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Gmail now in isiZulu - isiNdebele

by Staff reporter
09 Jul 2014 at 13:57hrs | Views
Google has announced 13 new languages for Gmail, including isiZulu which is related to isiNdebele.

The additions push the number of supported languages on the Gmail platform to 71.

"Gmail is already available in 58 languages, and today we're bringing that total to 71 - covering 94% of the world's Internet population and bringing us closer to our goal of making sure that, no matter what language you write in, you can use it in Gmail," said Google Localisation senior project manager Ian Hill in a company blog post.

Google works closely with linguists on the the languages it deploys for its platforms to ensure that the tone and style are "just right", Hill said.

To access the new languages, users should click on Gmail settings from within the mailbox and select languages under the "general" tab.

IsiZulu is related to isiNdebele because the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe descend from followers of the Zulu leader Mzilikazi, who left KwaZulu in the early nineteenth century during the Mfecane.

Uhlelo Lwesizulu by Sibusiso Nyembezi is the main textbook used for Ndebele gramma.

isiNdebele is essentially a dialect of Zulu. It belongs to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the Ndebele or Matabele people of Zimbabwe.


Source - techcentral