Google Translate brings real-time speech translations to any headphones for over 70 languages

Good news! The Tower of Babel resurrected!

"Google Translate’s latest update brings live speech translations, originally available only on the Pixel Buds, to any headphones you want, with support for over 70 languages. It’s rolling out today [12/12/2025] in beta and just requires a compatible Android phone with the Translate app (unlike Apple’s similar feature, which requires AirPods). ..."

"... Starting today the beta is rolling out in the Translate app on Android in the U.S., Mexico, and India, works with any pair of headphones, and supports more than 70 languages. And we’ll be bringing it to iOS and more countries in 2026. ..."

Google Translate brings real-time speech translations to any headphones | The Verge

Bringing state-of-the-art Gemini translation capabilities to Google Translate (original news release) "We’re bringing Gemini’s most powerful translation capabilities to Google Translate for text, launching a beta experience for live speech-to-speech translations with headphones, and adding new languages to the app for practice and skill building."

Credits: Last Week in AI

How many languages can babies learn? Study shows how Ghanaian babies grow up speaking two to six languages

Amazing stuff! The Tower of Babel is a baby? I wish I could speak this many languages.

I did not have the time to check whether these articles below also discuss how different these local languages are. My suspicion is some of these local languages might be somewhat similar, maybe even like dialects.

According to Wikipedia: "Eleven languages have the status of government-sponsored languages: three Akan dialects (Akuapem Twi, Asante Twi and Fante) and two Mole–Dagbani languages (Dagaare and Dagbanli). The others are Ewe, Dangme, Ga, Nzema, Gonja, and Kasem."

"Africa is a multilingual continent and many adults speak several languages fluently. An empirical study ... now shows that the roots of this multilingualism can be found in infancy: In Ghana, most babies grow up multilingually, with most of them coming into contact with two to six languages and just as many regular speakers of each language. ...

The researchers also showed that the babies heard some languages primarily indirectly – i.e. via radio, television or background conversations – while other languages were used by their caregivers to directly communicate with them. ...

the number of caregivers the children have also ranges between two and six, and babies who have more adults in their daily lives who regularly take care of them also hear more different languages. ...

A key finding of the study is the distinction between direct and indirect language input. While English is primarily acquired through indirect channels such as television and official communication, children receive most of the local languages (such as Akan, Ga and Ewe) through direct contact with their caregivers. ...

The study makes it clear that it is not only the number of languages a child hears, but also the diversity of people and the different forms of input that have a decisive influence on language acquisition. “Our research shows that for many children, a multilingual environment is a dynamic, vibrant reality from the very beginning. Multilingualism is not just a bonus, but a fundamental part of children's identity and social structure,” the researcher says."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• Infant language input was estimated in a highly multilingual environment.

• Tools were a Language Input Estimate interview protocol and a logbook over a day.

• Ghanaian infants are raised multilingually, with between two and six languages.

• Infants with more input providers also hear more different languages.

• Ghanaian infants get more indirect than direct input in Ghanaian English

Abstract

Examining the language input experiences of infants growing up in multilingual African environments is essential to understanding their language acquisition.

We explored the language input to 3;0–12;0-month-old infants (N = 121) in Ghana (Sub-Saharan Africa), a non-Western and less-economically rich social context and highly multilingual country. Data collection involved an interview assessment, followed by caregivers completing a 12-hour logbook to indicate the languages their child heard over a day.

Results demonstrated consistency of the infant's language exposure across both input measurement tools, suggesting their reliability. Results revealed that Ghanaian infants are raised multilingually, exposed to between two and six languages, and engage with between two and six regular input providers.

There was no evidence for associations of age with number of languages or regular input providers. Analyses of the relative amount of input in Ghanaian English, Akan, Ewe, and Ga, revealed that infants receive less direct than indirect input in Ghanaian English, with no such difference observed in Akan, Ewe, Ga, and no evidence of age effects. These findings shed light on the language environment and input to African infants raised in multilingual societies, highlighting the impact of social and cultural contexts on linguistic input. We conclude with reflections on studying infants in non-Western, less-economically Rich social contexts in multilingual Africa."

How many languages can babies learn? Study shows how Ghanaian babies grow up speaking two to six languages

How many languages can you learn at the same time? – Ghanaian babies grow up speaking two to six languages (original news release)

Exploring the nature of multilingual input to infants in multiple caregiver families in an African city: The case of Accra (Ghana) (open access)

Fig. 1. Percentage of infants and the number of input languages reported in the CIME and logbook.

