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Google Translate Learns 10 New Languages

Angela Moscaritolo
 & Angela Moscaritolo Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

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Google Translate is getting a boost with the addition of 10 new languages.

The new additions include Burmese, the official language of Myanmar with 33 million native speakers, and Malayalam, one of India's six classical languages with 38 million native speakers. Other new additions from Southeast Asia include Sinhala, one of the official languages of Sri Lanka natively spoken by 16 million people, and Sundanese, which is spoken on the island of Java in Indonesia by 39 million people.

Google also added three African languages: Chichewa, spoken by 12 million people in Malawi and surrounding countries; Malagasy, the national language of Madagascar spoken by 18 million people; and Sesotho, the national language of Lesotho with 6 million native speakers.

Google also added support for a trio of languages from Central Asia: Kazakh, which boasts 11 million native speakers in Kazakhstan; Tajik, a relative of Persian spoken by some 4 million people in Tajikistan; and Uzbek, spoken by 25 million people in Uzbekistan.

With the new additions, Google Translate now supports 90 languages worldwide. The new languages are available now on the Web, and Google plans to soon roll them out to its mobile apps and the built-in translation functionality in Chrome.

"These 10 new languages will allow more than 200 million additional people to translate text to and from their native languages," the Translate engineering team wrote in a blog post Thursday.

Google said it would not have been able to launch some of the new languages without the help of the Translate Community.

"While our translation system learns from translated data found on the Web, sometimes we need support from humans to improve our algorithms," the team wrote. "We're very grateful for all the support we're getting today and we hope that together with our community, we can continue improving translation quality for the languages we support today and add even more languages in the future."

Meanwhile, Microsoft's digital assistant for Windows Phone, Cortana, also learned some new languages this week: French, Italian, German, Spanish.

For more, see PCMag's roundup of Chrome tips in the slideshow above.

About Our Expert

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

My Experience

I'm PCMag's managing editor for consumer electronics, overseeing an experienced team of analysts covering smart home, home entertainment, wearables, fitness and health tech, and various other product categories. I have been with PCMag for more than 10 years, and in that time have written more than 6,000 articles and reviews for the site. I previously served as an analyst focused on smart home and wearable devices, and before that I was a reporter covering consumer tech news. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade. 

Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The Technology I Use

My little Florida beach bungalow is brimming with smart home tech. I have a smart speaker or display in every room, allowing me to control other connected devices by voice. The Nest Hub on my bedside table lets me set wake-up alarms, control my smart light bulbs, and set the temperature on my smart thermostat. I use the Amazon Echo Show 8 on my kitchen counter to browse recipes, reorder protein powder, check the weather, and watch the news while I do dishes. 

Because I suffer from allergies, air purifiers are essential. My favorite model is the Dyson Purifier Cool TP07, which doubles as a fan and continuously sends indoor pollution data to its companion mobile app. 

My pitbull Bradley sheds, so a good robot vacuum is a must. I currently use a premium Ecovacs Deebot that can both vacuum and mop, empty its own dustbin, and wash its own mop cloth. 

For fitness, I like to mix up my routine with cycling, indoor rowing, running, and strength training in addition to yoga. I take classes on the Tonal 2 smart strength training machine, I row indoors on an Aviron machine, and track my beach runs with an Apple Watch while listening to music on my Apple AirPods Pro. On the weekends, I love riding e-bikes like the rugged, beach-friendly Aventon Aventure for fun and fitness.

My job involves a lot of virtual meetings, so a quality webcam, microphone, and ring light are important. I use the Jabra PanaCast 20 webcam, the Elgato Wave: 3 microphone, and a Yesker tripod ring light. 

As for my preferred phone platform, I'm an iPhone person, but I've also extensively used Android for product testing.

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