Edited by author 09-07-2002 11:40 AM
This message board is intended for the discussion of topics related to the use of the maternal languages of Ghana on computers and the internet.

It is prompted by correspondence with two individuals in particular, one of whom is interested in developing a Twi <-> English automatic translation program, and the other connected with an internet center in Accra who expressed interest in knowing more about how one might do more with Ghanaian languages and ICT.

It is hoped that these topics and other useful information about various aspects of localization for Ghanaian languages will be addressed on this message board. The discussion will hopefully address technical issues and also ways in which Ghanaian languages can be used with ICT for development purposes.

The languages indigenous to Ghana include, but are not limited to: Akan languages (Twi Asante, Twi Akuapem, Fanti), Bimoba, Chumburung, Dagare, Dagbani, Dangme (Adangme), Ewe, Ga, Hanga, Kasem, Konkomba, Kusal, Ligbi, Mampruli, Mo (Deg), Nafaanra, Sisaala, Vagala. (Hausa is also spoken by some in Ghana - there is a separate language-specific board for this widely spoken language at http://www.quicktopic.com/8/H/JxKHyg9ccPUVB .)

This board is one of several accessible through the "A12n gateway" at http://www.bisharat.net/A12N . A page on the "special characters" used to write many languages of Ghana is accessible on that page.

Don Osborn dzo@bisharat.net
*Bisharat! A language, technology & development initiative
*Bisharat! Initiative langues - technologie - développement
http://www.bisharat.net

The UNHCHR has had at http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/navigate/region.htm the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in several Ghanaian languages for some time. These still are good examples (and tests for your browser) of Unicode text in these languages:

Akan languages
Twi Asante
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/ass.htm
Twi Akuapem
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/tws1.htm
Fante
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/tws3.htm

Dagare
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/dga.htm

Dagbani
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/dag.htm

Dangme (Adangme)
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/gac1.htm

Ewe
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/ewe.htm

Ga
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/gac2.htm

Gonja
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/dum.htm

Kasem
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/kas.htm

If you go to "view" and "source" on your browser you can see the coding for the modified Latin latters.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

The company that runs the search engine "Google" has a "Translate Google Into Your Language" program and Twi is among the languages for which they are developing support (although only 1% of the site has been translated so far). See: http://services.google.com/tc/Welcome.html (and click on "Here is a list of the languages for which we are currently developing support"). I'm not sure how they'll deal with special characters and diacritics. If they use Unicode (despite many people still using systems that can't handle it yet) then it might be possible.

In discussions re Hausa and Yoruba, some issues have been brought up as to the utility of this given that 1) there is not much material yet on the web in these languages and 2) the character sets are not uniform (e.g., only some use Unicode).

A practical short-term alternative (though it would involve some work) would be to create a web directory for Ghanaian languages using something like the Open Directory project at http://www.dmoz.org/World/

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

I've been told that the Twi & English translator project mentioned in /m1 is ongoing, although still at a very early stage. The program being used is Visual Prolog.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

This is reposted from A12n-collaboration. It concerns keyboard layouts for Unicode fonts on Macintosh designed by Eric Rasmussen to facilitate typing of extended Latin characters used in African languages. (Note mention of Twi.)

> I have finally posted the first of my Latin Extended keyboards at:
> http://homepage.mac.com/chinesemac/LatinExtended/index.html
>
> These are Mac OS keyboards, so the compression format used for the
> downloads is SIT.
>
> I went with a minimum set of African characters, leaving out a number
> of IPA characters in Hartell: small alpha, small u with stroke, small
> turned v, and small r fishhook. [Note that u with stroke and r with
> stroke can be composed using dynamic input.] I also left out a number
> of IPA characters already adopted into Unicode for African (with
> capitals in Latin Extended-B): upsilon and t with retroflex hook,
> neither of which are in Hartell. I added the modifier letter small
> raised w (U+02B7), which is used for Twi.
>
> There will be a version 1.1.1, so additions are still possible...
>
> Thanks for your help,
>
> Eric

Your help would be appreciated. I would like to know how to say the days of the week in Ghanaian languages. In particular I would like to know how to say Thursday--Thursday with a "Y".

Please respond to me @ julesbedeau@hotmail.com

There seems to be very little web content in Ghanaian languages yet. One interesting site though is that of News in Ghana at http://www.newsinghana.com/ * which has some articles in Ga (the archives indicate Ewe and Twi translations too but I had no luck accessing these) in .pdf format. One recent one is at: http://www.newsinghana.com/locals/ga/ecowa...voire-postponed.pdf

Regarding Jules' question below re days of the week in Ghanaian languages, there are a few sites which give the names for men and women based on the day of the week they were born:
http://www.fiankoma.org/schoolsite/yourname.htm
http://www.geocities.com/renjoh/ghana.html
http://www.angelfire.com/me4/joseph/culture.HTML
Others who may have a response regarding the days of the week, please respond to him directly at the address he gives in /m6.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

* Thanks to Nii Quaynor for this info.

re /m7

the "News in Ghana" web site appears to have a few bugs, I found that if I went into the archives choose the English langauge version of an article that had a Ga, Ewe or Twi translation, there was a link to teh translated page that did work.

