Malay dialect translator for Android / Fatin Aqilah Khahiri

Malay is a language used in various Asian countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia. Different country has its own Malay dialect. In fact, Malay in Malaysia has also different dialect for each state. Dialect is part of a language that may have different pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar among the different dialects. Misunderstanding or miscommunication may occur during a conversation among two people from different states due to different dialects. There exist translator applications for mobile phones that cater for different languages but not for the different dialects within a country. Thus, this research investigates the translation of eleven dialects that represent eleven states in Malaysia based on exact and partial keyword search using bi-gram technique for mobile phones. A database has been constructed consisting of one hundred words from each dialect in Malaysia with a total of one thousand and one hundred words. These words were gathered from the native resident of each state. This mobile application has been developed using Android Studio and SQLite for the database. The dialect translation can be performed from one dialect to the standard Malay, from the standard Malay to a dialect and from English to a dialect. Besides that, this mobile application also provide lists of places to visit and eat and the direction to those places when one is in a particular state. This application has been evaluated by three different groups. The validity and accuracy of the translation has been verified by a language expert while the usability of the interface design has been validated by an interface expert. The usefulness of this application has been tested by a few users. The results are very satisfying.