‘My name is Taqqiq, I can read text’: Microsoft Translator adds Inuktitut text-to-speech

Service available on mobile, web apps; Microsoft plans to roll out to Office products

Microsoft Canada president Chris Barry speaks in Iqaluit on Dec. 5. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)

By Jeff Pelletier - Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Updated on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2024 at 4 p.m. ET

Users of Microsoft Translator’s Inuktitut translation tool can now listen to the text they’re translating.

Microsoft Canada and the Government of Nunavut announced Dec. 5 that Inuktitut text-to-speech is available now on Microsoft Translator.

“With just a phone or a computer, text can come to life in Inuktitut,” said Chris Barry, president of Microsoft Canada, in a presentation at Iqaluit’s Aqsarniit hotel.

The feature comes out of a partnership between Microsoft and the GN.

It builds on the rollout of Inuktitut translations in 2021, followed by the additions of Inuinnaqtun and romanized Inuktitut in 2022.

“My name is Taqqiq, I can read text,” said one of the voices users can choose in Inuktitut, during a demonstration.

Taqqiq is the artificial intelligence-generated male voice option. Siqiniq, a female voice, is also available.

Many people undertook the “painstaking” work to build this software, Barry said in an interview.

The work included reviewing thousands of government documents, hiring Inuktitut speakers to record themselves, and obtaining hours’ worth of Inuktut audio recordings from the Canadian Bible Society and Nunavut Inuit Heritage Trust, among other organizations.

The initial translation tool hasn’t been perfect. Several presenters explained the artificial intelligence mixed up words like condo and condom, and prime rib and prime minister.

But the tool gets smarter the more it gets used, Barry said.

“It actually will continue to get better and better and even more refined as more information is brought into the model,” Barry said.

So far, it’s getting some positive reviews.

Leah Ayaruaq McKay, who provided her voice during the development, demonstrated to attendees how Microsoft Translator could turn conversations and documents from English text to Inuktitut speech.

“It makes me emotional, but in a good way because it makes me so excited and happy,” she said, speaking to Nunatsiaq News.

“I never thought something like this could ever come out of this.”

Ayaruaq McKay said she plans to use Microsoft translator to help her husband learn Inuktitut.

Rebecca Hainnu, Nunavut’s deputy minister of education, spoke of many ways teachers and students will benefit from having Inuktitut text-to-speech.

For example, a new teacher can learn how to praise a student for their good work in Inuktitut.

Leah Ayaruaq McKay converts English text to Inuktitut speech for a tuberculosis fact sheet. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)

For students, they can have access to Inuktitut books just by taking a photo of the text and having the translator read it aloud.

“People talked about the decrease in language speakers when I was growing up and language loss,” Hainnu said.

“For a change, we’re talking about preserving and promoting it past our own lifetime.”

Barry emphasized the text-to-speech tool is not meant to replace people who work as translators. Rather, he hopes it can “augment” their capabilities.

Currently, the translator is available online and on a mobile app. Microsoft plans to eventually add text-to-speech to Word and Outlook.

Also possibly on the horizon: speech-to-speech translation.

“The ability to do real-time translation, spoken word, would be a plausible end game, but that’s work ahead for sure,” Barry said.

Correction: This article has been updated from its originally published version to correct the spelling of Siqiniq.

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(10) Comments:

  1. Posted by Tasiuq on

    This is so cool! It will encourage my students to speak in Inuktitut & have fun learning.

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  2. Posted by Proffesional on

    How long before teachers start teaching in Inuktitut?

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    • Posted by Listening on

      As s soon as you write the curriculum

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    • Posted by monty sling on

      Hey Professional; this was a GN Law 23 years ago. All you GN employees supposed to be speaking in Inuktitut now. Masters in stolen land….

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      • Posted by The Ceded Land on Nunavut on

        You spelled ceded wrong, monty…. “ceded land”

        Gosh, read a frikken history book

  3. Posted by Listened on

    The technology put into this is quite impressive, but has its flaws , innuinaktun languange has more terminological terms and I hope in the future it can “catch”up on it. Inuktitut and innuinaktun are two totally different dialects with similiar phrases and terms but not all the same as “original” . As a medical terminologist and intrepeter/translator I find this useful but it will take time to refine most terms and phrases.

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    • Posted by Inuinnaq on

      Inuinnaqtun is also supported by the MS translation tool. It will translate into Inuinnaqtun. Heck, you can even translate between Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun, and vice versa, without going through Enlglish!!! That’s pretty cool. I understand they’re also working on an Inuinnaqtun version of the computer voice, which should come out in 2025.

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  4. Posted by Johnny Ayaruaq on

    This will go a long way, it’s so cool

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  5. Posted by I live in the Arctic on

    Wow this is exciting, looking forward to trying it out!

  6. Posted by Download? on

    How can I download this onto my phone?

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