[Cross posted from the Official Gmail Blog]

No matter where you’re from, language shouldn’t be a barrier when it comes to keeping in touch with the people you care about. Gmail is already available in 58 languages, and we’re now bringing that total to 71 - covering 94 percent of the world’s Internet population.

Starting today, 13 new languages are joining the Gmail family: Nepali, Sinhala, Afrikaans, Armenian, Azerbaijani (Azeri), Chinese (Hong Kong), French (Canada), Galician, Georgian, Khmer, Lao, Mongolian and Zulu.

As any native speaker knows, each language has its own nuances, and we've worked closely with linguists around the world to make sure that the tone and style have come out just right. For example, Nepali, Marathi, and Hindi are three of the many languages spoken in India, and all use Devanagari characters. However, you’ll notice that Gmail’s Nepali language uses इनबक्स for “Inbox” instead of इनबॉक्स, which is a spelling variation using Devanagari characters that is unique to Nepali.

These 13 languages will be rolling out today in Gmail on the web and feature phone browsers, and you can try out any of them by going to your Settings.

Posted by Ian Hill, Senior Project Manager, Google Localisation