Inuit in Ottawa applaud Google's latest addition to translation tool

Google Translate is adding a new language to its platform that could serve thousands of people in Ottawa as well as Canada's North: Inuktut. 

It's one of the most widely spoken Indigenous languages across the country, and is the first one spoken in Canada to be included in Google's translation software.

The term Inuktut is increasingly used to refer to Inuktitut, the language spoken largely in the Baffin Island regions of Nunavut, and Inuinnaqtun, which is generally spoken in the Western Arctic, among other languages or dialects. Inuinnaqtun's written form uses qaniujaaqpait, or syllabics, and qaliujaaqpait, based on the Roman alphabet.

Google now offers translation in both. 

Because Ottawa is a major transit hub and service centre for people from the North, its population of Inuktut speakers is larger than in most Canadian cities — the Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada suggests as many as 6,000.

Many are applauding Google's move.

"I believe it's a step forward for Inuit people to learn or relearn their language," said Anita Tenasco, director of Indigenous initiatives at Algonquin College. "It's a step forward in helping to revitalize Indigenous languages."

'A thirst to learn'

Tenasco said among her students, the translation software will be especially useful for those who've relocated to Ottawa from the North to study. But she believes the new tool will benefit the larger community, too.

"There's a thirst to learn Indigenous language, and so as a society we have work to do to help bring those tools to young people, to our children and youth in our communities, to urban Indigenous peoples, to organizations that are in place to support the Inuit population here in Ottawa and across Canada," she said.

"There's a lot of work to do, and Google Translate is one tool that is now in place."

Tenasco said if the federal government is serious about reconciliation, she hopes it "will actually take this tool seriously" by encouraging employees to learn Inuktut, and provide more funding to support the revitalization of Indigenous languages. 

"I believe it is healing for students, residential school survivors and communities to be heard and to have their language or languages valued by Canada, by non-Indigenous peoples, by leaders in this country," she said. 

Inuktut is the latest addition in Google's initiative to develop a single artificial intelligence model to support 1,000 of the most commonly spoken languages in the world. 

Concerns and limitations

Not everyone will be thrilled with the development, however, Tenasco warned. 

"Certainly, people are concerned that our languages may be stolen, mispronounced, misused or used in ways that we don't deem appropriate as Indigenous peoples," she said. 

"Our languages are not there to be abused or stolen by non-Indigenous peoples."

Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), a national organization representing Inuit in Canada that collaborated with Google on the project, said the translation tool remains a work in progress.

"It's not meant to be an official translation or interpretation service," Obed told CBC. "[It's] going to be a while before this particular tool will be reliable in just basic translation."

ITK spokesperson Jessie Fraser explained that when Google first approached the organization about the project, the focus was on Inuktitut in syllabics. But because the technology gathers results from multiple languages and dialects, ITK recommended it take a broader approach.

For that reason, the Inuktut translator Google is now rolling out isn't specific to any one dialect. Fraser said Google intends to refine the function over time.

According to Statistics Canada, the country's Inuit population is nearly 70,000, more than half of whom speak Inuktut.