Urdu Goes High Tech: Google Translation for Urdu Language

Posted on May 14, 2010
Filed Under >Adil Najam, Poetry, Science and Technology, Urdu
24 Comments
Total Views: 64916

Adil Najam

Google Labs has added five new languages to its Google Translate service, including Urdu. I first learnt of the news on ProPakistani yesterday and soon afterward one of our readers, Watan Aziz, left a comment on ATP with a demonstration of the new Urdu Translation tool.

I had already tried out the tool, had my chuckle, and planned this post. Here is how: The current post at ATP at that time was Owais Mughal’s post on the (then) forthcoming T20 Cricket Semi-Final, so I just copied the ‘above the fold’ part of that post and inserted it into Google Translation Urdu. Here is what I got:

The first line that came out of Google Urdu Translate was: “Hum Daikhain Gay.”

Long-time readers of this blog will recognize immediately why I chuckled: The line “Hum Daikhain Gay” is amongst my all-time favorite lines in the Urdu language. Owais Mughal probably did not have that line in mind when he wrote his T20 Cricket post and Google Urdu Translator probably does not care about the significance of the line to Faiz-lovers either. But by virtue of that being the first line I saw on Google Urdu Translator, at least I was off to a positive impression, despite some of the other elements of what came up.

Give Google Urdu Translate a try yourself, and tell us what you think. This now brings the number of languages supported by Google Translate to 57.

P.S. Interestingly, the first non-Latin script domain name, in Arabic script, also just came live: (http://????.?????-?????????.???/). It browsers that cannot handle Arabic script this appears as: http://xn--4gbrim.xn—-ymcbaaajlc6dj7bxne2c.xn--wgb h1c/ar/default.aspx. Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s official website (http://www.mcit.gov.eg) via its domain name in Arabic (http://????.?????-?????????.???/) became the first site to gain this distinction and, reportedly, by 2011 domain names will also be available in Urdu.

24 responses to “Urdu Goes High Tech: Google Translation for Urdu Language”

  1. Sakhan says:

    website per urdu translator ki talash main google kay zaryay pohancha aur apnay Pakistani honay per RUB ka shukar ada kia… shukria bhai … behtareen kavish … jari rakho… Pakistan PaindaBad……

  2. Watan Aziz says:

    With Google leading the way, the Translate product is now available on Android platform. I have tried it and with speech to text tools added to it, it really is shaping up to break language as a barrier.

    Knowledge will no longer be a privilege of the haves.

    I hope Pakistanis will take it up and start the translation process.

    BTW, there is an excellent gTranslate plugin available for WordPress, Jomola, etc. I have tested it and it is amazing. It is called GTranslate and is published by Edward Anayan. (Google it)

    I know ATP is always testing new tools and may want to incorporate it. It will provide Google Urdu translation with the touch of a mouse!

  3. Syed Abbas says:

    This is a wonderful post. We need to do a lot more work to bring Urdu language in the mainstream again. I run a website called http://www.Urduathome.com. It is an attempt to encourage our next generation, especially living outside Pakistan to start learning our langauge from their homes.

    Hopefully, more people will join us to develop new ways to encourage Urdu learning using technology.

  4. tariq14639 says:

    Good translation services are essential to successful business. Take your time and do some research on your chosen good translation service to ensure good business,thx

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