The Role Played by Machine Translation Platforms in the Development of Kiswahili Literature

Abstract

Machine translation is the translation of a text by a computer, with no or limited human involvement. Pioneered in the 1950s, machine translation can also be referred to as automated translation, automatic or instant translation. This is the process by which computer software is used to translate a text from one natural language (such as English) to another (such as Kiswahili). It is embedded in the areas of Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Linguistics and Translation. Automatic translation of human languages is one of the earliest applications suggested for digital computers but turning this dream into reality has turned to be much harder, and in many ways a more interesting task than it appeared. Nevertheless, some degree of progress is being made every day and automatic translation is slowly moving towards becoming a daily reality. The aim of this paper is to show the progress that has been made in machine translation. We know that machine translation traditionally aimed at the translation of technical texts. However, in recent years there have been trials to use machine translation in translating texts from other spheres.  Literary translation represents perhaps the strongest formulation of the of the machine translation problem. This paper aims to make a contribution in this specific area of machine translation.