No matter where you’re from, language shouldn’t be a barrier when it comes to keeping in touch with the people you care about. From today, Gmail is available in six more Asian languages including Chinese (Hong Kong), Khmer, Lao, Mongolian, Nepali and Sinhala.

Over the last ten years we’ve made Gmail accessible to many more Asian language speakers—though there’s still a long way to go before it’s available in the 2,200 languages spoken across the region. In 2005, we introduced Gmail in Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Filipino, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese. Three years later, we followed with Malay, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu. With today’s additions, Gmail is now a true polyglot speaking 71 languages—covering 94% of the world’s Internet population.

[Image] From Chinese (HK) to Sinhala (pictured above), Gmail now speaks six more Asian languages
As any native speaker knows, each language has its own nuances, and we worked closely with linguists around the world to make sure the tone and style came out just right. For example, both Hong Kong and Taiwan use traditional Chinese characters. However, you’ll notice that Gmail’s new Chinese (Hong Kong) language uses 收件箱 for “Inbox” instead of 收件匣, which is a more common term in Taiwan.

Here's a quick look back at our expansion of Gmail across Asia's languages.



Try out any of these six languages in Gmail on the web and feature phone browsers today by going to your Settings.

Posted by Ian Hill, Senior Project Manager, Google Localization