Are Mutually Intelligible Languages Easier to Translate?

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2201.13072v1
• Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2022 09:22:23 GMT
• Title: Are Mutually Intelligible Languages Easier to Translate?
• Authors: Avital Friedland, Jonathan Zeltser, Omer Levy
• Abstract summary: We show that the amount of data needed to train a neural ma-chine translation model is anti-proportional to the languages' mutual intelligibility. Experiments on the Romance language group reveal that there is indeed strong correlation between the area under a model's learning curve and mutual intelligibility scores obtained by studying human speakers.
• Score: 30.41671642147019
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Two languages are considered mutually intelligible if their native speakers can communicate with each other, while using their own mother tongue. How does the fact that humans perceive a language pair as mutually intelligible affect the ability to learn a translation model between them? We hypothesize that the amount of data needed to train a neural ma-chine translation model is anti-proportional to the languages' mutual intelligibility. Experiments on the Romance language group reveal that there is indeed strong correlation between the area under a model's learning curve and mutual intelligibility scores obtained by studying human speakers.

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