Google Gurmukhi!

Posted on by

Google2.JPG

Wow! I feel … represented, and I barely can read or write in Gurmukhi. Still, it tickles me pink to realize that my grandmother could now Google me, if only she could use a computer.

This is incredible [I’m such a gushing fan-boy] ! Here are some of the other South Asian orthographies that one can google in: Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil, Telegu, Urdu, Bengali (Bengla), Bihari, Malayalam, Sindhi. Interestingly, the source for this list also included Uighur as one of the languages associated with India. I thought the Uighur were Turkic peoples living in China, their big muslim minority. Are there any in South Asia?

UPDATE: As Saheli points out in the comments, these are only languages for which Google has an interface, as distinct from languages that Google indexes.

59 thoughts on “Google Gurmukhi!”

  4. Apparently, all these:

    Google Hindi Google Kannada Google Marathi Google Oriya Google Punjabi Google Tamil Google Telugu Google Urdu Google Bangla Google bhojpuri Google Malayalam Google Uighur Google Sindhi Google Uighur Google Nepali Google Sinhala

    If you use unicode, I believe you are more likeley to empower Google International to make your text searchable.

  5. Eh. So the list DesiDudeInAustin linked to is a link of languages that Google currently works in—I.e. you can you actually search pages written in those languages. The list I posted is a lit of languages that Google provides an interface for–i.e. the buttons are labelled in those languages. There’s no guarantee of finding Bangla or Punjabi pages–yet.

  6. Ennis, did you update while I was writing my comment or did i just not see all that??

    Uighur = the people who live in the bit of Afghanistan that borders China, among other places.

  7. aw, man. The Tamil looks good, (in script! too bad I can’t read it) but the Sinhalese is a joke. Romanized, not script, and half the time says “This site is not yet available in your language, but you can help translate it.”

    Yeah, like that’ll ever happen. (hey, we’re a lazy people, ok? so stop looking at me!)

  8. Two things I was always curious :

    Q1- Which script do Sindhi’s use ?? Q1.1- Which is Indian Sindhi’s script ?? ## The google Sindi appears to be in arabic script based on the fact that ‘Sindh’ now is in Pakistan.

    Q2- Same thing about Punjabi. Do Punjabi’s of the Pakistan side use Arabic as their script ?? ## I am sure they arent using Gurumukhi .

  9. Blushing – I updated before I saw your comment. So yeah, you and I wrote the same thing concurrently. That’s the danger with iterative improvement to your post – or maybe the opportunity. I should have waited a few beats and just let you do the work 🙂

  13. I admit my Hindi is somewhat rusty and I hate to be picky, but the Google Hindi page has many simple mistakes, e.g., the location of “matras” is consistently wrong. See the word “Kismat” – it seems to be spelled as “Kasimat” Even the “Hindi” below Google is spelled as “Hnidi”. I see similar mistakes on their language link.

    Not sure what the little mark below the “n” is doing there – have never seen it before. I think some of the spellings are wrong too.

    vivek

    p.s. I don’t know how to write Hindi using my keyboard – there must be a simple way…

  14. That’s ask an Auntie. The fastest (and possibly least reliable) information retrieval service around concerning Punjabis.

    “Oh, that Manish – he is working as a trader at Morgan Stanley … “

    p.s. Hey – no flames from Aunties! In person I’m very sweet to any and all Auntie-jis. Just look at how I treat ANNA and Cicatrix (ducking …)

  18. Ahh, so we can say, “that Manish – very enterprising boy, you know! Has his own business! Did I mention his lovely wheatish complexion?”

  19. I checked the Hindi translation. It is pretty good. Quite impressive.

    However, they are subtle things, like

    “I am feeling lucky” is translated as “Today, my luck is good” in Hindi on Google Hindi Search. That is more cultural difference, I think

  20. I have not read a Hindi book/ short story since 1981.

    Do you guys know any avant garde Hindi books/ short stories? I need to be more culturally hip. Other I will have start reading Amar Chitra Katha again.

  22. Manish, I know a few aunties who would be moved by the offer of a lifetime supply of socks.

    Yay, I made Ennis blush. I am the wonder of the west. 😀

  23. Also, while we are on the subject of Google, go to Google type “failure” and then click on the “I’m feeling lucky” button. 🙂

    …oh, and it works in any language.

