The city-based Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC ) will undertake a project to enable four north-eastern Indian languages to be understood and represented by computers for the first time, and also subsequently develop an entire range of software and tools for these languages.
The project will be undertaken by the C-DAC's Graphics and Intelligence Based Script Technology (GIST) group with the participation of the University of North Bengal, Guwahati University and Manipur University. CDAC has already tied up with the three varsities. The project, which will involve Nepali, Assamese, Bodo and Manipuri, will facilitate computing and learning in these languages.
Speaking to TOI, Mahesh Kulkarni, project co-ordinator, GIST group, said, “The aim is to nurture the major languages of the north-east and to ensure that the languages and the people have their rightful place on the digital map.”
According to Kulkarni, the first step of the endeavour would be to study and standardize the scripts of these languages. Fonts and inputting standards for the scripts will then be created. They will be made compliant with Unicode, the global computing standard that enables computers to represent various writing systems. Once this is done, a complete range of softwares and other resources for these languages will be developed.
“We will also create a bi-lingual dictionary in each language. The dictionaries will have the Hindi meaning of the word in the respective language and will have around 30,000 words each.All this will be done in cooperation with researchers and universities from the respective geo-linguistic areas,” Kulkarni stated. Additionally, a 15,000 – 20,000 word spellchecker will also be developed.
The project will be undertaken by the C-DAC's Graphics and Intelligence Based Script Technology (GIST) group with the participation of the University of North Bengal, Guwahati University and Manipur University. CDAC has already tied up with the three varsities. The project, which will involve Nepali, Assamese, Bodo and Manipuri, will facilitate computing and learning in these languages.
Speaking to TOI, Mahesh Kulkarni, project co-ordinator, GIST group, said, “The aim is to nurture the major languages of the north-east and to ensure that the languages and the people have their rightful place on the digital map.”
According to Kulkarni, the first step of the endeavour would be to study and standardize the scripts of these languages. Fonts and inputting standards for the scripts will then be created. They will be made compliant with Unicode, the global computing standard that enables computers to represent various writing systems. Once this is done, a complete range of softwares and other resources for these languages will be developed.
“We will also create a bi-lingual dictionary in each language. The dictionaries will have the Hindi meaning of the word in the respective language and will have around 30,000 words each.All this will be done in cooperation with researchers and universities from the respective geo-linguistic areas,” Kulkarni stated. Additionally, a 15,000 – 20,000 word spellchecker will also be developed.
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