Google Translate just added Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Georgian, and Urdu

Friday, May 14, 2010

I just noticed these five new additions to the menu on Google Translate (all marked ALPHA) and sure enough, they were added just today. Every one of these except Azerbaijani (mostly the same as Turkish) is quite new territory, as Armenian and Georgian use unique scripts, Basque is unrelated to other languages, and Urdu also uses a different script from Hindi even though the two are also almost the same.

As always, alpha translations are quite rough but if it makes the Armenian Wikipedia comprehensible where it wasn't before then it's a big step up.

Featured article on the Armenian Wikipedia: the Armenian Genocide. Collaboration of the week: the Armenian Genocide. Prominent Armenian of the month: Soghomon Tehlirian, an Armenian Genocide survivor. Okay, I think we have an idea of the issue the Wikipedia users there want to highlight.

Georgian is pretty general in comparison: the featured article is on U2, the current project is Kenya, and the only mention of Russia is a historical note about a railway line that started construction in 1836.

And finally, Basque: Basque whaling, news on the UK election, pretty general stuff.

Basque is probably the largest beneficiary of these changes, considering its status (no independent country uses Basque as its sole official language) and recent successes at revival/strengthening, which will only be bolstered by this.

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