So Twitter Inc have decided to increase support for the world’s languages, which is an excellent move. They’ll be asking users to collaborate on translating the interface, which again is good. The language community, made up of fluent users and some professional translators, knows best. Then everyone wins.

Twitter Inc haven’t said exactly how they’ll choose the next languages. But we can ask for Welsh. Here’s how.

1. Go to http://twitter.com/translate
2. Click the link “Sign up with your username and language”.
3. Type your Twitter username.
4. Select “Welsh” from the list.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a Welsh speaker or not. Welsh can belong to everyone!

I’m calling it a “vote”. You might as well use your vote for a language you’d like to see supported, even if you’re not a speaker.

Let’s not wait months and months for Welsh to get support – we can ask now. If they receive a high number of requests, it may spur them into offering Welsh.

Facebook made a similar move a while back. The whole thing was a game, with scores and a leaderboard for contributions. This resulted in a very rapid translation, completed in around three or four weeks as I recall. Twitter will be even quicker, I think we’ll do it in mere days.

In fact, Welsh was among the first languages to be supported by Facebook. This was mainly because there was a lot of demand expressed noisily, via a group.

“The squeaky hinge gets the grease.”

Now Google Translate is instant. They changed the interface slightly and it flashes up the equivalent translation as you type. Boy.

In other words you get the same flawed “translations”, now even faster!

Try it for Welsh to English.

Example phrases:
Dw i’n cyfieithu.
Defnyddia yn ofalus.
Gwlad beirdd a chantorion, enwogion o fri

I wish there were a proper online Welsh-to-English dictionary that did instant look-ups. It would take some of the friction out of reading difficult books. Just leave the laptop open, type a difficult word and get the meaning NOW.

Having to click is too slow a method because it breaks the flow of the book. Reaching for a dictionary is even worse. The look-up needs to be as near to the speed of thought as possible.

I say “proper dictionary” because Google still gets words wrong y’see. It’s based on statistical translation and uses the “most likely” translation based on a corpus of text equivalents in both languages. It also seems to have a limited vocabulary.

And a reminder…

Don’t use it for roadsigns! But you can use it to check the gist of a professional’s translation…

If you like the summary you can ask a friend to translate the post or use machine translation to get the gist. Fittingly the subject of the following post is machine translation of languages, now that Google Translate supports Welsh.

Dyma fy post cyntaf yn yr hen iaith. Fel arfer mae post cyntaf yn eitha anodd. Mae hi’n teimlo fel cam yn parth newydd. Rwyt ti’n teimlo fel person cyntaf ar y llawr yn disco! Felly dylet ti wneud rhywbeth, gorffena dy post yn gyflym ac ewch ymlaen. Dere a dawnsia.

Ers fy post diweddar, oedd rhywun yn benderfynu i ail-dechrau eu blog fe ar ôl toriad. Oedd y person hon yn Nic Dafis, arloeswr yn y byd arlein yn Gymraeg. Yn wreddiol, dechreodd e eu flog Gymraeg yn y dyddiau gynnar blogio. Mae e wedi dod yn ôl felly mae’n braf i weld. (Tanysgrifia!)

Dw i wedi defnyddio peiriant cyfieithu ers lawnsiad Babelfish. Ond darllenaist ti newyddion Google Translate? Os ti eisau cefndir, darllena Murmur neu Metastwnsh.

Darllenais i sgwrs am Google Translate ar Clwb Malu Cachu yn diweddar. Rhaid i ti ymuno’r grwp os ti eisiau darllen.

Fel technoleg, mae peiriant cyfieithu yn cyffrous iawn.

Mae arbennigwyr wedi ymchwilio’r ardal hwn gyda ieithoedd gwahanol. Dw i’n gallu siarad am meddyliau gynnar.

Oedd peiriant cyfieithu yn defnyddiol pan penderfynais i i flogio yn y Gymraeg. Mae fy stwff yn agor i pobol di-Gymraeg. Pan dw i’n blogio dw i ddim yn poeni am pobol yn cyffredin o gwmpas y byd. Dw i ddim eisiau bod yn enwog fel blogwr. Dw i’n meddwl am fy “gymuned” fy hun – ar enghraifft fy ffrindiau, fy gyfeillion, pobol sy’n chwilio, pobol gyda diddordebau yn cyffredin.

Dylwn i dweud dw i’n siarad am fy sefyllfa fy hun – fel dysgwr, fel “dinesydd” (ha ha). Your mileage may vary. Beth bynnag, nawr bydd fy postiau Cymraeg yn agor i fy gymuned. Diolch i Google Translate. Bydda i parhau gyda postiau yn Saesneg achos dw i’n gallu esbonio pethau – fy profiadau a phethau eraill – yn well. Dw i’n hoffi Saesneg. Os dw i’n gallu dweud fy profiadau, fy storiau, efallai byddan nhw yn helpu pobol eraill. Dyma’r athroniaeth we agor.

(Gyda llaw, ymddiheuriadau am fy gramadeg yma.)

