Google Translate now available in 51 languages

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Great news, especially since many of the languages included there are languages that are written about quite a bit here. One of the new languages is Icelandic. I wrote a post back in July that Icelanders should pester Google to add it but it looked like they were already working on the language, so good for them.

Another big one: Afrikaans.

Two Celtic languages have also been added: Welsh and Irish, so this is definitely big news for them considering how they have just started to thrive again over the past decade or so.

And the big surprise: Yiddish.

Wow.


In honour of that, here's the previous post automatically translated into Yiddish.

גרויס נייַעס, ספּעציעל זינט פילע פון די שפראַכן אַרייַנגערעכנט עס זענען שפראַכן וואָס זענען געשריבן וועגן גאַנץ אַ ביסל דאָ. איינער פון די נייַע שפראַכן איז איסלענדיש. איך האָב געשריבן אַן אַרטיקל צוריק אין יולי אַז יסעלאַנדערס זאָל דערגיין די יאָרן גוגל צו לייגן עס אָבער עס לוקט ווי זיי זענען שוין ארבעטן אויף דער שפּראַך, אַזוי גוט פֿאַר זיי.

נאָך גרויס איין: אַפֿריקאַנס.

צוויי סעלטיק שפראַכן האָבן אויך שוין צוגעלייגט: וועלש און איריש, אַזוי דאָס איז דעפאַנאַטלי גרויס נייַעס פֿאַר זיי קאַנסידערינג ווי זיי האָבן פּונקט סטאַרטעד צו טרייוו נאכאמאל איבער די פאַרגאַנגענהייט יאָרצענדלינג אָדער אַזוי.

, און די גרויס יבערראַשן: ייִדיש.

וואַו.


So what does that say? Let's feed it into here.

Gruiß nieַeß, ßpeziel sint pile pun di schprachn arieַngerechnt eß senen schprachn woß senen geschribn wegn ganz a bißl do. Iener pun di nieַe schprachn is ißlendisch. Ich hob geschribn an artikl zurik in iuli as ißelanderß sol dergien di iorn gugl zu liegn eß ober eß lukt wi sie senen schuin rbetn uif der schprach, asui gut far sie.

Noch gruiß ien: afrikanß.

Zwie ßeltik schprachn hobn uich schuin zugeliegt: welsch un irisch, asui doß is depanatli gruiß nieַeß far sie kanßidering wi sie hobn punkt ßtarted zu triew nchml iber di pargangenhiet iorzendling oder asui.

Un di gruiß iberraschn: iedisch.

Wau.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm, I don't think that "lukt", "depanatli", "kansidering", "triew" are yiddish (and it's dubious for "iselanders" and "seltik"). "Gruiss ien" must be an anglicism, while "pargangenhiet" is a substantive, not an adjective.
I suppose that spoken Yiddisk distinguishes between "p" and "f".

Olivier

Me said...

Well, it's probably not very accurate at the moment. I'd like to see someone that actually knows the language write a bit on what they think of Google's performance.

Even if quite inaccurate at the moment it's still a nice surprise.

Anonymous said...

Well well well...
I'm not a great connoisseur of Yiddish, but my own translation makes me doubt even more about the accuracy of the Google translation:
"Oysergeveynlekhe yedies, der hoypt vayl zaynen file fun di dort anthaltne leshoynes oft mol aher dermant.
Aynes fun di naye leshoynes is ayzlendish. Ikh hob a baydrog in yuli geshribn, dos zoln di Ayzlender Google beaylen, es tsutsuleygn, ober's hot zikh gedakht, dos zey shoyn oyf dem loshn gearbet hobn, alevay vayter fir zey.
An ander vikhtik loshn: Afrikaans
Tsvey keltishe leshoynes zaynen oykh tsugeleykt gevorn: Walezish un Irish, dos is azoy oysergeveynlekhe yedies fir zey vayl hobn zey okersht ongehibn, in di tsen fergangene yorn oder berkh tsurik tsu tseblien.
Un di groyse iberrashung : Yiddish".

Thus, there may be many errors in my translation (and Yiddish is not a unified language) but it really looks "yiddisher" than the Google missmasch...
You should write an article about the reliability of Google translation engines (which definitely can't cope with the English syntax or idiotisms), or ask publicly for a Yiddish translation by a "true" speaker...
Is this adding of new languages just a "vanity press" operation ?

Olivier de Loutrénger

Me said...

Not really a vanity press operation - the accuracy simply depends on the size of the corpus that Google has so accuracy tends to go up with time, and newly added languages are always the worst. The most useful application for this is not translating from English to one of these languages but rather the other way around, because once they become available then you can use it to get a fairly good idea of what a newspaper in that language is writing about. That's why Persian was released right after the election in alpha mode, because even a really flawed translator was better then nothing and allowed many to get a better understanding of what was going on.

Anonymous said...

Well well well...
I'm not a great connoisseur of Yiddish, but my own translation makes me doubt even more about the accuracy of the Google translation:
"Oysergeveynlekhe yedies, der hoypt vayl zaynen file fun di dort anthaltne leshoynes oft mol aher dermant.
Aynes fun di naye leshoynes is ayzlendish. Ikh hob a baydrog in yuli geshribn, dos zoln di Ayzlender Google beaylen, es tsutsuleygn, ober's hot zikh gedakht, dos zey shoyn oyf dem loshn gearbet hobn, alevay vayter fir zey.
An ander vikhtik loshn: Afrikaans
Tsvey keltishe leshoynes zaynen oykh tsugeleykt gevorn: Walezish un Irish, dos is azoy oysergeveynlekhe yedies fir zey vayl hobn zey okersht ongehibn, in di tsen fergangene yorn oder berkh tsurik tsu tseblien.
Un di groyse iberrashung : Yiddish".

Thus, there may be many errors in my translation (and Yiddish is not a unified language) but it really looks "yiddisher" than the Google missmasch...
You should write an article about the reliability of Google translation engines (which definitely can't cope with the English syntax or idiotisms), or ask publicly for a Yiddish translation by a "true" speaker...
Is this adding of new languages just a "vanity press" operation ?

Olivier de Loutrénger

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