Twitter now available in Basque language

Social networking site Twitter is now available in Euskera after Basque users of the site took on the mammoth task of translating it themselves.

Twitter made the announcement that from this Monday onwards it would be offering versions of the site in the Basque language Euskera, Greek and Czech. As of July 5th this year it has also been available in Catalan and Ukrainian.

Under the hashtag # twittereuskeraz, users were informed of the entire process behind translating the site into Basque, which took a month longer than expected.

In a statement, Twitter gave their thanks to all those users who had participated in the translation of its web content.

In order to change your Twitter settings to Basque, click on the menu on the top right hand corner where it says Language and choose ‘Euskara’.

Translator rankingTwitter leaves the task of translating its website in the hands of its users, many of whom have risen to the task, to a greater and lesser extent.

As such, Twitter Translator has made a ranking of its most productive translators. Ike.R has been the most prolific translator of the site into Basque, followed by Iker Hernando and Joana Garmendia.

Twitter first called on its users to translate its site into Basque last May. Those who wished to take part in the initiative had to be registered on the site and enter Twitter’s translation centre.

Of all the minority languages used on Twitter, Euskera is the second most popular after Haitian Creole, with more than 13,000 users tweeting in Basque.

For some time, Basque-speaking users of Twitter have used the #twittereuskaraz hashtag to request that the site be available in Basque, going so far as to offer to translate the site themselves.