Meghalaya: Khasi among 110 new languages added to Google translate

SHILLONG: In a significant expansion, Google has announced the addition of 110 new languages to Google Translate, including Cantonese, several African languages, and Khasi language from Meghalaya.

This update aims to bridge communication gaps for over 614 million speakers worldwide, encompassing roughly 8% of the global population.

“Some are major world languages with over 100 million speakers. Others are spoken by small communities of Indigenous people, and a few have almost no native speakers but active revitalization efforts,” Google said in a statement.

The inclusion of the Khasi language, spoken by about 900,000 people according to Britannica, is expected to significantly benefit both national and international tourists visiting Meghalaya.

Despite English being widely spoken in Meghalaya, Google Translate’s addition of Khasi language will facilitate better communication and enhance the tourism experience, potentially boosting the local economy in Meghalaya.

This update marks Google Translate’s largest expansion to date, following the 2022 addition of 24 languages using Zero-Shot Machine Translation and the launch of the 1000 Languages Initiative.