Iraq News Now

SULAIMANI, Iraqi Kurdistan,— A group of Kurdish translators in Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan region are doing their utmost to add Kurdish language’s Sorani dialect to Google Translate.

Bokan Hassan is one of the contributors on the project. He told Rudaw TV they will not give up on their four-year project until they see success.

“The most important thing for us is to continue this work until Google approves the dialect and it’s added to the system,” he explained.

Hassan graduated from Sulaimani University’s English Department in 2015. He and his team of translators have done 49,000 Sorani-English translations of phrases, proverbs, and individual words so far.

Google Translate was launched in April 2006. It provides online translation from and to more than a hundred languages. It added Kurdish language’s Kurmanji dialect, which is spoken by the majority of Kurds, in February 2016.

Karwan Mahdi, an IT specialist, says the government should show some support since the project would be widely beneficial.

“This work is appreciated. A group of English language and IT specialists have to work with this team in order to be able to further boost the language. The government has to support this group,” he said.

While Kurmanji is written with a Latin alphabet, Sorani has its own script, similar to Arabic. Sorani is the official dialect of the Kurdistan Regional Government. There are numerous Kurdish dialects – including Sorani, Kurmanji, Zazaki, Gorani, and Kalhouri.

Need to be mentioned that Google has deleted a map of Greater Kurdistan from its My Maps platform.

The Turkish government had requested Google remove the map, objecting to the depiction that outlined the lands inhabited by Kurds that encompass territories within Turkey.

Estimated to over 40 million Kurds live in “Greater Kurdistan” which covers an area as big as France.

Copyright © 2019, respective author or news agency, rudaw.net | Ekurd.net

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