What’s New at Forvo

Hi readers,

You’ve probably noticed a few new things about Forvo this month – most notably new look of Forvo. We wanted to update everyone on the new features and answer a few commonly asked questions.

Q: Can I still download words?
A: Yes – click the downward facing arrow under the word pronunciation to download the MP3 pronunciation.

How to download words

How to download words

Q: What happened to the search bar?
A: There are now two search bars on Forvo – if you see “Translate + Pronounce Beta” in the grey area to the left of the search bar, then you are in the regular Forvo search bar where you can search for words under their original spelling.

Forvo's Existing Search Bar

Forvo’s Existing Search Bar

If you click on “Translate + Pronounce BETA” text, you will see the text in the grey area changes to “Pronounce” and the search bar has two fields – one for inputting the word (in your own language) and the second a drop down menu for the language you want to search in. We now have translations for English, Russian, and Spanish and we plan on adding more as soon as we can. To change back to the old search bar, just click the grey “Pronounce” text to the left.

Enhanced Search Bar

Enhanced Search Bar

Q: There’s something weird going on with your fonts…
A: You’re right! The new font is showing in bold for some characters; a fix should be in place soon.

Q: What else is new?
A: In one word, translations – users can now submit translations to Forvo for their native language. Approved translations will be shown in Forvo on the word page in the grey bar next to the phonetic transcription. To add a translation, log in to your Forvo account and search for the foreign word. Scroll your mouse over the translation and a drop down menu with an option to add the translation will appear.

Translation additions

Translation additions

Q: Anything else?
A: Content management, New Languages, & Lists A: We are overhauling our content management, starting with the English section. As of today, the English section has phonetic transcriptions for 35% of the content – our goal is to have the section with 97% by the year end. If you are a native English speaker and would like to help, please email us at info@forvo.com

So far for new languages we have introduced Luri this year and plan to add Naskapi in a few more weeks. Our goal is to add languages for which we have a minimum amount of content we can offer users. If you want to see your language added, please email us at the address above.

The list making and sharing feature we originally planned to launch this summer has been pushed back to September. This feature will allow users to create and share lists of pronunciations on Forvo. Stay tuned on these developments and others by following us on twitter: @forvo.

Language #325

Say hello to Luri, the newest language on Forvo. Luri is the language of the approximately 1.5 million inhabitants of Lorestan and its neighboring provinces in western and southwestern Iran. Luri’s reach as a language extends even further, since in some cities, parts of the Luri language are intermixed with Kurdish, and in other places Luri is mixed with Azeri.

A large part of the effort to add Luri to Forvo was undertaken by Sina, (loveiscoolandgood) who also helps edit Forvo’s Persian section. Sina, originally from Khorramabad, capital of the Lorestan province, moved from Khorramabad to a city outside of Tehran as a child. Though he grew up in an area that attracted immigrants from all over, he seldom heard Luri, the language of his paternal family, among the languages spoken.

Per Sina, his curiosity about his heritage and the “perhaps absurd urgency” to preserve it, made him take the action to have Luri added to Forvo. Sina has even created a community group on Facebook to connect Luri speakers around the world, with instructions on using Forvo to record pronunciations and words.

At Forvo we are grateful to cross paths with so many wonderful people that are passionate about languages. We hope to help play a part in preserving these languages, and to help others re-connect with their heritage. For more information on Luri, visit the new Luri page on Forvo and the Luri Community page on Facebook.Captura de pantalla 2015-05-11 a las 5.14.43 p.m.

Forvo is Hiring a Mobile Developer

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Do you want to revolutionize the future of learning languages? Forvo is an education technology company devoted to sharing native speaker pronunciations of every word in the world. With over 3 million audio pronunciations in over 300 languages, Forvo is the most comprehensive internet resource for native speaker pronunciations or words, names, places and more.

As a primary developer of Forvo’s mobile applications, this position will play a vital role in Forvo’s platform development.

Job Functions:

  • Analysis and design of architecture
  • Development and maintenance of Android application
  • We need someone that desires not only to take on the challenges of a project with international scope, but wants to test their knowledge and abilities to learn new things. This requires a candidate is capable and not afraid of asking questions or confronting gray areas.

Industry:
Computer programming

Category:
Internet and Telecommunications

Level:
Full-time / Individual Contributor

Number of Positions:
1

Contract Duration:
Infinite

Requisites:

  • BS or studies in Computer Science/Computer Engineering
  • Minimum of one year experience in similar role
  • We believe experience speaks for itself. Tell us about your prior projects and how have made an impact.

Necessary Knowledge:
Android/ Apple IOS
Intermediate level of spoken and written English

Advice to Applicants:
If you fit this profile, we want to hear from you. Please send your cover letter and CV or resume to info@forvo.com under the header: Mobile Developer.

