Guwahati: On Wednesday night Google announced that Assamese was finally added to Google Translate along with seven other Indian languages including Mizo and Meiteilon from Manipur.
Officials at Google stated that among the latest update where they added 24 new languages to Google Translate, Sanskrit was the most requested language.
Google officials also said that the first languages from northeast India are being added.
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Of the 24 new languages, the eight newly added languages are Sanskrit, Assamese, Bhojpuri, Dogri, Konkani, Maithili, Mizo and Meiteilon (Manipuri).
With this, the total number of Indian languages supported by the service now stands at 19.
The announcement was made at the annual Google conference I/O that began late on Wednesday night.
The languages are below, and the stats are from Google’s estimations of popularity worldwide.
- Assamese, is used by about 25 million people in Northeast India
- Aymara, used by about two 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 three million people in Northern India
- Ewe, used by about seven million people in Ghana and Togo
- Guarani is used by about seven million people in Paraguay and Bolivia, Argentina, and Brazil
- Ilocano, used by about 10 million people in Northern Philippines
- Konkani, used by about two million people in Central India
- Krio is used by about four million people in Sierra Leone
- Kurdish (Shoran), used by about eight million people, mostly in Iraq
- Lingala is 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 two million people in Northeast India
- Mizo, used by about 830,000 people in Northeast India
- Oromo is 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
- Sepedi, used by about 14 million people in South Africa
- Tigrinya, used by about eight million people in Eritrea and Ethiopia
- Tsonga, used by about seven million people in Eswatini, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe
- Twi, used by about 11 million people in Ghana
Before the new announcement was made, people from Assam found it hard to translate to and from Assamese. Most people used the Bing translator but with the new inclusion, it is hoped that the masses will be able to use it conviniently.