From its very founding, Global Voices (GV) has been multilingual both in the stories it publishes and in how it operates, with English serving as the lingua franca that connects us. And for nearly as many years, members of the Lingua translation project have worked to formally make GV stories accessible in many languages.

Currently, the majority of our original stories are first published in English on the English-language site; they are then translated, and those translations are published on our many language sites. However, when the Newsroom has editorial capacity to do so, original stories are first published in non-English languages on their corresponding language sites; afterward those stories are translated and those translations are published on other language sites, including the English-language site.

As of February 2025, GV has more than 50 different language sites, each with varying degrees of activity. But there are certainly more than 50 languages spoken in the world! When do we create a new language site?

When a new language community wants to join the Lingua project

Lingua was born from the passion of volunteers who wanted to see more global news in their language. In 2006, a group of Francophone contributors raised the idea of launching a GV site in French, partly inspired by a Taiwanese contributor who had begun to translate GV stories into Chinese for his own blog. Other language communities expressed interest in translating GV stories, and thus Lingua was formed.

GV sites can be launched in new languages in the same spirit: When a person or a group of people feels enthusiastic about translating our stories into their language and they are able to self-organize sufficiently to maintain the volunteer effort, we will launch a site in their language where they can publish their translations.

A new language site requires an initial effort to translate the site’s infrastructure; please consult the guide How to Localize a Global Voices Site to learn more. A language site that intends to publish translations also needs at least one person to serve as Translation Manager. A Translation Manager oversees the site, supports and trains translators, and revises and publishes translations, amongst other tasks. They should be a native speaker of the language in question, and ideally they should be able to communicate (even if just a little) in written English because it is the lingua franca we use at GV. Learn more about the role: Lingua Translation Managers Guide.

If you are interested in translating GV stories and would like to help launch a new language site, please submit your interest using the form found on the Volunteer as a Translator page on the Lingua project site.

When the Newsroom gains the capacity to produce stories in a new language

The Newsroom is where original stories at GV are produced. Each story is put through a multi-step editing process to ensure that it meets our standards for quality, accuracy and relevance. Generally, the first layer of the process is revision from the Regional Editor, who brings their regional perspective to bear on the story. The second layer of the process is sub-editing, in which another Newsroom Editor revises a story with a global audience in mind.

Publishing original stories in any language requires that both a Regional Editor and a Newsroom Editor are able to understand the language in question in order to provide sufficient editorial oversight to the story. This is possible in two scenarios:

• when the particular editors involved have personal capacity in the language in question
• when a pre-publication translation of the story is submitted for editing and then any changes made to the translated version are reflected back in the original language

If the language in question doesn’t have a corresponding GV site where we can publish the stories, then we can launch one. A new language site requires an initial effort to translate the site’s infrastructure; please consult the guide How to Localize a Global Voices Site to learn more.

When special circumstances arise or a particular project requires a new language site

It is possible that Lingua, the Newsroom or another section of GV could become involved in a special project with specific deliverables that require the launch of a new language site. As above, a new language site requires an initial effort to translate the site’s infrastructure; please consult the guide How to Localize a Global Voices Site to learn more.