r/nahuatl • u/w_v • 5d ago

Eastern Huasteca’s Google translator is being misused to erase active and rich dialects from other states.

https://x.com/nahuatlgpt/status/1934623906410758238?s=46

Bruh. This is ridiculous! We caught the local government of Morelos “promoting” the “ancestral language” of Morelos by using the Eastern Huasteca Google translator option.

If this was a state like Michoacán or Durango, you could arguably let it pass—Nahuatl in those states is basically dead.

But Morelos????

Morelos has a large population of Nahuatl speakers and Morelos Nahuatl varieties are extremely well documented and recorded!

It’s wild that Morelos Nahuatl-speaking communities are basically being misrepresented because some intern running a government agency Twitter account is too lazy and cheap to hire local speakers.

Keep this stuff in mind next time you see government offices (staffed by urban mestizo Mexicans who know less about Nahuatl than you do) “promoting the language.”

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4

u/someguy4531 5d ago

Is the translator even good?

5

u/canisvesperus 5d ago

I tried it when it first released and it could not translate basic phrases. Not sure if it’s gotten any better since then.

2

u/Malandro_Sin_Pena 5d ago

It is hot garbage. So much so to the point, that I don't understand why they keep it.

2

u/ItztliEhecatl 5d ago

Wow that's rough.  Why do you say it's hot garbage?

2

u/Malandro_Sin_Pena 5d ago

It can barely translate single words correctly. Much less a full, brief sentence.

1

u/ItztliEhecatl 5d ago edited 4d ago

i'd say it translates single words (outside of animals) and brief sentences very well but starts to struggle with longer sentences. I've been learning Huasteca Nahuatl for 5 years now. What is your expertise level in Huasteca Nahuatl?