Weithiau mae pobol yn ofni peiriant cyfieithu. Dydy e ddim yn perffaith o gwbl – ar hyn o bryd. Mae safon cyfieithu ar arwyddion ayyb yn ddrwg, dw i’n cytuno. Os ti eisiau enghreifftiau, ewch i gwrp Scymraeg ar Flickr. Mae grwp ydy syniad wreddiol gan Nic Dafis eto. Dwyt ti ddim yn gallu ei osgoi e arlein.

Nawr gallai unrhyw un yn brofi unrhyw cyfieithiad go iawn o gyfieithwr proffesiynol. Dyma un mantais. Efallai basen ni’n osgoi camgymeriadau mawr fel yr enwog “nid yn y swyddfa”. Dw i’n siwr rwyt ti’n gwybod yr enghraifft.

Ond rhaid iddyn ni nabod manteision ein offerynnau – a chyfyngiadau. Ar hyn o bryd, os ti eisiau cyfieithu rhaid i ti defnyddio cyfieithwr. Rwyt ti’n defnyddio Google Translate pan ti eisiau cael sylwedd, yn unig. Mae pawb yn deall a chytuno gyda hwn – gobeithio.

Dydy cyfieithwyr ddim yn cystadlu gyda peiriant cyfieithu – gobeithio, eto. Mae’r broses cyfieithu yn creadigol ond mae Google Translate yn defnyddio proses ystadegol.

Bydd Google yn datblygu Google Translate yn sicr.

Beth fasai’n digwydd yn y dyfodol os fydd Google (neu rhywun arall) yn gallu wneud cyfieithu perffaith rhwng ieithoedd?

Beth am realtime headsets cyfieithu fel ffilmiau ffuglen-wyddonol? Mae pobol wedi sgwennu nofelau ffuglen-wyddonol yn y Gymraeg (ar enghraifft Wythnos Yng Nghymru Fydd gan Islwyn Ffowc Elis). Oedd unrhyw un yn cael peiriant cyfieithu yn y storiau?

Ydy peiriant cyfieithu “perffaith” yn bosib beth bynnag? Dyn ni’n gwybod, bydd y safon peiriant cyfieithu yn mynd lan.

Os fydd pobol di-Gymraeg yn gallu defnyddio peiriant cyfieithu basen nhw yn penderfynu i dysgu’r iaith? Efallai ar hyn o bryd mae byd Gymraeg yn cau i pobol di-Gymraeg. Efallai os mae nhw yn gweld y byd basen nhw yn ymuno. Heddiw, mae mantais Gymraeg yn eitha glir. Ydy e’n hybu ieithoedd lleiafrifol? Ydy, dw i’n meddwl. Weithiau. (Does dim esgus gyda fi i osgoi Cymraeg ar fy mlog!)

Yn fy marn i, dyn ni’n derbyn unrhyw technoleg fel Faustian pact. Rhaid iddyn ni deall arferion da gyda technoleg. A rhaid iddyn ni esbonio ac hybu arferion da. Byddan ni weld camddefnydd a byddan ni weld pethau da.

Hefyd, mae peiriant cyfieithu ydy profiad mediated. Baswn i defnyddio realtime headset gyda ieithoedd eraill. Ond dw i’n meddwl bydd pawb yn gwybod mae dealltwriaeth go iawn wastad yn gorau.

It’s a seriously good piece of software. If you don’t care about the technical reasons, it’s very easy to use. In my opinion, that’s what a blog should be – as simple as possible so you can jot out your thoughts freely and unencumbered. It’s for normal people. But if you want something customisable and extensible, it allows that too.

This blog is powered by WordPress – as is Sleeveface.

If you’re not familiar with it and you want to test it out you could start with the hosted version – just open an account at WordPress.com

And so to WordCamp.

WordCamp is an annual event for people interested in WordPress, whether they be developers, designers, bloggers, users or half-curious bystanders.

This year’s UK edition of WordCamp will be held in Cardiff on 18th and 19th July. It’s just recently been announced but already you can signal your interest in attending.

The whole thing is run by volunteers so the ticket price will be low, just to cover costs. The ethos of the event is fairly in keeping with WordPress as a piece of open source software. People are happy to contribute their time, energy and skills to the effort because they will all get more value back.

Cymry! This is a massive opportunity for WordPress enthusiasts in Cardiff and wider Wales to exchange notes and learn stuff, not only with each other but with other people from many parts of the world.

Personally I’m really keen to see usage of the Welsh language – on the event website, press relations and around the site. So I’ll be working with other volunteers to make this happen. I’m also working on a group effort to get the WordPress 2.7 software available in Welsh, as well as the extra stuff that comes on the hosted version at WordPress.com.

So this spring will be translation-a-go-go for me. What do I get? I get good practice with the language, chats and co-operation with other people and the chance to watch a significant part of the Welsh language online world bloom and flourish. Plus there are a couple of projects I’d like to start which would be aided greatly by this…

With WordCamp coming, I might have said that an up-to-date WordPress in Welsh will be good timing. But it’s actually been a long time since the software was last translated. I know there are people who want to see this and use it. It just needs a smidgen of activation energy.