  24. RC,

    Q2- Same thing about Punjabi. Do Punjabi’s of the Pakistan side use Arabic as their script ?? ## I am sure they arent using Gurumukhi .

    Pakistani Punjabis write in a script called Shahmukhi, based on Persian. Check out the link for more details.

  25. RC: A friend of mine from Bombay had told me that even Sindhis in India write Sindhi in the Persian/Arabic script; is this true? Is there a Sindhi-in-Devanagari?

  26. I admit my Hindi is somewhat rusty and I hate to be picky, but the Google Hindi page has many simple mistakes, e.g., the location of “matras” is consistently wrong.

    Actually apparently that can be fixed by downloading some extra piece of font software. Details here

  27. To the person who asked…. Sindhis – Indian/Hindu Sindhis, too – read and write the Urdu script. While my grandparents’ generation can read and write Sindhi, my parents and their cousins who were schooled in English-medium schools in India cannot. (Their second and third and fourth languages in school were Hindi, Marathi and French.) I’d love to learn how to read and write Sindhi – I am such a language lover – but who can teach me? sigh

  30. Jai Singh, fascinating. Will be sending that link to my famly. I have never, ever seen Sindhi written in Devnagri script. I wonder how much it is used. Every single Sindhi book/newspaper I have ever seen at home, at the bookstore, etc. has been in the Persian script.

  31. The excerpt below from a talk by A.J. Uttam given in 1998 appears to suggest that in India too Sindhi is written in a variant of the Arabic/Persian script:

    http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/3223/Sindhi_Mags_India.html “From the past 40 years all the 30 books given Sahitya Academy Awards are written in Sindhi script only, which is not the same Arabic script in-as-much as there are 52 letters in Sindhi with 4 special pronunciations like Ba-Ga-Da-Ja.”

    Yet in his concluding remarks Mr. Uttam writes: “There is another magazine “Aseen Sindhi” edited by Jairam Rupani and third is “Sahyog Times” edited by Ram Jawahrani. The first two magazines publish matter in Sindhi Arabic script also for encouraging new generation to pick it up so that 150 years old Sindhi script, the symbol of our separate entity of community and unity with Sindhi brothers of Sindh.” This could be read as suggesting that the fact that these magazines publish in the “Sindhi Arabic” script is unusual. Thoughts?

    Personally, I’m fascinated by such linguistic curios: apparently in Iraq and parts of Yemen it wasn’t uncommon for Jews to write Hebrew in the Arabic script even into the 19th C. Similarly in Kerala the “Moplah” community used to write Malayalam in an Arabic script, even into the 20th C– although that has died out by now. And I guess Sanskrit was written in the various scripts until modern times, when Devanagari took over…

  33. Also this discussion reminded me of my chilhood when myself and my brother were playing “Gulli-Danda” with the neighbourhood kids and sometime there would be majority Sindhi kids and we would all count in Sindhi. I still remember that “gulli-danda” specific counting in Sindhi 🙂

  34. Also, while we are on the subject of Google, go to Google type “failure” and then click on the “I’m feeling lucky” button. 🙂

    Ha, Abhi, I did it! 😀

  35. THe most amusing part to me was analysing the differences between Hindi word choice and Urdu word choce. For “Log In” Hindi is “Andhar Jaiye” – and Urdu is “dakhil ho.N”. For “Image” – in Hindi it’s “chhviyaan” and Urdu it’s “tasviire.N”

    But “About Google” in both Hindi and Urdu is “Google ke bare me sab kuch”

    My favorite difference is “make Google your homepage” Hindi – “Google ko apna mukhdpushd banaiye” Urdu – “Google ko apna markazi safaha banaa’e.N”

    And weird, the poster who had the problem with letters/diacritics in the wrong place? I am not having that problem with Hindi, but I am with Bangla — desi techies, some help? The Bangla is showing up as “Google Ke Apnar OHmepej banaan”

  37. The different language search capability in Google looks cool, but it is of LITTLE USE as there ARENT any significant number of webpages in South Asian languages and there are hardly any South Asian language based Keyboards. (As opposed to Japanese (2nd most used language on the web) or Chinese or Major European Languages)

  38. Also, while we are on the subject of Google, go to Google type “failure” and then click on the “I’m feeling lucky” button. 🙂 …oh, and it works in any language.

    If I am not mistaken, around election time querying “waffles” used to lead to John Kerry’s bio.

