Bangladesh government to add 400,000 new Bangla words to Google Translate

Bangladesh government will add 400,000 new Bangla words to Google Translate on the Independence Day in a bid to enrich the language on the internet.

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak says inclusion of so many words on the internet in a single day would be a new record.

The initiative has been christened ‘Banglar Jonnyo Char Lakh’ (400,000 for Bangla).

The Information and Communication Technology Division, Bangladesh Computer Council and Google Developer Group Bangla are jointly organising the programme.

“To put Bangla on top of everything, we’re going to create history on the Independence Day,” Palak told reporters on Friday.

“We’ll take Bangla on top by adding 400,000 words to Google Translate on Mar 26 with participation from everyone from home and abroad,” he said.

The state minister said 65,000 Bangla words were added to Google Translate on Feb 21, the second highest after Spanish on that day.

Bangladesh Open Source Network’s General Secretary Munir Hossain said anyone could add new words or sentences to it by going to http://translate.google.com/community

Google Translate is a free online language translation service that supports 90 languages, according to Google Inc.

Palak said about 4,000 people would directly work at more than 50 points across Bangladesh on Mar 26 to add Bangla words to Google Translate.

Volunteers from Australia, Portugal, US, UK and other countries will also join the effort.

The programme’s centre will be at the Bangladesh Computer Council where 120 computers with high-speed internet connections will be provided.

Those interested to join the efforts will have to get themselves registered.

High-speed WiFi services will be provided at Dhaka University’s TSC.

Anyone who would add 1,000 new Bangla words would get an electronic certificate from Google, Palak said.

The search engine giant would publish the number of Bangla words added to it on Mar 26, he said.

Moreover, Google will also take the person, who will add maximum number of Bangla words between Feb 21 and Apr 14, on a three-day study tour to its Singapore office.

Palak said, “Collection of Bangla words on the internet is not that rich even though it is the seventh most spoken language in the world.

“That’s why we’re working with Google Developer Group to enrich collection of Bangla words on the Google Translate.

“We can easily enrich Bangla on the internet by adding new words to Google Translate.”