Facilitating communication between East and West Punjab

The aim of the project is to facilitate electronic and written communication between people in East (Indian) and West (Pakistani) Punjab through the development of a Punjabi Language Transliteration Tool.

Project Title: Shahmukhi to Gurmukhi Transliteration Solution for Networking, India and Pakistan
Geographic coverage: Punjab, India and Punjab, Pakistan
This project started in March 2006 and will end in February 2008.

Objective
The objective of this project is to develop a software package facilitating transliteration from Shahmukhi
to Gurmukhi languages and enabling web-based networking between East and West Punjab.

Research context
This project is a culmination of ten years of academic research and literacy development in the United
Kingdom, Pakistan and India. The aim of the project is to facilitate electronic and written communication
between people in East (Indian) and West (Pakistani) Punjab through the development of a Punjabi
Language Transliteration Tool. The intellectual background to this work has already been completed
through a grant from the European Union, Asia-ITC programme. The project expands on a Gurmukhi to
Shahmukhi Transliteration software developed by the Punjabi University at Patiala and aims to develop
a complementary Shamukhi to Gurmukhi processor to facilitate use of these technologies on the web
and enhance networking between India and Pakistan.

Target beneficiaries
The general beneficiaries of this project are the Punjabi community, and in particular media
organizations, schools, colleges, literacy promotional organizations, writers and non-governmental
organizations involved in dissemination activities.

Outputs
- Online Shahmukhi-Gurmukhi transliteration utility to transliterate Punjabi text in Shahmukhi script to
Gurmukhi script;
- An offline Windows-based software to transliterate Punjabi text in Shahmukhi script encoded in
popular formats such as Inpage or Unicode to Gurmukhi script in any of the popular Gurmukhi fonts or
Unicode;
- Shahmukhi – Gurmukhi direct transliteration dictionary with 25,000 entries;
- A morphological analyser and synthesizer tool for Shahmukhi text;
- Documentation for usage of transliteration tool; and
Training materials for usage of transliteration software.

For more information, please contact

Christine Apikul
APDIP Programme Specialist for Content Development and Knowledge Management
[email protected]

or

Dr. Gurpreet Singh Lehal, Director
Advanced Centre for Technical Development of Punjabi Language Literature and Culture
Punjabi University, Patiala, India
Telephone: +91 17 5304 6171
Fax: +91 17 5304 6313
Email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.advancedcentrepunjabi.org