Inuktut is the first Canadian Indigenous language supported by Google Translate

Google Translate gained its first Canadian Indigenous language, Inuktut, spoken by nearly 40,000 Inuit in Canada.

In a blog post, Google explained that Inuktut is a complex language to translate well and it worked with first-language speakers of Inuktut and other experts to get it right.

The company specifically mentioned advocacy group Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (IKT), which advised Google on translation quality as well as on the script used to write Inuktut.

Inuktut primarily uses two writing systems, qaniujaaqpait (syllabic) and qaliujaaqpait (using the Roman alphabet).

The IKT and Google collaborated to develop a tool based on the Inuktut Qaliujaaqpait Converter to ensure Translate would support both writing systems.

Google said it leverages its PaLM 2 large language model (LLM) to improve translation quality.

Of course, translation models aren’t perfect and Google said the tools would still make mistakes, but the company will continue to collaborate with linguists, Inuktut speakers and Inuit leaders to improve translation quality.

Source: Google Via: The Canadian Press