A review of Thai–English machine translation

Abstract

The improvement of machine translation (MT) for languages such as Thai requires access to knowledge reported in past and current research. With the distinctive features of several Asian languages as exhibited by Thai, and the recent change in focus of MT to a neural network-based approach, researchers require knowledge of understanding of these languages to aid further research. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the significant research in Thai–English MT that is both a valuable reference for current researchers in the field, as well as being suitable for the non-expert. We include details of the relevant language characteristics and extensive coverage of the important contributions to MT in Thailand. Although the application of neural networks to translation (called ‘neural machine translation’ (NMT)) is rapidly evolving and not widely reported in academic work involving Thai translation, it has shown potential for languages that require segmentation or have few resources and is therefore of special interest. Translation techniques are in many cases not directly applicable to many Asian languages because of their linguistic features and versatile writing systems, but NMT is already in widespread use in industry for the translation of Asian languages including Thai. Given this relevant success and potential for Thai translation, the aim is to integrate this important area into current literature on Thai–English MT, and to encourage interest and support advancement.