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Translator welcomes two new languages: Somali and Zulu!

Image: A group of boys play soccer at sunset near aqals of the town of Hargeysa, Somalia.

Today, we’re adding two new languages to Translator’s ever-growing list of languages—Somali and Zulu! Somali and Zulu text translation is available now in the Microsoft Translator apps, Office, and Translator for Bing. Using Translator, a Microsoft Azure Cognitive Service you can add Somali and Zulu text translation to your apps, websites, workflows, and tools; or use Translator’s Document Translation feature to translate entire documents, or volumes of documents, in a variety of different file formats preserving their original formatting. You can also use Translator with Cognitive Services such as Speech or Computer Vision to add additional capabilities such as speech-to-text and image translation into your apps.

The Somali language

The Somali language is spoken throughout the horn of Africa by more than 21 million people in Somalia, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and northern Kenya. The language is in the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. It is related to languages such as Oromo, Afar, and Hadiyya.

Here are some useful phrases in Somali:

English Somali
Hello Haye
My name is… Magacaygu waa…
I’m from… Waxaan ahay reer…

Learn more about Somali on Bing.

The Zulu language

The Zulu language is spoken by 12 million people in South Africa and neighboring countries. The Zulu language is in the Bantu language family, related to languages such as Swahili and Xhosa.

Zulu is a home language of South Africa and is recognized as one of South Africa’s 11 official languages. The Zulu people are known for their intricate beadwork, which is used as both decoration and as a form of communication to convey information about the wearer.

Here are some useful phrases in Zulu:

English Zulu
Hello Sawubona
My name is… Igama lami ngingu…
I’m from… Ngivela e …

Lean more about Zulu on Bing.

What you can do with Microsoft Translator

At home
Translate real-time conversations, menus and street signs, websites, documents, and more using the Microsoft Translator app for iOS and Android.  Learn more

At work
Globalize your business and customer interactions with customizable text and document translation using Azure Cognitive Services Translator.  Learn more

In the classroom
Create a more inclusive classroom for both students and parents with live captioning and cross-language understanding.  Learn more