Google looks to boost Translate in Africa with Somali, Zulu and other languages!

[Maqane]

Google Africa is asking volunteers to judge the quality of beta translations for African languages Hausa, Igbo, Somali, Yoruba and Zulu. That means it's likely only a matter of time before they're added to the 71 current Google Translate lingos. Users on a Google+ page who speak one of the languages were asked to rate the translation of passages to and from English on a scale of 'poor' to 'excellent.' While it still seems a bit buggy, it looks to be a great start -- though users in isolated areas might need to wait for Facebook's internet.org initiative.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/27/google-translate-africa-somali-zulu/

 

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Do you speak Somali and English? Help Google Translate support Somali!

https://translate.google.com/about/intl/en_ALL/volunteer/somali.html

[Wiil Cusub]

Great but It seems long way to go grammatically

[Coofle]

the vocabulary is almost good but sentence structure needs a lot of work.

[Tallaabo]

English: Integrin signaling will phosphorylate FAK, which can then decrease GPCR Gαs activity.

Somali: Digayaan Integrin phosphorylate doonaa FAK, taas oo markaas yarayn kartaa waxqabad GPCR Gαs.

What a crazy translation;)

[Maqane]

This the funniest part i came across while rating (yesterday) .

 

 

[raula]

^^^

I have used google translate w/swahili (technical or for scientific rhetoric)sometimes, but I am cautious as some of the words are not even in context to the whole text-hence issues such as above pointed out by Abbaas. Nonetheless, i wlc it.

[Complicated]

Abbaas;975234 wrote:

This the funniest part i came across while rating (yesterday)

.

 

 

Wuu iga qosliyay kaasi

[Maqane]

^^ I think that translation will meet the Google's standards ASAP :D:D

 

Hadii aad jaanis heshaan, don't forget to [RATE] :=) .

 

 

This is how Google translate works btw

 

-> http://translate.google.com/about/

 

[Bluelicious]

It's about time they added Somali to that list.

[Maqane]

^ Blue, i didn't quite get that. Are you saying that it's gonna take time or they've already added it to their list?

[Maqane]

Nomads, if you have time, i kindly request you to rate the translation. Thank you.

 

https://translate.google.com/about/intl/en_ALL/volunteer/somali.html

[Maqane]

^

 

@SP Aflagaado waa laga roonyahay, ma garatay? :mad:

[burahadeer]

only 3 black African languages broadcast in BBC, hausa,swahili and Somali. Is Somali really the 3rd largest language in Africa?

[Maqane]

^ BBC target audiences/listeners in Africa are/were mostly based in Somalia or Somali spoken regions that's why it's also broadcasted in Afsoomaali since 1957. But that doesn't stop Somali language being the 3rd 2nd 4th African language spoken in Africa because this proves that Somalis were always civilized people.

 

 

img src: www.bbc.co.uk/somali

 

 

 

 

PS: Keep rating and keep the 'afka hooyo' alive :cool: : https://translate.google.com/about/intl/en_ALL/volunteer/somali.html

[Wing Wizard]

I'm interested to take part in the actual translation, not the rating. I wanted to build my own Somali/English English/Somali translator few years ago.

 

The first thing I thought about was implementing an artificial intelligence system to detect the Somali grammar structure, which would make it easier to translate Somali into English later. The AI system was already in place. I pulled the source code of After the Deadline (http://www.afterthedeadline.com/development.slp) and while studying it I realized how tedious and daunting that task would be and I abandoned the whole thing

 

Anyway, I discovered this Google Translate but the first thing that put me off is the misinterpretation of the Somali grammar.

 

Words like "undisclosed" are translated as "sheegin". It seems that someone with poor Somali grammar thought adding the suffix "-in" at the end of the Somali word makes it a reverse action. That's not true.

 

The Somali word "aan" is the equivalent of the English prefix "un-" and unlike English, it doesn't become suffix or prefix, it stands for it's own.

 

So "undisclosed" becomes "aan sheegnayn".

 

In Somali, to make the verb a reverse action, we make it a word-phrase by placing the word "aan" before the verb and suffixing "-ayn" at the end of the of the verb.

 

The Somali suffix "-ayn" is used to form the past of a negative type verb. It's also used as modifier of a noun to negate the quality of the thing named. Te denote the quality of the thing in a positive way, we drop the "aan" word and the suffix "an" is added to the word (e.g. "sheeggan").

 

You can see the usage of this grammatical construction in this poem:

 

"Magaankii* aan tamcaarnayn haddii, looga tago boorka

Timihii qanoodiyo kolkuu, togayo haalqooqa

Sida taarka duuluu hawada, sii tafahayaaye" ~ Keenadiid, Toogaysi

 

The word phrase "aan tamcaarnayn" would become "untalented" in English.

 

The word "sheegin" is "disclosing" in English. It becomes reverse action when used in a negative sentence in a past tense, e.g. Uma aanan sheegin (I didn't disclose).

 

***

 

Another thing I've seen while observing the vocabularies used was that the people who trained the software didn't construct it to consider doubling the last consonant while adding suffixes to words ending with the letters "d, g, etc",

 

Example:

 

Adding the definite article suffix of "da" to the word "cadceed" should not vanish the last consonant of the word. The correct word would become "cadceedda". Unfortunately, the trainers got it absolutely wrong and their definite word is "cadceeda" which is unacceptable and unprofessional.

 

Hope someone with better af Soomaali joins them soon.

 

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* Magaan = faras (horse).