Although automatic translation systems are far from ideal, they are helping relief workers communicate with victims of the Haiti earthquake.

French is the official language of Haiti, but most residents speak Haitian Creole, which has some links to French — but can still be difficult even for French-speakers to understand. Because of this problem, universities rushed to develop software to aid in communication efforts.

“The relief effort in Haiti has now extended to the Internet with the development of software designed to erase the language barrier between foreign aid workers and Haitian Creole speakers…

Since last week [late January], when the Pittsburgh university {Carnegie Mellon] released spoken and textual data it compiled on Haitian Creole, other institutions have begun developing translation tools desperately needed by doctors, nurses and other relief workers in the earthquake-ravaged country.

A team at Microsoft Research has used it to help develop a web-based system for translating between two dozen or so languages — such as English, Russian, Chinese and others — and Haitian Creole.”

(Extract from the Montreal Gazette, January 28 2010)

Language Translation, Inc. salutes all of the translators and interpreters working for the Haiti relief effort, as well as language technology experts who have developed this software which, as the article points out, is not a for-profit venture.