Gone are the days when typing a Zulu phrase or sentence into Google Translate would throw one totally off course and provide somewhat of an obscured meaning.
Last week‚ Google SA added neural language translation which is able to translate longer Zulu or Xhosa sentences into proper‚ comprehensive English‚ said Google SA spokesperson.
In the past‚ putting a sentence such as “Ngifuna ukuhlanza isihlangu sami‚” (which is isiZulu for I want to clean my shield)‚ could have returned with a translation such as “I want to clear my shoes‚” or even worse‚ “I want to vomit my shield.”
This is mostly likely because of the multiple meanings which could be associated with words in the Nguni language.
TimesLIVE put the new system to the test and well‚ it is safe to say that it is almost reliable. Many of the Zulu and Xhosa sentences we put into the system were successfully translated. But there were one or two which were slightly misconstrued.
“Ngifuna ukuthula empilweni yam,” for example which should have read “I want peace in my life” translated to “I want to keep quiet in my life”. Close enough…
So‚ when non-English‚ non-Zulu or non-Xhosa speaking people visit South African shores‚ carrying an Nguni dictionary in ones pocket may no longer be a necessity in order to communicate with locals.
Google Translate can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for mobile phones. While Google Translate is improved it still struggles with certain groups of words which IsiZulu speakers use in modern day language.
For example “suka la” which means “get out of here” is translated as “get rid of this”.
And words like “hhayi bo”‚ an expression used to ask someone to stop‚ show shock or warn of danger‚ is translated as “not theirs”.
Additional reporting by Penwell Dlamini
- TimesLIVE
• Source: TMG Digital.
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