Google Translate

Google Translate adds support for 24 new languages, now supports over 130

Damien Wilde | May 11 2022 - 10:09 am PT

Google Translate has today confirmed support for a further 24 new languages and dialects on its online translation service.

From May 11, you’ll be able to use Google Translate to convert a range of new languages into your local dialect, helping those in regions such as Bolivia, Chile, India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, and many more to access direct translations. The addition of new languages and regional dialects will mean that a further 300 million people around the globe, including many indigenous communities, can access one of Google’s most powerful free tools.

Here’s the complete list of new languages now supported by Google Translate:

Assamese – used by about 25 million people in Northeast India
Aymara – used by about 2 million people in Bolivia, Chile, and Peru
Bambara – used by about 14 million people in Mali
Bhojpuri – used by about 50 million people in northern India, Nepal, and Fiji
Dhivehi – used by about 300,000 people in the Maldives
Dogri – used by about 3 million people in northern India
Ewe – used by about 7 million people in Ghana and Togo
Guarani – used by about 7 million people in Paraguay and Bolivia, Argentina, and Brazil
Ilocano – used by about 10 million people in northern Philippines
Konkani – used by about 2 million people in Central India
Krio – used by about 4 million people in Sierra Leone
Kurdish (Sorani) – used by about 8 million people, mostly in Iraq
Lingala – used by about 45 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Angola, and the Republic of South Sudan

Luganda – used by about 20 million people in Uganda and Rwanda
Maithili – used by about 34 million people in northern India
Meiteilon (Manipuri) – used by about 2 million people in Northeast India
Mizo – used by about 830,000 people in Northeast India
Oromo – used by about 37 million people in Ethiopia and Kenya
Quechua – used by about 10 million people in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and surrounding countries
Sanskrit – used by about 20,000 people in India
Sorani Kurdish – used by about 14 million people in South Africa
Tigrinya – used by about 8 million people in Eritrea and Ethiopia
Tsonga – used by about 7 million people in Eswatini, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe
Twi – used by about 11 million people in Ghana

Google also states that this is a technical milestone for Google Translate as these 24 new languages are the first that have been added using Zero-Shot Machine Translation. Detailed in an in-depth Google AI blog post, this machine learning model is capable of translating one language to another without ever requiring access or seeing the other language.

However, this isn’t a perfect solution, and Google will continue to tune and improve the accuracy of contextual translation akin to German and Spain. With that in mind, Google is continuing to seek future language support and evaluation of Translate usinsg the Translate Contribute tool.