Is being bilingual good for you brain?

Recommendable! A purely rhetoric question! As a bilingual person myself who learnt a third language in high school I can attest to the many positive effects of knowing more than one language. E.g. it also delays dementia.

Wie viele Sprachen gibt es auf der Welt? Etwa 7.000. Aber schätzungsweise 40 Prozent sind vom Aussterben bedroht

Empfehlenswert!

"... Auf Deutsch können sich immerhin gut 133 Millionen Menschen unterhalten, weltweit die zwölftmeisten. Neben Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz gehören unter anderem auch Belgien, Italien, Dänemark, Frankreich und die ehemalige deutsche Kolonie Namibia zu den Ländern mit den meisten Menschen, die der deutschen Sprache mächtig sind. ...
Tausende Sprachen vom Aussterben bedroht

Doch die Sprachenvielfalt ist in Gefahr. Von den zahlreichen Muttersprachen, in denen global parliert wird, sind schätzungsweise 40 Prozent vom Aussterben bedroht. Das liegt an ihrer geringen Nutzung: Viele indigene Sprachen in Amerika und Australien werden zum Beispiel nur noch von weniger als hundert Menschen beherrscht. Auch in Deutschland gelten Sprachen wie Saterfriesisch, Niedersorbisch oder Ostfriesisches Niederdeutsch als gefährdet.

Wenn Sprachen aussterben, gehen damit unweigerlich auch „unübersetzbare“ Wörter verloren – also Begriffe, die nur mittels einer Umschreibung in einer anderen Sprache passend wiedergegeben werden können. Solche Wörter sind im Deutschen zum Beispiel die Schnapsidee, der Erbsenzähler oder das Fingerspitzengefühl. Aber auch in anderen Sprachen finden sich schöne Wortkreationen: So umschreibt das italienische Wort "Attaccabottoni" Personen, die liebend gerne von morgens bis abends auf andere Leute einreden. Der indonesische Begriff „Jayus“ wird für einen Witz verwendet, der so unlustig oder schlecht erzählt ist, dass der Zuhörer trotzdem lachen muss. Und im Japanischen steht das Wort „Komorebi“ für das malerische Naturschauspiel, wenn Sonnenlicht durch das Blätterwerk von Bäumen fällt."

Wie viele Sprachen gibt es auf der Welt? - iwd.de Die Menschheit kommuniziert in mehr als 7.000 Muttersprachen. Während Sprachen wie Englisch, Mandarin oder Spanisch weit verbreitet sind, sind viele andere vom Aussterben bedroht.

Schweiz: Englisch wird zu fünften offiziellen Landessprache

Gute Nachrichten! Im Steuerparadies Kanton Zug wir am meisten anglisiert!

"... Der Trend «English only», der vor einigen Jahren in Zürcher Trendlokalen einsetzte, schwappt auf immer mehr Bereiche und Regionen über. Inzwischen ist schon fast alltäglich, dass Kundinnen und Kunden in Schweizer Städten und Tourismusorten – ohne dass mit der Wimper gezuckt wird – in Englisch angesprochen werden. Das beschränkt sich keineswegs nur auf Zürich, Genf, Zermatt oder St. Moritz. Im Gegenteil: Der Ort, an dem in der Schweiz am häufigsten Englisch gesprochen wird, dürfte Walchwil im Kanton Zug sein. ...

Kanton Zürich beim Englisch nur an vierter Stelle

Eine genaue Statistik darüber, wie viele Einwohner einer Gemeinde welche Sprache sprechen, gibt es zwar nicht. Doch im Rahmen der Strukturerhebung 2022 hat das Bundesamt für Statistik (BfS) auch Angaben zur Sprache der Bewohnerinnen und Bewohner erhoben. An der Spitze liegt dabei der Kanton Zug: Dort haben 14,1 Prozent der Bevölkerung angegeben, dass sie hauptsächlich Englisch sprechen. Kein anderer Kanton ist so stark anglisiert wie das Innerschweizer Steuerparadies. Dahinter folgen die Kantone Basel-Stadt (12,5 Prozent), Genf (11,8 Prozent) und Zürich (10,8 Prozent)."

