The creation of EstLat means Estonian and Latvian can be directly translated from and into each other rather than having to go through English first as an intermediary language. Linguists and language technologists used 24 million sentences to create the machine, which they memorably say is equivalent to "6,238 Harry Potter books".
Kaspars Kaulinš, Tilde's business development manager, said EstLat translates sentences and context rather than individual words.
This is one of the first machine translation systems for the Estonian language, which already has a similar translator for Finnish, but it is the first for the Latvian language, ETV's "Aktuaalne kaamera" reported on Tuesday.
Pekka Myllylä, CEO of Tilde Estonia, said the company specializes in complex languages that have a small number of native speakers. "This ensures that speakers of these languages can use their mother tongue in the digital age," he said.
EstLat is free to use but more services are available for registered users. The website was launched on April 27.
