate currently offers the ability to communicate in around 108 different languages while Microsoft's Bing Translator offers around 70 languages.
They, too, want access to urgent information in other languages – not for espionage, but to improve their everyday lives.
"When this Covid-19 pandemic happened, there was a sudden need to translate basic health tips into many languages.
Keywords
ARTICLE, story, future, language
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