 

#3,000,000

Dear Readers,

Have you seen our numbers lately? Forvo is nearing an important milestone by closing in on 3 million pronunciations on its site, and we canğt wait to hear what the 3 millionth word will be. Will it be a wild card out of the Pashto section? Or perhaps another ”˜helloğ greeting us from afar? Here are our theories:

Theory 1: Merry Christmas — see our post from Most Pronounced Words of 2014. If statistics mean anything, our money is on some translation of yuletide well-wishing.

Theory 2: Happy New Year in Bengali — Holidays are always a strong contender, and the Bengali New Year is only a few weeks away. Plus, you have over 245 million people in Bengal- case in point.

Theory 3: Expletives — ”˜Mierdağ seems most likely since it hits close to home and there are already 31 ways to pronounce it in Forvo, but perhaps a user from a far off country we will enlighten us with their translation of poop in one of the other 323 languages we host on Forvo.

horse15 copyTheory 4: A horse with a weird name — Does anyone know why racing horses have such odd names?

Theory 5: (Something involving a current event) As so much of what we search for online is in the moment, this is probably the strongest theory out of the five. But what the future will bring, who knows.

Those are some of our guesses – what are yours?

The Editors Behind Forvo

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Even though us at Forvo like to think of the site as a helpful reference in a time of need, we know that Forvo would be no help at all without its over 500 editors that generously volunteer their time to help share their native language with others. That said, we wanted to share an anecdote on one of our editors brought to us by a long-time Forvo user.

Alison came across Forvo four years ago while working as an audio book researcher in San Francisco — a place where “You can hear almost as many languages as you can find on Forvo”. Says Alison, “I can’t remember the first words I looked up on Forvo, but the first pronunciation I requested was ”˜Ballechinğ in Scots.“

Since 2010, Alison has logged an incredible 11,264 visits on Forvo. “In the course of my work on hundreds of projects Forvo has been my constant companion. Every one of those pronunciations has helped an audio book narrator make sense and beauty out of the author’s text and the language being spoken,” explains Alison. “I provide links to Forvo pronunciations in my research sheets so audio book narrators can hear audio examples of the non-English words they will be speaking during recording. Phonetic pronunciation instructions only go so far; with examples from Forvo, narrators can hear the sound of a word, its rhythms and tones. There’s no replacement for sound”

But one editor went above and beyond in helping Alison. While researching Japanese for James Clavell’s “Shogun”, Alison struck up a correspondence with editor usako_usagiclub, who had pronounced many of the words she requested. Even after Alison insisted she compensate her for her many contributions, usako_usagiclub refused. Instead, she suggested that Alison make a donation to Forvo, which Alison then did.

“Forvo’s editors are a tremendous fount of language expertise; many talented and interesting people contribute to the site; it’s been my great pleasure to meet some of them. Some of the wonderful editors who’ve provided me with assistance, education and interesting conversation over the years are Lilianuccia (Italian), silviaparisini (Italian), Pat91(French), spl0uf (French), Thonatas (German), Bartleby (German), Frankie (Hungarian), findelka (Hungarian), tasc (Russian), gorniak (Polish), mmieszko (Polish), BridEilis (Irish)….along with some dedicated users, as well — too numerous to mention!”

Fashion Week 2015, Pronounced 

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 Photo: Peter Duhon

At Forvo, we think everyone should be able to understand and be understood. As part of Forvo’s redesign, we will soon be debuting a new feature that will allow users to create and share lists. So not only will users be able to hear and pronounce names like a native speaker, but be able to easily share their own created lists among whomever they wish.

As a preview of what’s to come, we’ve put together native speaker pronunciations of some of the designers showing at NY Fashion week this week. Stay tuned for developments on this feature and others at Forvo.com

2014 in Pronunciations

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Well readers, our annual list of most pronounced words is now out a month overdue, but better late than never.

Besides being a curiosity to look at, the following lists tell us something about our time and place. What we wonder how to pronounce usually lies outside our cultural and linguistic territory and requires a desire not only to understand, but be understood. Whereas a list of most searched words ranks the importance placed on certain events, people, and things, a list of most searched pronunciations ranks what events, people, and things are being most talked about across borders. Therefore pronunciations tell us something about foreign influence — whoğs influencing who, and how. Considering all this, one thing is certain: the way we communicate will never stay the same.

