Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 9 – Google
Translate, an online translation system, which already offers a translation
function for Turkish and Azerbaijani, has announced that it will add Kazakh by
the end of 2014 and is seeking volunteers to develop Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Turkmen
capacities as well.
In addition to being a recognition
of the increasing importance of these countries, the introduction of such
translation services is likely to have at least three important consequences
for people in those countries, for Moscow, and for those who track developments
in them (turkist.org/2014/01/google-translate-turkic.html and
turkist.org/2013/12/google-translate-kz.html).
First, such services will make it
more likely that writers in these countries will use their national languages
rather than Russian now that they can be confident that their works can be more
or less automatically translated into various “international” languages. That
will contribute to the decline in Russian language use and Russian influence in
these countries.
Second, the creation of such
translation aides will help institutionalize these national languages and thus
limit the drive led by Turkey and Azerbaijan to develop a common Turkic
language and script. Again, if those who
do not know these languages can easily “translate” articles and books, those
who write them will be less interested in any change.
And third, and as a result of these
trends, those who track developments in these countries will increasingly have
to turn to sources in the national languages.
In Soviet times and to an extent since then, many have assumed that access to
Russian-language materials is sufficient. That was never true, and this latest
announcement makes it ever less so.
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