7 lakh Bangla words added to Google

On the eve of the Independence Day, Bangalee volunteers contributed around seven lakh Bangla words and phrases to Google Translate breaking a record.

This was the highest number of inputs to Google's free online translation service in 24 hours.

With this, the total number of Bangla words and phrases contributed to Google Translate reached around 17 lakh in just last 55 days since February 1, Jabed Sultan Pias, community manager of Google Developer Group (GDG) Bangla told The Daily Star.

The information and communication technology ministry, and GDG Bangla jointly organised 81 events across the country from where over 4,000 volunteers made the entries.

Besides, there were 69 other informal events at home and abroad. “The estimated number of volunteers from across the world would be seven to eight thousands,” said Jabed.

“We set a target to contribute over three lakh words and phrases in 24 hours on the eve of the Independence Day. But it exceeded the target and reached around seven lakh in a single day,” said Jabed, adding that they had set the target to break the record of three lakh entries of Spanish words and phrases in one day. 

Khan Md Anarus Salam, the country engineering consultant of Google for Bangladesh, told The Daily Star over the phone yesterday evening, “Google will officially announce it on Monday.”

Asked how the entries reached such a high number, Jabed said there were multiple entries which Google would verify and then choose the most accurate translation of a word or phrase before letting users use them online.

This inputs would enrich Bangla in Google Translate and people across the globe would able to translate Bangla into over 90 languages and also text of those languages into Bangla, said Jabed.

Even though Bangla, the seventh most spoken language in the world, was included in Google Translate in 2011 as the 65th language, words and phrases stock was not rich enough for accurate translations.