Most Pronounced Words
1. 야동; Korean — “erotic movie”
2. Philae; Greek — Former island in Nile River, ESA comet lander
3. Sláinte, slí inte, sláinte mhaith; Irish Gaelic — “good health” Common toast
4. Backpfeifengesicht; German ¬— “a face badly in need of a fist”
5. Hygge; Danish — “cozy, well being”
6. Massacre; English
7. Reign; English
8. Skål; Swedish — “cheers”
9. Hiraeth; Welsh — “home sickness”
10. Phoque; French — “seal” (and homophone of the f-word in English)
11. Y’all’d’ve; English — “you would have all”
12. Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia; English — “fear of the number 666”
13. Saudade; Portuguese — “nostalgia or yearning”

Most Pronounced Expressions
1. Invictus Maneo; Latin — “remain unvanquished” Heard on American television series, “Person of Interest”
2.μολὼν_λαβέ; Greek — “come and take them” Slogan of campaign against gun control in the United States.
3. Eppur si muove; Italian — “and yet it moves” Allegedly uttered by Galileo before the inquisition.
4. Alba Gu Brí th; Scottish Gaelic — “Scotland Forever” Slogan in Scottish campaign for independence.

Most Pronounced Places
1. Port Láirge; Irish Gaelic — Irish city known for Waterford Crystal
2. Bethlehem Ephrathah; Hebrew — biblical place and personal name
3. Conshohocken; Unami — “pleasant valley” American city and brewery
4. Basel; German — Swiss city and seat of Basel Committee on Banking Supervision

Most Pronounced Brands
1. Roshe Run; English — from “roshi” title given to a Zen master. Nike sneaker model
2. Tous Les Jours; French — “everyday” South Korean bakery chain
3. Veuve Clicquot; French — “Widow Clicquot” French champagne brand
4. Keurig; Dutch — “neat, elegant” American coffee machine brand
5. Peugeot; French — French automotive company
6. Arcğteryx; English — from “archaeopteryx,” earliest bird. American clothing company
7. Au Bon Pain; “good bread here” American café and bakery chain
8. Audi; Latin — from “listen” German automotive company

Most Pronounced Food
1. Sufganiyot; Hebrew — from word “sponge” Pastry eaten during Chanukah
2. Chia Seed; English — trending health food
3. Pizzelle; Italian — from “pizze” meaning round and flat
4. La Bí»che de Noí«l; French — “yule log” Christmas cake
5. Gruyí¨re; French — type of cheese
6. Glí¼hwein; German — “glow wine” Traditional Christmas beverage

Most Pronounced Translations of “Merry Christmas”
1. Swedish — “God Jul”
2. Finnish — “Hyví¤í¤ Joulua”
3. Romanian — “Crăciun Fericit”
4. Welsh — “Nadolig Llawen”
5. German — “Frí¶hliche Weihnachten”
6. French — “Joyeux Noí«l”
7. Italian — “Buon Natale”
8. Icelandic — “Gleí°ileg Jól”
9. Croatian — “Sretan Božić”
10. Danish — “Glí¦delig Jul”
11. Afrikaans — “Gesí«ende Kersfees”
12. Scottish Gaelic — “Nollaig Chridheil”
13. Polish — “WesoÅ‚ych ÅšwiÄ…t”
14. Spanish — “Feliz Navidad”

Most Pronounced Names
1. Josué; Portuguese — “Joshua” (likely refers to football player Josué Pesqueira)
2. Quirinius; Latin — Governor of Syria in biblical times
3. Hughes; English — (your guess is as good as ours)
4. James Hozier; English — Scottish diplomat and politician (1851-1929)
5. Deirfiúr Bheag; Irish Gaelic — “little sister” Appears in books by author Nora Roberts.

Forvo’s New Years Resolutions

This weekğs blog is dedicated to everyone who took time out of their day to tell us what we were doing right and what we can improve on. From all of your thoughts and comments, we have a lot to keep us busy in 2015:

1. Redesign Forvo
2. Create a better way to organize and search for words
3. Make Forvo more fun

Iğm excited to share that we have a few projects in the pipeline that will tackle these points and will change the way you currently use Forvo. First we are incorporating your comments about Forvoğs look and feel to roll out a new version of Forvo. Like you, we think Forvo should be straightforward and easy to use. Second, we are working on a new “lists” feature where users will be able to create lists of words, and share them publicly or with selected users. This will go a step beyond the “Category” feature, which doesnğt allow you to filter words by language, or create lists to share or use later. Third, we are brainstorming and using your suggestions to visualize how Forvo can realize its potential as the foreign language community it was created to be. We want to enable users to be able to connect with one another all over the globe through language.

We have a lot of work to do, but we canğt wait for what 2015 will bring.

Oh yeah, 4. Stop eating all the gominolas at work

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A Better Mobile Experience

Forvo is a project born in the age of desktop computers so we have always lacked of a true mobile navigation. Furthermore, some features, as the recorder, are not really useful in the mobile environment due to background noise, abuses, etc. so we filled those gaps thanks to our mobile apps.

Last year, we finally made the audio player compatible with mobile devices and now we are releasing a better navigation and adapted content for them too.

There is still much work to do in the mobile space but we will keep improving it so you can use Forvo wherever you are.

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