The urls for translated news items is systematically incorrect, the archive index gave a url for an Ewe document as

http://www.newsinghana.com/news/ewe/Kufuor...-57-UN-assembly.pdf

but the actual url was

http://www.newsinghana.com/locals/ewe/Kufu...-57-UN-assembly.pdf


replacing "news" with "locals" managed to get me into quite a few of the translated articles.

Andrew

Thanks, Andrew, for sorting that out. I'll pass a note on to the webmaster.

I've just heard about an Akan learning site from two sources (Gideon Chonia, who worked on it, and Ken Lohento). It's not new, but of interest on this forum for the way the issue of extended Latin characters is handled. Basically one has to download their font, "WestAfrica7." See http://www.unizh.ch/spw/afrling/aliakan/index.html , click on Sample... and follow from there. On a Mac (OS 8.6; IE5) without their font there are a lot of question marke; on a PC (Windows 98; IE6) I see a few accented characters. Apparently WestAfrica7 substitutes some character positions with the necessary extra letters for Akan.

It would be interesting to know what they would do differently on this issue today (i.e., with Unicode etc.), and whether some interactive feature would allow the learners to, say, type back answers to questions.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Another kind of keyboard is one based on a graphics tablet where input is made with a stylus. One intended for African languages that would work for some Ghanaian languages is the Aim8 Pan African Language Tablet - see http://www.largeformatcomputing.com/LTAB/PanAfricanLTAB.htm

The main issue is it does not currently have the open o, but my understanding is that this will be revised in the not distant future.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Edited by author 03-12-2003 05:56 PM
A draft tablet keyboard layout designed by Lee Pearce and intended specifically for Ghanaian languages can be viewed at: http://www.bisharat.net/A12N/Projects/GhanaTabletKeyboard.htm. This is part of the redesign process mentioned in /m10. As I understand it, the resulting product will eventually be offered at a new site: http://www.language-keyboard.com/.

Other draft layouts for Africa as a whole and some languages and regions are at http://www.bisharat.net/A12N/Projects/ (top of the page for traditional keyboards; bottom for tablet keyboards).

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Offline there's been a brief discussion of keyboards for Ga and Ewe among Nii Quaynor, Andrew Cunningham, and myself. There are apparently eight pairs of letters (upper and lower case) that are necessary: d with tail, open-e, f with tail, Latin gamma, eng, open-o, esh, and v with hook. These characters are illustrated in the tables at http://www.bisharat.net/A12N/GHANA-table.htm and (for Ewe, which needs to be added to the Ghana table) http://www.bisharat.net/A12N/TOGO-table.htm

It appears that the following keyboard layouts made with Tavultesoft's Keyman software would handle these character needs (regardless of the name): Pan-Sahelian 2.0 -http://www.openroad.net.au/languages/files/ps20.html and Pan-Sahelian 2.1 -http://www.openroad.net.au/languages/files/ps21.html

To the question whether there is need for a keyboard more specific to these Ghanaian languages, I think we are in agreement that it's better to have something more generic like the PanSahelian approach (that permits use of various languages) is desireable.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Maybe its time to change the name of the pan-sahelian keyboard to something else.

Do Ga and Ewe use diacritics in the current orthographies?

Secondly, I suspect that we should also add support for other Ghanaian languages.

Andrew

Nii,

I assume that the extended Latin characters Ewe and Ga require are:


Ɖ ɖ Ɛ ɛ Ƒ ƒ Ɣ ɣ Ŋ ŋ Ɔ ɔ Ʋ ʋ Ʃ ʃ


To view this text you will need the Gentium font, which is available for download at http://www.sil.org/~gaultney/gentium/download.html

Andrew

Edited by author 05-08-2003 04:12 AM
Re /m14 this is what I understand from Nii's .ppt charts. This can also be viewed with Arial Unicode MS or Lucida Sans Unicode fonts:

Ɖ ɖ Ɛ ɛ Ƒ ƒ Ɣ ɣ Ŋ ŋ Ɔ ɔ Ʋ ʋ Ʃ ʃ

Re /m13, according to Hartell (sumarized by Lee Pearce at http://www.bisharat.net/A12N/tones.htm):
Ga tones
high v́ low v̀
Ewe tones (under Togo)
high v́ non-high v̀ rising v̌

Don't know how the latter info squares with actual usage or standards in Ghana. My impression for Ewe at least is that tones are not marked in normal usage.

