Pretoria - A newly launched translation service has been developed to support language practitioners in their work.
The service was launched by Arts and Culture Deputy Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi on Friday during the celebrations of International Translation Day, in Pretoria.
“This is a very proud moment for us as a department,” Deputy Minister Mabudafhasi said.
The Human Language Technologies (HLT) translation service, for language practitioners, builds on the Autshumato project.
The Aushumato Integrated Translation Environment provides translators with computer generated translations, glossaries and translation memories.
It includes various components, such as the Autshumato translation software, which is available free and can be downloaded from the internet.
“It is already in use by the Department of Arts and Culture’s internal translation and editing section with great effect,” she said.
The department will be offering training workshops for government translation units in the use of the Autshumato translation software, so as to expedite their efforts to implement the Use of Official Languages Act.
Translators from various legislatures, the language unit at Parliament, Department of Public Service and Administration, the Government Communication and Information System and the City of Tshwane are already using the service.
“Our machine-translation systems will be uploaded on our servers from where they will be accessible to any person anywhere with an internet connection.
“This means that government and freelance translators using the Autshumato translation software can now get computer-generated translations,” Deputy Minister Mabudafhasi said.
The department will soon host a translation service where one can request a translation of an English sentence or paragraph into isiZulu, Afrikaans, Sepedi or Xitsonga.
It will also be possible to ask for a rudimentary translation of an entire document or even a website.
“The Department of Arts and Culture is implementing an application on its website that provides word-for-word translations for English content in any of the other ten official languages,” she said.
This means that citizens who are not fluent in English can now browse the website for information in their language of choice.
Deputy Minister Mabudafhasi thanked the Centre for Text Technology at the North-West University, as well as the many translators who participated on the project over the years. – SAnews.gov.za
