Bangladesh to add 400,000 new Bengali words to Google Translate

Dhaka: Bangladesh government on Saturday decided to add 400,000 new Bengali words to Google Translate on the Independence Day on March 26 in a bid to enrich the language on the internet

The initiative, jointly organised by the state's Information and Communication Technology Division and Google Developer Group Bangla, has been christened 'Banglar Jonnyo Char Lakh' (400,000 for Bangla).

"The inclusion of so many words on the internet in a single day would be a new record," Bangladesh Minister for Information and communications technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak said.

"To put Bangla on top of everything, we're going to create history on the Independence Day. We'll take Bangla on top by adding 400,000 words to Google Translate on March 26 with participation from everyone from home and abroad, the minister added.

65,000 Bengali words were added to Google Translate on February 21, the second highest after Spanish on that day, he said, adding about 4,000 people would directly work at more than 50 points across Bangladesh on March 26 to add Bengali words to Google Translate.

Google Translate is a free online language translation service that supports 90 languages, according to Google Inc. Volunteers from Australia, Portugal, US, UK and other countries will also join the effort, the report said.