Language Services

:::warning Beta — quality may vary These endpoints are in beta and still being improved. The upstream model isn't always accurate: translations and especially speech transcription can miss or mistranslate, particularly for accents, mixed-language speech, and uncommon phrases. Treat output as a starting point — plan for human review or fallback, and don't rely on it for legally binding or safety-critical content. We're actively working on accuracy. :::

Translate between English and Ghana's major languages, and transcribe Ghanaian-language speech — powered by GhanaNLP Khaya. These endpoints make your product speak the user's language.

Languages: Twi, Ewe, Ga, Dagbani, Fante, Frafra.

Translate

POST /v2/language/translate — use ISO 639-3 codes (from and to must differ):

Request object:

Parameter	Type	Required	Definition
text	string	required	The text to translate
from	string	required	Source ISO 639-3 code, e.g. eng
to	string	required	Target ISO 639-3 code, e.g. twi (must differ from from)

curl -X POST "https://api.afrihex.com/v2/language/translate" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AFRIHEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "text": "Turn right at the Melcom filling station",
    "from": "eng",
    "to": "twi"
  }'

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "translated": "Dan kɔ baabi a wɔhyɛ Melcom ma no pɛɛ",
    "from": "eng",
    "to": "twi",
    "cached": true
  }
}

Supported codes: eng, twi, ewe, gaa, dag, fat, gur, yor, kik, luo. Translations are cached, so repeated strings (like route-instruction templates) cost one upstream call ever. Public but throttled — the upstream is metered.

Transcribe speech

POST /v2/language/transcribe converts Ghanaian-language audio to text:

curl -X POST "https://api.afrihex.com/v2/language/transcribe" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $AFRIHEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "audio_base64": "…", "language": "tw" }'

Speech recognition can't be cached, so this endpoint is throttled more tightly than translation.

Availability

• When the upstream is unconfigured on a deployment, both endpoints return 503 LANGUAGE_QUOTA.
• Quota exhaustion surfaces as 503 LANGUAGE_QUOTA, distinct from transport failures — distinguish them so you can retry one and not the other.

Use cases

• Localized navigation — translate route instructions into Twi for a driving app (see Routing).
• Voice search — transcribe spoken place names, then resolve via place search.
• Support & onboarding — translate your app's UI and messages.

API reference

See Language Services — API Reference for the endpoints in this group.