Automatic translations of Icelandic and the Apertium machine translation system

Abstract

There has been rapid development in language technology and machine translation in recent decades. There are three main types of machine translation: statistical machine translation, rule-based machine translation, and example-based machine translation. In this article the Apertium machine translation system is discussed in particular. While Apertium was originally designed to translate between closely related languages, it can now handle languages that are much more different and variable in structure. Anyone can participate in the development of the Apertium system since it is an open source software. Thus Apertium is one of the best options available in order to research and develop a machine translation system for Icelandic. The Apertium system has an easy-to-use interface, and it translates almost instantly from Icelandic into English or Swedish. However, the system still has certain limitations as regards vocabulary and ambiguity.