Yandex services now understand Bashkir speech

Yandex has added neural network technology to its services for synthesizing and recognizing Bashkir speech. This technology is now available in the translator, search, and keyboard. Bashkir is already the third language spoken by the Russian people, and Yandex uses this technology. Last year, the company used it for Tatar and Chuvash.

Thanks to Yandex neural networks, Bashkirs can use voice input for queries in the company's services in their native language. For example, pronounce Bashkir words and translate them into different languages ​​in the translator or search. Also, a dialogue mode in Bashkir has appeared in the translator's mobile application, which allows you to communicate with native speakers without knowing the language. For example, one user can ask questions out loud in Russian, another can answer in Bashkir, and the application will translate and voice the phrases in the corresponding languages. And on the keyboard, voice input in Bashkir will come in handy, for example, when you don’t want to type text by hand or when there is no time for it. It is enough to say a phrase, and the service instantly converts it into text.

“For a person to strive to learn their native language, it is necessary to create conditions, good methodological and technical programs, and, importantly, culture in society. So that we are not embarrassed to speak our native language and at the same time always respect each other and people who speak hundreds of languages ​​in our republic alone,” said the Head of Bashkortostan Radiy Khabirov.

Yandex is developing a project to integrate the languages ​​of the peoples of Russia with the Federal Agency for Nationalities, the House of Peoples of Russia, and regional language institutes of the Russian Federation. In 2024, as part of the project, Yandex has already added translation from Ossetian and the language of the Komi people to its services, significantly improved translation from Mari, and introduced the synthesis and recognition of Tatar and Chuvash speech. In the future, Yandex will continue to implement translation of the languages ​​of the peoples of Russia into its services.

Author: Leila Aralbaeva