    • Right, listing Uyghur with India is absolutely wrong. If anything, besides China, it could be associated with Kazakhstan, and at a stretch, Afghanistan or even Turkey. As with many thousands of other ethnicites in the world, there may be a few hundred speakers who found their way to India or the US.

    • Sindhi, as echoed in prior comments, can be written in the Sindhi script remiscent of Arabic(actually Persian-inspired sript), or in Devanagri. The oldschool generation of Hindu (“Indian”) Sindhis born in Sindh during pre-partition colonial times would have been schooled in the Persian/Urdu-like Sindhi script and are very comfortable with reading and writing Sindhi as such. The language, of course, was developed and written in Devanagri or other derivates before the Arab, Muslim, and British rule of Sindh, and movements to reclaim this practice among Indian and diasporic Hindu Sindhis did take place to limited effect after partition. People truly learned in the Sindhi language would need to grasp the Persian/Urdu-style script in order to read classic literature and poetry. However, in common modern practice (personal letters, web, etc.) Sindhi can easily be written in Devanagri or even, to a lesser extent, Roman script.

  41. Randompedia, do you have any clue on the prevelence of Sindhi in the Devanagri script? As I said in a previous post, I have never, ever seen this even in personal letters, newspapers, temple newsletters, etc. Yes, the “oldschool generation of Hindu (“Indian”) Sindhis born in Sindh during pre-partition colonial times would have been schooled in the Persian/Urdu-like Sindhi script and are very comfortable with reading and writing Sindhi as such” but many of their children were schooled in India, though some in Sindhi-medium schools, and would not be able to read and write the Persian/Urdu script. Yes, you can write Sindhi in the Devanagri or even, to a lesser extent, Roman script (as you can with almost any SA language), but, like I said, I wonder about it’s spread.

  43. And weird, the poster who had the problem with letters/diacritics in the wrong place? I am not having that problem with Hindi, but I am with Bangla — desi techies, some help?

    Complex text support needs to be enabled. See this for more info

  44. Rani, I can’t say anything about the official prevalence of Devanagri Sindhi, but I do know about my family’s use. My dad learned all subjects in his school in India in Devanagri Sindhi. There were books, dictionaries, and all sorts of other written material. My parents, and everyone I know in their brink-of-independence generation, speak (varying amounts of) Sindhi but cannot read Persian/Urdu. Although they do not have much need or opportunity to express Sindhi in written form, I have seen that when they do it is in the script with which the language was developed.

  46. Randompedia, my parents were born in India post-1947 and went to English-medium schools where their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th languages were Hindi, Marathi and French. They never learned “Devnagri Sindhi.” So I guess I never heard of/saw any Sindhi material published outside of Persian/Urdu script.

    My parents and their India-born generation speak entirely in Sindhi at home, as do I, but cannot read or write Sindhi (in Persian/Urdu script). The only written language used in our family is English.

    It’s all so fascinating to me. I must find these “Devnagri Sindhi” dictionaries.

  47. I guess it wasn’t my Hindi that was rusty, but rather my computer skills 😉

    thanks for your help. now Google Hindi looks sensible.

    vivek

  50. My grandmother passed away last year, she was 97 years at time of passage. I am sindhi. And my grandmother never went to school. The only written language she knew was Gurmukhi. And she read us many sindhi books written in Gurmukhi. My grandfather was schooled in Sindh, and he wrote in the persian/arabic script. This was not the official script for sindh until 1853, that too developed by the British so they would have only one administrative language. http://yangtze.cs.uiuc.edu/~jamali/sindh/sammelan/04.html My Grandfather being born after 1853 was taught in the provincial language and script that was developed by the British, but learned Gurmukhi at home. Sindhi is a very sanskritic language. The original script has been assumed to be of Brahmi origin. And the Brahmi originated scripts of that region are most likely Gurmukhi, Devnagri, Gujrati or similar derivative. Most content is therefore written either in the arabic-like script (which even the arabs cant read – cuz its been formulated by the british to accomodate the sounds) or in Devnagari or in Gurmukhi. At the time of partition, the script broadly used was the arabic-like script. Therefore there has been a need to transcend that ability to the new generation of sindhis, and hence most sindhi schools teach this script, devnagari is used since hindi is already taught as a script – so atleast the oral language may be transended as the language is getting extinct. Pakistani sindhi already is full of persian/urdu vocabulary nowadays. And elsewhere bollywood-hindi/english are also diluting the language in sindhi homes.