Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Somali and Zulu now on Google Translate. Now 80 languages and counting…

5 African languages are among the 9 new languages recently launched on Google Translate. The African languages are Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Somali and Zulu; (Google Translate supports Swahili and Afrikaans already).

• Hausa (Harshen Hausa), spoken in Nigeria and neighboring countries with 35 million native speakers
• Igbo (Asụsụ Igbo) spoken in Nigeria with 25 million native speakers 
• Yoruba (èdè Yorùbá) spoken in Nigeria and neighboring countries with 28 million native speakers 
• Somali (Af-Soomaali) spoken in Somalia and other countries around the Horn of Africa with 17 million native speakers 
• Zulu (isiZulu) spoken in South Africa and other south-western African countries with 10 million native speakers

There are lots of languages in Africa, and this is the largest expansion into African languages to date. The more language is used on the web, the higher chances for us to launch it one day.

Google also launched languages spoken in Mongolia and South Asia, and thanks to the volunteer effort of passionate native speakers in New Zealand, They are adding the language of the Maori people.

According to Google,  “You can help to add your language to Google Translate.” Although Google Translate is an automatic tool, a new language sometimes needs a little love from native speakers to get off the ground. You can help launch your language by volunteering to help us gather and translate texts in your language. Sign up with this form. We’re also constantly fine-tuning our translations. You can help with these efforts by clicking the translated text and editing it to be correct.