Can I use translation if I have a "non-supported" language as system language and Siri language?

[johannnn]

So the keynote stated that translation is only available for a handful of languages. The only videos I've seen on YouTube have been with watches set to English, which is one of the supported languages. So the user says something like "how do you say good morning in Mandarin", and the watch shows the translation.

Problem is, I have my watch set to Swedish. I also have Siri in Swedish. Does that mean that I can't use this feature at all? Or can I still translate between supported languages?

According to the keynote, translation is available for 11 languages (English, mandarin, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, korean, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian). Since there are more than 1.000 different languages, I'm sure someone here have the beta on a watch set to a language other than these 11 languages. I would greatly appreciate to hear how the translation works.

 

[johannnn]

Sorry for the bump, but does anyone have an answer to this?

 

[ApfelKuchen]

I don't have the beta and I don't speak one of the other 1,000 languages, so I can't test it for you. However, I would take the Keynote at its word. If your language is not on the list of 11 languages, translation is not yet available for your language.

It doesn't mean it won't be available in the future, but translation software depends on having translation dictionaries in order to work. No dictionary, no translation. Since Apple's translation feature is "on device," it means Apple is supplying on-device translation dictionaries in (for now) 11 languages, in order to support the feature. At least for now, the selection of dictionaries is somewhat limited.

Based on the list of languages, they're clearly starting from the top - the most widely-spoken languages in Apple's largest markets (notably absent are languages spoken in and around India, which is not a major market for Apple). It makes sense - get the feature to the largest group of customers at the very beginning. As time goes by, I'd expect more languages to be added. That's usually the way things work at Apple.

 

[johannnn]

However, I would take the Keynote at its word. If your language is not on the list of 11 languages, translation is not yet available for your language.

But I disagree that the keynote mentioned this. We know which languages the translation support. But the keynote didn’t mention whether I can translate English <-> Mandarin if my system language and Siri language is not in the list. Instead of saying “translate hello to mandarin”, maybe it’s possible to say “translate hello from English to mandarin”.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Thanks for the clarification. The Translate app allows you to choose the languages you wish to translate. So, you can select one of the 11 languages as the source language, and one of the other 11 languages as the destination language. So based on the demo, it looks like it won't matter which language you are using as the device's "native" language.

The Keynote was in English, so the demo screen is in English. However, based on Apple's existing language support, it seems likely that if you use the app while your Watch is set to Swedish, you'll see the Swedish words for "English" and "Russian" (if those are the two languages you chosen to translate). And since Siri's existing vocabulary likely includes the Swedish words for English and Russian, you should be able to execute a Siri request as well.