Nawayaths now have their missing letters on phonetic keyboard
06:07PM Sun 6 Jan, 2019
Bhatkal 6 January 2019: (Bhatkallys News Bureau) Nawayaths, a community of a few thousands of people, staying in the coastal Karnataka and mainly in the coastal town Bhatkal, have always been proud of their culture, heritage and the language they speak 'Nawaiti' which is a mixture of several regional and national languages including Konkani and Urdu.
However, the language which is written in a right to left Persian script, was missing three characters that were missing from the script but were used orally, with a unique pronunciation which is not found in Urdu or Persian languages as well.
A few months back a team of Nawayath Mehfil, an organisation that works to preserve the culture of Nawayath community and its over a thousand years of history, met Syed Manzar Zaidi, a software engineer working for AXIS media solutions in Mumbai, and requested him to develop the three missing characters in a unicode phonetic keyboard, a step which will take them closer towards getting the language its due recognition by the government.
A couple of months later, Zaidi developed the characters in unicode phonetic keyboard, which will now be released during the Nawayath Mehfil's event on January 6, at Anjumanabad as a part of centenary celebrations of Anjuman Hami-e-Muslimeen Bhatkal. It will be inaugurated by Qazi of Jamatul Muslimeen Bhatkal Moulana Iqbal Mulla Nadvi.
Mohsin Shabandri, Mustafa Tabish and the President of the organisation Abdul Rahman Jan, played key roles in bringing up the project, which eventually paid off, much to the anticipation of the local Nawayaths ahead of its release.
"It was a herculean job to accommodate all the permutations for the characters on the keyboard, so multiple keys have to be held down together to achieve certain arrangements of the letters" Zaidi was quoted as saying by Mumbai Mirror.
Abdul Rahman Jan, described the step as a stride towards preserving the language for next generations.
Mohsin and Mustafa Tabish are also hopeful that the project till prove to be a wise one for the community on a bigger picture.
(Bhatkallys News Bureau)
A few months back a team of Nawayath Mehfil, an organisation that works to preserve the culture of Nawayath community and its over a thousand years of history, met Syed Manzar Zaidi, a software engineer working for AXIS media solutions in Mumbai, and requested him to develop the three missing characters in a unicode phonetic keyboard, a step which will take them closer towards getting the language its due recognition by the government.
A couple of months later, Zaidi developed the characters in unicode phonetic keyboard, which will now be released during the Nawayath Mehfil's event on January 6, at Anjumanabad as a part of centenary celebrations of Anjuman Hami-e-Muslimeen Bhatkal. It will be inaugurated by Qazi of Jamatul Muslimeen Bhatkal Moulana Iqbal Mulla Nadvi.
Mohsin Shabandri, Mustafa Tabish and the President of the organisation Abdul Rahman Jan, played key roles in bringing up the project, which eventually paid off, much to the anticipation of the local Nawayaths ahead of its release.
"It was a herculean job to accommodate all the permutations for the characters on the keyboard, so multiple keys have to be held down together to achieve certain arrangements of the letters" Zaidi was quoted as saying by Mumbai Mirror.
Abdul Rahman Jan, described the step as a stride towards preserving the language for next generations.
Mohsin and Mustafa Tabish are also hopeful that the project till prove to be a wise one for the community on a bigger picture.
(Bhatkallys News Bureau)
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