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EuroLLM: LLM made in Europe built to support all 24 official EU languages

eurollm.io

281–290 of 629 posts

Re: EuroLLM: LLM made in Europe built to support all 24 official EU languages

#281
post #2

For those curious, the 24 official languages are Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, and Swedish. Maltese, interestingly, is the only Afro-Asiatic derived language. Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian are the three Uralic languages. All the others ar…

I find it interesting that Norwegian isn't on the list. I have often joked that Norwegian is just a dialect of Swedish, but I never expected to get official validation like this!

Norwegian is not on this list, because in fact no country with Norwegian as their national language is part of the European Union at the time of writing.

Re: EuroLLM: LLM made in Europe built to support all 24 official EU languages

#282
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While grant process in EU isn't fun, I think Levels has bit of an ego issues. He mentioned that if he had issues like that on eg X, he would see Elon himself in the replies. While he is great at converting his influencer status to income in his micro-SaaS projects, I don't think running ad-fueled browser games on state-sponsored super computer should be really aim of these grant programs.

He is 100% right on this one. From personal experience trying to figure out EU. Lawyer bureaucrats manage funds behind red tape clearly meant to be for their pals. All these while the EU is running out of funds and in a process of de-industrialization. There should be an independent corruption investigation on Brussels.

Of course there is red tape. EU funding comes from taxpayer money and we want it to be spent wisely. The red tape is precisely to prevent it from being funneled to pals. EU has funded quite a few free software projects so it's not like the red tape is an insurmountable burden: https://www.ri.se/en/news/blog/europes-digital-future-spells...

Re: EuroLLM: LLM made in Europe built to support all 24 official EU languages

#284
post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Ireland the only country to bring in two languages, Irish/Gaelic and English? Is English an official language of any other EU countries?

English is an official EU language because Regulation 1 Article 1 says so [0] and hasn’t been changed. In practice, English is the most widely used language in EU institutions, so it would be have been silly to remove it after Brexit. [0] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:01...

It's a national language in Malta, making it a popular destination for "language weeks" in European schools, where English is usually a main subject.

Re: EuroLLM: LLM made in Europe built to support all 24 official EU languages

#285
post #49
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tomorrow there are elections in the Netherlands, and two parties are proposing adding Frysian to that list: https://neerlandistiek.nl/2025/10/kies-voor-taal/ Best get to retraining those models.

Should be noted- the Netherlands can't unilaterally make changes. Spain has been trying to push for languages to be added and hasn't had luck.

Haha I just added it as a fun fact, I don't actually believe folks will need to start retraining things, or that this is likely to be at the top of the priorities list for anyone. Party programmes are aspirational anyway.

Re: EuroLLM: LLM made in Europe built to support all 24 official EU languages

#286
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are loan words viewed? Do businesses work in Maltese? Are monolingual speakers of the language regarded differently than those fluent in English? Do young people in Malta listen to Maltese music?

Yes, there's plenty of Maltese spoken and listened to. I was surprised to hear Maltese radio stations played in taxis, while visiting Malta just a few weeks back

The point of my question was to ask someone who lives there, not someone who visited

Re: EuroLLM: LLM made in Europe built to support all 24 official EU languages

#287
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Each EU country nominates one official language for the EU, otherwise we'd have Catalan, Breton, Kashubian and many more.

Including the nasty political side-show that is Ulster Scots - literally only brought in as a chilling effect 'whataboutism' to diminish support when Irish speakers ask for language rights in Northern Ireland. https://www.reddit.com/r/northernireland/comments/1fivtob/no...

This completely ignores the history of published writing in Ulster Scots going back centuries.

Re: EuroLLM: LLM made in Europe built to support all 24 official EU languages

#288
post #194
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tomorrow there are elections in the Netherlands, and two parties are proposing adding Frysian to that list: https://neerlandistiek.nl/2025/10/kies-voor-taal/ Best get to retraining those models.

Just do a 50:50 mix of the German and Dutch model weights.

Oops, accidentally made the model speak Limburgish.

Re: EuroLLM: LLM made in Europe built to support all 24 official EU languages

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU made a >900 page law about AI and patted themselves on the back for being "the first to regulate AI" (which was not even true, China had an AI law before and it's two pages long).

This cannot be stressed enough. In my experience working in multiple tech startups in Germany, the power compliance, legal and all other 2nd line has over engineering is quite immense. Most of the time they act as a hindrance for innovation rather than a supporting factor. This AI law is a clear example of that. Pencil pushers creating more obstacles for the sake of creating more obstacles rather than actually taking…

It's strange, my real life experience is very different than yours. Unless you're training AI to do something shady, it's really no bother at all. In fact, most of what the AI Act requires, you have to do anyway for a good model card.
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