Translators could soon be a thing of the past as technology is getting ready to rule the roost in the translation industry as well. The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is all set to release a Malayalam book translated from English using its home-developed translator Paribhashika. The translator is a pattern directed, rule-based English to Malayalam Machine Aided Translation (MAT) system that is slated to be launched soon.
Badran V K, associate director, Language Technology, C-DAC said that such a software for translation from English to Malayalam is being developed for the first time.
“The key feature of the software is that intelligible translation can be carried out and it shows all possible translation. Text input and file input facilities are provided, also post editing option is available,” he said.
C-DAC would also collaborate with the State Institute of Languages for translating their publications using the new software.
“For translating a chapter from English to Malayalam, usually it takes three months. But if the Paribhashika is used, it will help to speed up the entire process and finish the work within a month. The post manual editing can also be carried out making the entire translation hassle-free,” he said.
Jayan V, Senior Engineer, Language Technology, C-DAC said that they were about to finish the translation of the book ‘Raman and His Effect’ written by author G Venkataraman into Malayalam.
“The book contains 95 pages and we just have to finish 10 more pages. The accuracy of the software could be anywhere between 75 to 80 per cent. Input file formats like txt, pdf, doc and rtf can be used for the file input,” he said.
The software is the first attempt to customise AnglaBharati MAT engine for a Dravidian language and Paribhashika is the first of its kind for Malayalam.
The system provides a practical aid for translation from English to Malayalam. The major portion of the task is done by the machine and the balance is left for human editing.
Badran said that the new software would also help in the translation of reports of various government departments to Malayalam.
“As the Kerala Government is celebrating the Malayalam language year and also made it mandatory to publish all government orders and reports also in Malayalam, such a tool will become handy for the translation,” he said.
C-DAC is getting ready to host the web version of the software online so that people can use it and give user feedback.
“We will be hosting it online on our website for getting the user feedback. Once we get the feedback we will improvise the software to serve the users’ needs better,” he said.