NLA Machine translation (MT) Urdu software

NLA launches Urdu software to break language barriers
Islamabad, July 19: English is no more a barrier in learning computer and internet technology as National Language Authority (NLA) on Saturday released and Urdu software carrying computing and processing systems, developed by its Centre of Excellence for Urdu Informatics.

Machine translation (MT) software is a big step and now Urdu Data House is ready to replace other National languages on cyber space, NLA Chairman Iftikhar Arif announced in a ceremony.

"Microsoft applications like Windows, Office are now converted into Urdu operating systems. One font and one keyboard for Urdu and other Pakistani languages is also released by NLA," Arif said.

Arif said in a rapidly growing integrated technology, it was inevitable to make Urdu language parallel to developed contemporary languages in usage of computer, internet and informatics. "Unveiling Urdu software is a step forward in development of Urdu language," he said.

He said under this project, Nastaleeq font was developed to support Urdu and all Pakistani languages. "As the font is Unicode, hence all kinds of data processing and computing become possible," he said.

He said with the use of such fonts, Urdu became a language of internet. "Basic letters, dots and diacritics are also separated, on basis of Ghost Character Theory, now registered with ISO and Unicode, whereas, it is not a feature of Inpage Urdu," he said.

He said MT software had been developed to perform automatic translation from English to Urdu. "To develop a software for a general language translation is near impossible. Initially, the scope of this MT software is translate official discourse including budget and finance matters," Arif said.

He said Urdu Database would make language resources available at one click and its application with testing data was ready to be used for data processing with an aim to develop a comprehensive language reference bank not only for scholars, researchers, teachers but also for students and general public.

"This is a post-dictionary work, where one is not forced to share a prior knowledge of work or phrase as a prerequisite of searching its meaning and usage," he said.

Arif said Urdu Style Guide let researchers, authors and publishers to style articles, books and other materials automatically as per international and customised standards. "Applying style manually not only takes extra time but also extra care. With the use of Urdu Style Guide, raw data is formatted just by one click. The first part of this product is a Bibliographer that is being released for writers," he said.

Dr Attash Durrani, Centre of Excellence for Urdu Informatics project director, said, "Survival of the fittest is the rule applied on languages as well in a global village. Only those languages will survive that are available on computer and internet." Daily Times