A machine translation system by Eleka

2005/03/01 Arantzabal, Iñaki Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Elhuyarren berriak
• Softwarea

Both languages, Catalan and Galician-Portuguese have machine translation systems, but in the case of Basque this technology is unbeatable. Eleka Ingeniaritza Linguistikoa will be the first to develop a machine translation of Spanish into Basque, with the collaboration of the IXA group of the University of the Basque Country and the Elhuyar Foundation.

ELEKA

It will be an open source and free distribution system. This means that it can be freely modified, that is, adapted to each user and application. The project also has an important innovation. This is the first time that a system will be developed that encompasses the four official languages together, even between groups of different geographical origins.

Some of the funding will be financed by the PROFIT Program of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade and is expected to be implemented within a year. In early 2006, therefore, this new machine translation system will be available online.

The companies and research centers participating in the project are: From Euskal Herria, the Eleka Linguistic Engineering (project coordinator), the Elhuyar Foundation and the IXA research group of the University of the Basque Country; the Thera of the Barcelona Science Park, the Centre de Llenguatges i Computaci; the TALP research centre of the Alicante Polytechnic University; the Galician University This project has opened new avenues of collaboration between companies in the field of linguistic technology and research centers. An undoubtedly beneficial way for future projects.