The new service makes Kiswahili the first native African language to be supported by Microsoft’s automatic translation service.
The free version has over 2,000 Swahili words in the cloud and a bigger package of unlimited words will go at a service fee charge for enterprises.
Global IT firm Microsoft is targeting up to 150 million Kiswahili speakers in Africa (and beyond) with a new language translator function.
This will make Kiswahili the first native African language to be supported by Microsoft’s automatic translation service.
Kiswahili is spoken throughout eastern Africa including in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The translator, which was created in collaboration with the Translators without Borders (TWB) organisation, is also aimed at enabling governments in the region to make documents and information available and also disseminate emergency information.
“The new function is real-time and will translate from any commonly used language. Both government and non-governmental organisations will be able to quickly communicate with locals, and enable them to communicate back and forth across borders for both business and personal reasons,” said product manager at Microsoft East Africa King’ori Gitahi.
Mr Gitahi, who was speaking Wednesday in Nairobi during the product’s launch, said that the function (which comes in two versions) works under an “intelligent” machine learning system.
It is live throughout the Microsoft Translator ecosystem, which boasts of over 50 supported languages, and on different online platforms including the web, mobile and Skype.
The translator is also integrated into Microsoft products including Bing, Microsoft Office, SharePoint, Cortana, and Yammer.
The free version, he said, has over 2,000 Swahili words in the cloud and a bigger package of unlimited words will go at a service fee charge for enterprises.
“The more users use the service, the more intelligent it gets. Corporates and other enterprises with the need of heavier use of the language would be requested to purchase the app from Microsoft’s Bing from about Sh5,104 ($50) going up,” he said.
Microsoft Kenya country manager Kunle Awosika said Kiswahili speakers in East Africa and around the globe now have access to a wider range of information and culture, and can interact with speakers of the 50 languages supported by Microsoft Translator.
Mr Awosika said that adding Kiswahili in their ecosystem brings them one step closer to their ultimate goal of permanently breaking down the language barriers that separate communities.
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