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Language and Culture (13-17)

‘My name is Jeannie and I am from Inukjuak’: Inuktitut translators try out Google Translate

October 29, 2024

This month, Inuktut became first Indigenous language in Canada to be added to platform

Suzie Napayok, left, owns and operates Tusaajiit Translations, an Inuktitut translation service. Jeannie Nayoumealuk, right, owns Apatakaa Translations, based out of Nunavik. Both say Google Translate’s new service is helpful for simple translations but not complicated tasks. (Photos courtesy of Suzie Napayok and Jeannie Nayoumealuk)

NationTalk: Nunatsiaq News: Legally, your hands might be tied — but run that phrase through Google Translate’s new Inuktut translation service, and you’d literally be saying your hands are ‘tied up.’

“It’s a machine,” Suzie Napayok laughed. “It doesn’t know any better.”

Napayok is the owner-operator of Tusaajiit Translations, an Inuktitut translation service.

She said she’s impressed with Google’s new tool that allows users to translate text, images, documents and webpages from Inuktut to English.

But while it’s good for single-word translations, Napayok said people shouldn’t rely on it for more complicated tasks.

Inuktut — a broad term encompassing different dialects of Inuit languages spoken across Canada, Greenland and Alaska — earlier this month became the first Indigenous language in Canada to be added to the platform.

Users can translate using both Inuktut writing systems — qaniujaaqpait (syllabics) and qaliujaaqpait (Roman alphabet).

“[Google Translate] won’t work if you need a report translated,” Napayok said in a phone interview.

“You don’t want anything complicated, and always have it double-checked.”

After testing out the service, she said it tends to overcomplicate some phrases and sentences. She also said users need to keep in mind “cluster words,” which appear as a sentence in English but can be expressed with a single word in Inuktitut.

“It’s not bad, I like it if you just want to learn a bit of Inuktitut on your own,” Napayok said.

“No matter what they invest, I feel pretty secure I will never really be out of a job,” she added with a chuckle.

Jeannie Nayoumealuk, who lives in Nunavik and owns Apatakaa Translations, agreed. She uses Inuktut translation services like Google Translate or Microsoft Translator when researching uncommon words or proofreading, and said they’re helpful for a quick translation.

“I know from my own experience using it that not every word is there yet, it’s new, but it’s amazing to see,” Nayoumealuk said.

She tried translating a simple sentence, “My name is Jeannie and I am from Inukjuak,” and Google Translate gave her a sentence that was readable but different from the way people in her community would say it.

“Both can be understood by any Inuk speaker, but it’s not in the Nunavik dialect,” Nayoumealuk said.

She said it would be interesting to see Google Translate eventually offer dialect-level translations, but she understands this advancement is fairly new.

Nayoumealuk said overall she is excited to see how Google Translate’s Inuktut function will develop over the next few years and looks forward to using it more.

By; Kierstin Williams