Schweiz: Englisch wird zu dritten Landessprache In einem Zuger Dorf ist Englisch für jeden vierten Einwohner die Hauptsprache. Eine Studie untermauert den Trend: Der Zug für die Landessprachen an den Schulen ist mehr oder weniger abgefahren.

How Korea's alphabet is saving an Indonesian dialect

Amazing stuff! However, humanity needs a lingua franca (universal language). Many of the languages spoken in Indonesia have a written form, they are oral languages only.

Indonesia is the second most linguistically diverse nation in the world

K-pop's biggest music label HYBE looks to simultaneously release songs in several languages

It is not the latest news, but it is amazing nevertheless! A little machine translations goes a long way.

"... The technology enabled HYBE ..., South Korea's largest music label, to release a track by singer MIDNATT in six languages – Korean, English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese in May. ..."

K-pop's biggest music label HYBE looks to lift language barrier with AI | Reuters

Credits: The Batch by Andrew Ng

Microsoft details Speller100, an AI system that checks spelling in over 100 languages

Recommendable! Very impressive work by Microsoft! The Tower of Babel no more! It is extremely or critcally  important to correct misspelled search entries. However, this is only one side of the search process. What about misspelled search targets?

"... We believe Speller100 is the most comprehensive spelling correction system ever made in terms of language coverage and accuracy. With this technology, we have improved the search results for all Bing users by expanding accurate spelling correction to over 100 languages. We have observed a double-digit improvement in both spelling correction precision and recall. ...

The number of pages with no results reduced by up to 30%. ...
In search we’ve found about 15% of queries submitted by customers have misspellings. When queries are misspelled, we match the wrong set of documents and trigger incorrect answers, which can produce a suboptimal results page for our customers. Therefore, spelling correction is the very first component in the Bing search stack because searching for the correct spelling of what users mean improves all downstream search components. ...
"

To get an idea how challenging this can be just look at the below example provided for the Germanic languages:

Below is an illustration of orthographic similarities between languages in the Germanic languages.

English	Dutch	Afrikaans	German	Luxembourgish
two	twee	twee	zwei	zwee
blood	bloed	bloed	Blut	Blutt
finger	vinger	vinger	Finger	Fanger
download	downloaden	aflaai	herunterladen	eroflueden

Microsoft details Speller100, an AI system that checks spelling in over 100 languages | VentureBeat

Here is the underlying Microsoft blog post:

Speller100: Zero-shot spelling correction at scale for 100-plus languages

Google open-sources MT5, a multilingual model trained on over 101 languages

Updated on 10/29/2020

Good news! One day in the near future, all humans on planet earth will be speaking one language, albeit automatically translated! Is this the beginning of a universal language common to all mankind? One of the holy grails of humanity!

One of the open questions here is whether a single end-to-end multilingual, cross-lingual models is better than e.g. a multilingual ensemble of models each specialized on a single language. Huge multilingual models may discover new relations between or across languages that we would otherwise perhaps miss. Exciting stuff!

Google open-sources MT5, a multilingual model trained on over 101 languages | VentureBeat (mT5 stands for multilingual Text-to-Text Transfer Transformer) Not to be outdone by Facebook and Microsoft, both of whom detailed cutting-edge machine learning language algorithms in late October, Google this week open-sourced a model called MT5 that the company claims achieves state-of-the-art results on a range of English natural processing tasks. MT5, a multilingual variant of Google’s T5 model that was pretrained on a dataset covering 101 languages, contains between 300 million and 13 billion parameters (variables internal to the model used to make predictions) and ostensibly has enough capacity to learn over 100 languages without significant “interference” effects.

Here is the link to the respective research paper:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.11934

Tower Of Babel Resurrected

Posted: 9/12/2018

Trigger

Just read this latest blog by Facebook AI Research: Expanding automatic machine translation to more languages. Facebook claims it added 24 more languages to their automated translation service. “We are now serving translations for a total of 4,504 language directions (a pair of languages between which we offer translation, e.g., English to Spanish).”

This is just report about many other reports published in the last two years or so describing major advances in neural machine translation.

Breaking Down The Language Barrier Fast

No doubt, this has the potential to bring more peace on earth. Misunderstandings will become rarer.

Will most humans soon be able to easily talk to each other no matter what language they grew up with or what languages they have learnt?

Will finally literature written in uncommon languages become more accessible?

Ideas and news will travel faster and wider irrespective of language!