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Google Translate suddenly speaks 110 more languages

Google Translate just got better with support for new languages, helping a lot more people communicate effortlessly thanks to this AI-driven update.

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Image: KnowTechie

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In a move that’s about to make traveling, communicating, and just generally understanding the internet a whole lot easier, Google Translate is adding support for 110 new languages – its biggest expansion ever says Google in a recent blog post. Yep, one hundred and ten.

Thanks to Google’s PaLM 2 AI language model, Translate is now fluent in everything from Cantonese (which has long been one of the most requested languages) to a bunch of French creoles and African languages like Wolof and Tamazight.

It’s even learned some languages related to Hindi, like Awadhi and Marwadi.

Google Translate example
Image: KnowTechie

Cantonese, which often overlaps with Mandarin in writing, was apparently tricky to train models for, but Google’s finally cracked it. And get this: about a quarter of the new languages are from Africa. 

The full list of new languages is on Google’s support page, as Android Authority notes. Some other highlights include NKo, Punjabi (Shahmukhi), and Portuguese (as spoken in Portugal) according to Engadget.

This update brings the total number of languages on Google Translate to 243, covering an estimated 614 million speakers. That’s a lot of people who will soon find it easier to communicate with the rest of the world.

Google’s not the only one doing this kind of thing, of course. There are other translation apps out there, like Notta, which specializes in Cantonese audio. But Google Translate’s sheer reach and the fact that it’s free make it a game-changer.

Let’s be real—machine translation is not perfect, and it’s going to be interesting to see how well Translate handles some of these new languages.

But hey, it’s a start. And who knows—maybe one day we’ll have a universal translator like the one in Star Trek.

Have any thoughts on this new Google Translate update? Drop us a line below in the comments, or carry the discussion to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com or find him on Mastodon or Post.

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