The American giant Google announced on Thursday, June 27, the arrival of 110 new languages on the Translation engine, including Tamazight, a language spoken throughout North Africa.
Google Translate announces to Internet users and its users around the world that it has added 110 languages to its repertoire, on the occasion of its “biggest addition ever”, including the Tamazight (Amazigh) language, a thousand-year-old language spoken throughout North Africa, particularly in Morocco and Algeria, and a little less in Tunisia. An event relayed by the web and considered major by defenders of the Tamazight language.
Google officials clarified on this occasion: “We are using AI to add 110 new languages to Google Translate, including Cantonese and Tamazight.” Google Translate therefore supports Tamazight written in the Latin alphabet and in Tifinagh (the Berber alphabet).
“These new languages represent more than 614 million speakers, opening the way to translations for approximately 8% of the world’s population,” the American engine rejoices, defining the added language as follows: “Tamazight, a Berber language spoken throughout North Africa. Although there are many dialects, the written form is generally understandable to all. It is written in the Latin alphabet and Tifinagh, both supported by Google Translate,” Google adds.
Official language in the Moroccan Constitution
It should be noted that since 2011 Tamazight has been included as a national and official language in the Moroccan Constitution alongside Arabic.
As Google specifies, translation from and to Tamazight is done using artificial intelligence (AI). “We use AI to expand the range of available languages. Thanks to our large language model PaLM 2, we are adding 110 new languages to Google Translate, the largest addition ever. Compared to our previous models, PaLM 2 is particularly effective for learning languages that are closely related to each other,” the American manager specifies on his blog.
With its arrival on Google Translate, Tamazight will have to gain notoriety and occupy an important place in the international linguistic universe. Indeed, Google officials announce that they “always apply the latest technologies to allow a greater number of people to access this tool”, which has clearly become more and more inclusive.
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