Evaluating OpenAI GPT Models for Translation of Endangered UralicLanguages: A Comparison of Reasoning and Non-Reasoning Architectures

Yehor Tereschenko, Mika Hämäläinen, Svitlana Myroniuk


Abstract
The evaluation of Large Language Models (LLMs) for translation tasks has primarily focused on high-resource languages, leaving a significant gap in understanding their performance on low-resource and endangered languages. This study presents a comprehensive comparison of OpenAI’s GPT models, specifically examining the differences between reasoning and non-reasoning architectures for translating between Finnish and four low-resource Uralic languages: Komi-Zyrian, Moksha, Erzya, and Udmurt. Using a parallel corpus of literary texts, we evaluate model willingness to attempt translation through refusal rate analysis across different model architectures. Our findings reveal significant performance variations between reasoning and non-reasoning models, with reasoning models showing 16 percentage points lower refusal rates. The results provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners working with Uralic languages and contribute to the broader understanding of reasoning model capabilities for endangered language preservation.
Anthology ID:
2025.iwclul-1.17
Volume:
Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Computational Linguistics for Uralic Languages
Month:
December
Year:
2025
Address:
Joensuu, Finland
Editors:
Mika Hämäläinen, Michael Rießler, Eiaki V. Morooka, Lev Kharlashkin
Venues:
IWCLUL | WS
SIG:
SIGUR
Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
131–139
Language:
URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2025.iwclul-1.17/
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Yehor Tereschenko, Mika Hämäläinen, and Svitlana Myroniuk. 2025. Evaluating OpenAI GPT Models for Translation of Endangered UralicLanguages: A Comparison of Reasoning and Non-Reasoning Architectures. In Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Computational Linguistics for Uralic Languages, pages 131–139, Joensuu, Finland. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
Evaluating OpenAI GPT Models for Translation of Endangered UralicLanguages: A Comparison of Reasoning and Non-Reasoning Architectures (Tereschenko et al., IWCLUL 2025)
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PDF:
https://aclanthology.org/2025.iwclul-1.17.pdf