18 participants attended this session, which was organized as part of the Let's Connect Learning Clinic for Wikimedia community members interested in learning more about language diversity and representation in Wikimedia projects. The session explored the role of technology in supporting language diversity at Wikimedia—particularly in growth and learning technologies—and included a hands-on workshop on the TranslateWiki extension, which helps translate software interface messages, and the Section Translation tool, which allows users to translate a section of an article from one language to another. The slides, with content translated into Spanish and French, are available here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Workshop_%26_Talk_Technology_for_Language_Diversity_in_Wikimedia.pdf.

Questions from participants:

What are the criteria for getting a language added to Google Translate? How much of Translatewiki must be translated? (i.e., if Google uses the Translatewiki database for its Google Translate app!). This was asked on behalf of a small language, Tyap (ISO: kcg).
Response: Participants were encouraged to look into the Welsh Wikipedia story: https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/welsh-wikipedia-google-translate.html.

Why is the process so complex and dominated by admins or bureaucrats when it comes to getting translation markup rights? The tools are meant to be used by more languages, and at least one person from each wiki community should have the rights.
Response: Participants were referred to this informative blog post: https://diff.wikimedia.org/2024/03/08/understanding-translation-administration/.

To get a language out of the incubator, is there a required number of words that need to be translated? Are there any special criteria?
Response: At least three editors with 10+ edits for a minimum of three months and completion of interface translations are required.

How can someone get started contributing to languages from Uganda on Translatewiki.net?
Response: They were pointed to the most used messages for example for the Runyankore language from Uganda: https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Special:Translate/core-0-mostused?group=core-0-mostused&language=nyn&filter=%21translated&action=translate.

Comments and observations:

Bolnagiri keyboard method issues: The method doesn't work as intended on TranslateWiki. Expanding support for more characters and patterns would greatly help. For example, I was unable to type the word "Hindi" using this input method: https://github.com/wikimedia/jquery.ime/blob/master/rules/hi/hi-bolnagri.js.

Positive feedback on Section Translation tool: One participant mentioned that they had just tried adding citations using the Section Translation tool and found it easier than the traditional methods with the source editor. They were excited to have learned about this during the clinic.

Collaboration with Obolo language contributors: The participant met User:Katelem, a contributor from the Obolo (ann) community, which is involved in a language incubation experiment. The language is currently undergoing content verification. The community is enthusiastic about participating in the experiment and is working with the Language Committee to identify linguists who can assist with content verification.

Link to video recording