why google language tool does not facilitates urdu
Technology, awahid, life December 19th, 2009
Google Language tool provides translation between different languages and is widely used all over the world. Few of my Turkish and Egyptian friends frequently use google language tools and they are not satisfied with the translation. Sometimes translations are wrong or does not fully depict the words or even convey the meaning. The most important reason for bad translation is the beauty/semantics in each language which are impossible to translate. This tool translates major languages of the world except one. It is a national language of the country which has very high profile IT industry.
Urdu the national language of Pakistan and the 5th world most widely spoken language [according to SIL (1999)]. George Weber’s wrote an article about the world’s 10 most influential Languages, and Urdu was rated 10th.
Also according to him Urdu is 4th most spoken language in the world with 4.7 percent of world population.
According to wikipedia countries with large numbers of native Urdu speakers are[source]:
| Country | No of speakers | as per year | % of total population |
| India | 51,536,111 | 2001 | 58.2% |
| Pakistan | 38,765,000 | 2001 | 44.2% |
| United Kingdom | 400,000+ | 2001 est. | |
| Bangladesh | 50,000 | 0.06% | |
| United Arab Emirates | 600,000 | 0.7% | |
| Saudi Arabia | 382,000 | 0.43% | |
| United States | 350,000 | 0.1% | |
| Afghanistan | 320,000 | 0.8% | |
| Canada | 156,415 | 2006 | 0.5% |
| Oman | 90,000 | 2.8% | |
| Bahrain | 80,000 | 11.3% | |
| Mauritius | 74,000 | 5.6% | |
| Qatar | 70,000 | 8% | |
| Germany | 50,000 | ||
| Cuba | 10,00 | ||
| Norway | 27,700 | 2006 | |
| France | 20,000 | ||
| Spain (Catalonia) | 18,000 | 2004 | |
| Sweden | 10,000 | 2001 | |
| World Total | 88,459,578 |
I see these facts and I wonder why google language tool does not have urdu translation facility.
Apart from google there are various other websites which provide Urdu to English and vice versa translation but only to single word [other words they have English<->Urdu dictionary]. I would like to appreciate http://www.urduword.com/ and http://www.hamariweb.com/ for providing best translation and other language services. Also google labs for providing Roman Urdu tool. But the need for sentence/phrases translations is still there and very few people are working on it.
Hats off to the guys from http://www.paktranslations.com/ who are putting lots of efforts and had initiated a first step towards urdu language tool. Currently they are in beta phase so only English to Urdu translation of sentences and websites are facilitated by them. They are continuously working and making lots of improvement in their tool. Their tool is not accurate but something is better than nothing.
The facts that Urdu is spoken all around the world, it is under top 5 most spoken language, 10th most influential language, and have lots of quality literature are clearly shouting Urdu should be included in Google language tool.
I would like to hear your comments what do you think why google has not included urdu in language tool.




December 19th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
It is unjust with URDU, because more than one billion population of the world knows and Speak URDU. URDU spoken people are in Pakistan,India, Bangladesh, U.A.E, Mauritius ETC. So now it is up to the Google when they start URDU translation. We all Pakistanis also have to think about it and start some good translation service of our own. We can do this without Google.
December 21st, 2009 at 6:55 am
Thank you for the kind words.
FYI … PakTranslations has recently acquired investment. We are working hard on the technology and data. We plan to launch good quality English to Urdu, Sindhi and Pashto translations within the next 4 months.
We are also working on text to speech technology for Urdu, Sindhi and Pashto. We are making new partnerships and soon people would be able to enjoy “bolta” internet :-]
Thanks again for the support guys!
December 21st, 2009 at 10:49 am
@farooq you are right…
@Zeeshan I will be waiting for the “bolta” internet.
we all have high hopes from you.
thanks for visiting
January 9th, 2010 at 1:04 am
Hi,
Nice statistics data there. I full agree, Google should add support for that soon. They are known for quality, so I’m sure once we see that in action, it would be really amazing and interesting. Waiting for that.
BTW, I have been trying to make the Urdu Transliteration service from Google more friendly by making its bookmarklet. Try this here:
http://www.syedgakbar.com/products/web/
And let me know of any feedback and comments.
January 10th, 2010 at 5:29 am
@Ghulam thanks for visiting.
I had used your product and find it very useful. I think every body must have that tool.
Again thanks for the info and tool.