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Google Translate Learns Inuktut

Oct 17, 2024

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Isaac Caswell
Senior Software Engineer, Google Translate
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Image of the names of languages that have been added to Google
Translate.

For years, Google Translate has helped break down language barriers
and connect communities all over the world. Recent technological
advances, including leveraging the power of our PaLM 2 large language
model, have helped us improve translation quality and expand Google
Translate to hundreds of new languages. We're thrilled to announce
that Inuktut, the language spoken by over 39,000 Inuit in Canada, is
now available - making it the first Canadian Indigenous language on
the platform.

Inuktut is an exceedingly complex language to translate well and we
are grateful to the many first-language speakers of Inuktut and other
experts who helped us to make sure we got it right.

In particular, we want to thank Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), who
advised us about translation quality as well as the script used to
write the language. Inuktut uses two primary writing systems -
qaniujaaqpait (syllabics) and qaliujaaqpait, which uses the Roman
alphabet. ITK collaborated with the Google team to develop a tool
based on the Inuktut Qaliujaaqpait Converter, to ensure that our
services could be offered in both writing systems. Their thoughtful
feedback and collaboration on this initiative was indispensable and
we hope that this tool can help them in their mission to empower
Inuit communities and help Inuktut thrive.

Translation models are imperfect and this tool will still make many
mistakes, but bringing Inuktut in its written forms onto Google
Translate is a milestone worth celebrating. And as we get more
feedback and technology advances, we look forward to continuing to
collaborate with expert linguists, first-language Inuktut speakers,
and Inuit leaders to improve the translation quality and expand the
capability to new surfaces.

"As the national representational organization for Inuit in Canada,
we strive to revitalize, protect and promote Inuktut. We welcome
Google's work to include Inuktut in its roster of languages on Google
Translate. The addition of Inuktut on such a widely used platform
empowers Inuit to interact more fully in the digital world."

Natan Obed, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami

To learn more about the Inuktut language and the work that ITK has
been leading to preserve it for generations to come, visit their
Inuktut Qaliujaaqpait webpage.

Posted in:

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