28 Feb /12

Google Translate now supports Esperanto

On 22 February, Google officially declared Esperanto to be the 64th supported language in Google Translate.

The Esperanto language was created by Dr. Ludwig L. Zamenhof in the late 1800s. Designed to be a politically neutral lingua franca, the primary goals of the language were to be easy to learn, spread on an international basis and to foster world peace.

Though Esperanto has never been listed as an official second language of any recognised nation, is the most widely spoken artificially constructed auxiliary language.

According to Wikipedia data:

  • “The number of speakers ranges from 10,000 to 2 million.
  • Esperanto is spoken in about 115 countries, and use of it is especially high in Europe, East Asia, and South America.
  • It is the 27th most used language in Wikipedia articles.” 

The Esperanto language was constructed in such a way that it is easy for people to learn. It is thus easy for computers to translate. Being a very exact and logical language, it is particularly well suited for use as an intermediate language in computer translations.

The addition of Esperanto to the list of supported languages in Google Translate can be viewed as a symbolic measure, emphasising the goal of both Esperanto and Google Translate — helping people around the globe to communicate better.