Hindi & Urdu are actually one language divided artificially for socio-cultural and politico-religious motivations. But this knowledge is not popular understanding and to this day, the divide plays a major role in communal identification in Indo-Pak. However, linguistics by & large is in agreement over their twin status. We’re working to bridge the divide by bringing the whole range of Hindi-Urdu (as spoken across India & Pakistan) together using roman script and develop & promote a neutral writing style as exemplified by Bollywood and popular media.
Roman Hindi-Urdu is already in vogue and the newer generations are all comfortable using it on web, IMs and SMS. However, the problem is that there's no standardization and for any standard to be widely agreed upon, there needs to be significant content in it. What better than a Dictionary? Dictionary is also the ideal first project for the obvious reason that it has the most popular appeal. There are over 100Million internet users in the region (and 30Million+ diaspora), Google Trends reports 36Million+ 'Dictionary' related searches yearly from Indo-Pak! Who wouldn't just love a quality free dictionary.
So, our first undertaking is an "English-to-Hamari Boli Dictionary". Conceptualized as a not-for-profit social venture, implementation and operation is planned as a web-based collaborative to which any one with net access can contribute. the idea is to compile Hamari Boli Dictionaries (Eng-to-HB, HB-to-Eng, HB-to-Major World Languages, HB-to-Major Regional Languages) and publish in collaboration with Wikimedia Foundation at hb.Wikitionary.org under Creative Commons! it will have meanings of words from both modern Hindi and Urdu in roman script so that readers of both Devanagari/Perso-Arabic scripts will benefit equally For example, the entry for “Knowledge” will be;
As above, the full range of Hindi-Urdu is being brought together. All English words will have all meanings in Hindi and Urdu. By using the Roman alphabet, it will be accessible to both Nastaliq and Devanagari readers and will also be an invaluable resource for new learners of Hindi-Urdu.
The “Uddin and Begum Hindi-Urdu Romanization scheme”, proposed by the late Syed Fasih Uddin and the late Quader Unissa Begum for the Romanization of Urdu-Hindi-Hindustani. It was adopted by The First International Urdu Conference, 1992 Chicago, as;
"The Modern International Standard Letters of Alphabet for Hindi-Urdu (HINDUSTANI) - The Language, script for the purposes of hand written communication, dictionary references, published material and Computerized Linguistic Communications (CLC)".
Version 1.0
Currently, we’re compiling version1.0 with a 100,000 English words (each with all meanings in Hindi and Urdu). When complete, the entire work will be published online at Wikitionary.org under “Creative Commons” public license [by-nc-sa].
Currently, we’re compiling version1.0 with a 100,000 English words (each with all meanings in Hindi and Urdu). When complete, the entire work will be published online at Wikitionary.org under “Creative Commons” public license [by-nc-sa].
The beauty of the Wiki format is that it turns the web into a global volunteer recruiting platform and also turns the website into a constant content creation engine, thus enabling the site to constantly grow in content. Like all other Wikitionaries, it will be available online 24x7 to everyone, anywhere in the world, absolutely free!
There are at least 100Million+ internet users in India and Pakistan. Google Trends reports 3Million+ dictionary related searches each month from India and Pakistan. The HB dictionary will be the one-stop destination for everyone needing English-to-Hindi/Urdu dictionary
Version 2.0
After v1.0 is published, it will be upgraded to multidirectional format i.e. Hamari Boli-to-English support will be added. It will be a composite of Hamari Boli and English so that the words ‘Ilm’, ‘Vidya’, ‘Gyan’, ‘Knowledge’ will all have a separate page each and each word will have meanings in English and Hamari Boli. For example the entries for ‘Ilm’, ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Vidya’ will be;
After v1.0 is published, it will be upgraded to multidirectional format i.e. Hamari Boli-to-English support will be added. It will be a composite of Hamari Boli and English so that the words ‘Ilm’, ‘Vidya’, ‘Gyan’, ‘Knowledge’ will all have a separate page each and each word will have meanings in English and Hamari Boli. For example the entries for ‘Ilm’, ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Vidya’ will be;
Ilm | English = Hamari Boli = = | Knowledge Vidya Gyan |
Vidya | English = Hamari Boli = = | Knowledge Ilm Gyan |
Knowledge | Hamari Boli = = | Vidya Danish Idrak Gyan Ilm |
Desktop Dictionary
The web version will not be available offline. To enable offline access, dictionary packs to be used with Lingoes Translator will be released regularly (based on wiki).
Lingoes Translator is a desktop dictionary look-up application that enables instant point and lookup functionality for any word, anywhere on screen, online AND offline!
Depending on community interest and volunteer contribution, the dictionary will keep on expanding like Wikitionary (English Wikitionary at en.wikitionary.org now boasts 2 million plus entries!). New features like mobile dictionaries, human pronunciation, etymologies, part of speech, synonyms, antonyms etc and support for regional Desi languages will be added in later versions. We also plan to develop and publish open-source Hamari Boli learning courses at Wikibooks.org
Other areas such as literary events, Desi news and blogs, film festivals, writing contests, collective book writing initiatives and several others are being actively explored.
