Google Translate Introduces Three Nigerian Languages and Six Others

When you look at the real essence of Google Translate; it’s only a great when the language you need is on the list or exactly where you need it. Google last Tuesday announced it has added support for nine new languages including three Nigerian major ethnic languages to the language translating service. This new feature will also be donned by the Google android translate app.

This new addition totals the number of languages on Google translate to Eighty (80) languages. The total number of languages stood at Seventy-One (71) before the addition of languages from three continents – Africa, Asia and Oceania. Google disclosed these languages have over 200 million native speakers collectively.

From Africa, three major ethic languages has been included which are Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa. Zulu and Somalia make up the five languages added from Africa. Google estimates Hausa having 35 million native speakers, Igbo with 25 million native speakers, Yoruba with 28 million native speakers, Zulu (spoken in South Africa and some South western African countries) with 10 million native speakers, and Somali ( spoken in Somalia and countries around the horn of Africa with 17 million native speakers.

From Asia, Mongolia (Official language in Mongolia and spoken in some parts of china) with 6 million native speakers, Nepali (Spoken in Nepal and India) with 17 million native speakers and Punjabi (spoken in India and Pakistan) with 100 million native speakers

The Only language added from Oceania is Maori. Maori is an endangered language spoken by almost 160 thousand native speakers. All together the language added goes a long way in covering over 225 million natives’ languages around the world.

In Google’s own words, whether you are trekking to a new place or simply trying to communicate with someone who doesn’t share the same language with you. Google translate can help you connect to information and people.