Mastodon has an automatic language detector.
If you start writing a post on the website interface, the post language indicator will light up if it thinks you have the wrong setting. When you click on the lit-up indicator it will suggest which setting you should use instead.
The reason it doesn't set language automatically is because the detector is too unreliable for short posts (and Mastodon is by its nature full of short posts).
More info on language settings at https://fedi.tips/setting-your-language-preferences-on-mastodon-and-filtering-out-posts-in-other-languages
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services
I don't post in Finnish, but it has tried to flag my text as Finnish. So yeah, unreliable
p.s. For anyone wondering what the post language setting is even for, it allows people to easily filter out posts in languages they don't speak, and also provides a "translate" button below your post if people don't speak your language.
However, this system relies on people using the correct language settings for their posts, so that the system knows which language each post uses.
You can find out more about language settings on Mastodon in the guide at https://fedi.tips/setting-your-language-preferences-on-mastodon-and-filtering-out-posts-in-other-languages
p.p.s. Using the correct post language setting is also important for accessibility:
The language setting of a post determines how a screen reader pronounces it when read out loud.
If you have the wrong language setting on your post, this can make it difficult for blind and visually impaired people to understand it because their screen reader software may not prounce it correctly.
Thank you very much to @elettrona@poliversity.it for pointing out this issue!
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services To set posts in correct language, is also meaningful for users relying on voice synthesizers to read (including blind people) as most screen readers now support language change
@elettrona@poliversity.it
Ah, interesting, thank you for that!
Just to check I have understood correctly, do screen readers include their own translation systems, or is this just for setting the post language on Mastodon?
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services However, don't expect Mastodon's OCR feature to use this setting. Even though the OCR library is available in many different languages, Mastodon always assumes that the text in an image is in English and will happily produce a load of crap if you tell it to recognize (for example, German) text in an image.
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services
Seems like this feature only works if you publish everything in the same language. There is no apparent way to define a language for every posting individually (where the auto detect would become really handy).
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services Nothing to do with translation. It's pronunciation. So, English is pronounced with English tts, and so on.
@serac@troet.cafe
There is, if you're using the web interface or an app that supports selecting the language.
For example the official iPhone app has a button at the bottom of the post with the language code on it, you can click this to change the language just for that post.
@serac@troet.cafe
There is, if you're using the web interface or an app that supports selecting the language.
For example the official iPhone app has a button at the bottom of the post with the language code on it, you can click this to change the language just for that post.
Fedi.Tips