Fine for renaming ...

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Yes, "Arial Unicode MS" and "Lucinda Sans Unicode" will work. Although I suggested Gentium, since it could be downloaded and used on Macs, Windows, and Linux/Unix.

The other two are fonts that come with commercial applications, and not everyone may have them.

I'll change the keyboard name from pan-Sahelian to West African?

The tone information you included shows up well in IE, but the last tone in each line is missing in Netscape 7, from memory, Netscape requires a another character or a space character after the combining diacritic to display correctly, if the combining diacritic is followed directly by a new line, soemtimes the diacritic doesn't display. A bug in the netscape/mozilla rendering engine.

If tones are used in day to day writing for either language, then I'll update the keyboard layout to accomodate any new base character and diacritic combinations.

I've put together a chart with the characters, the unicode codepoints and HTML NCRs. Its available at

http://www.openroad.net.au/languages/files...we-ga-char-list.pdf

Andrew

There have been three requests off-line recently from different individuals concerning fonts for languages spoken in Ghana (one actually from a former acquaintence in reference to Togo, but the other two were from Ghanaians): Ewe, Twi, Ga, Fante.

Three fonts that are mentioned in the previous messages, Gentium in /m14, and Arial Unicode MS and Lucida Sans Unicode in /m15 should suffice for these languages. As Andrew implies in /m16, the latter two are not available for all systems. However if you are using a more recent Windows system you should have the Lucida Sans Unicode and perhaps the Arial Unicode MS already.

After those, some other fonts (thanks to Andrew) include:
Doulos SIL - Beta http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.ph...em_id=DoulosSILfont
SImPL http://www.vector.org.uk/resource/simpl02.zip
Thryomanes http://members.tripod.com/Thryomanes/fonts.html
TITUS Cyberbit Basic http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/unicode/tituut.asp

Additional font information can be found via links on the A12n gateway page: http://www.bisharat.net/A12N/#font

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

I'm reposting this request for help from the Unicode list...

Subject: Creating fonts for Akan language
From: <Kyekyeku.Opoku-Pong@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 10:27:49 +0300

 Hello all,

 I am new to this list. I have a problem and I was advised to contact this list so that someone could possibly help me. Below is what I need help with:

 Akan is used by about nine (9) million people in Ghana. In 1961, the Bureau of Ghana languages devised a common standard script for all forms of Akan. The Akan alphabet has 22 characters. The alphabet can be viewed from the web site: http://www.alphabets-world.com/akan.html

 Only the 5th and 15th characters of the Akan alphabet are not in the Basic Latin character set. The Capital form (big letter) of 5th character is in the Latin Extended-B character set with the number 0190.
 The small letter is in the IPA Extensions set with the number 025B.
 I have not found the 15th character in any character set so far.

 My desire is to create (make) a set of fonts for the Akan language for Windows 2000 to begin with. I have been able to create a crude version for my own use but I know that the people of Ghana would be very happy to be able to install a standardized version for their own use. I would also want to eventually map it to a keyboard, probably with extra keys for the two Akan characters.

 My problem is:
 1. How do I set out to create such a font?
 2. How do I use the existing character 0190/025B in such a font?
 3. How do I create and get the 15th character accepted in the Unicode set?

 I would appreciate any help that anyone can give on this.

===============================
Kyekyeku Opoku-Pong
Symbian Platform Development,
Nokia Mobile Phones
Mobile: +358 (0)50 486 7933

Edited by author 08-07-2003 02:44 PM
The Akan alphabet from the page indicated in /m18 is, in text form:

A B D E Ɛ F G H I K L M N O Ɔ P R S T U W Y

a b d e ɛ f g h i k l m n o ɔ p r s t u w y

There are two extended characters: ɛ ("open e") and ɔ ("open o"), plus their capitals. Ɔ is 0186 in Unicode and ɔ is 0254.

These characters are apparently also used in other languages of Ghana - see /m15 - though the table at http://www.bisharat.net/A12N/GHANA-table.htm does not show this.

There is more font and keyboard info at http://www.bisharat.net/A12N

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Reposting here John Hudson's reply to Kyekyeku's three questions (see /m18) from A12n-collaboration and the Unicode list:

1. See http://www.fontlab.com
2. Make a Unicode encoded font (TrueType or CFF OpenType). For use in Windows 2000 or XP or other Unicode text processing environments, you do not need to worry about 8-bit codepages: so long as the glyphs for these letters are mapped to the correct Unicode characters in the font cmap
table, they will work. If you want to make your own keyboard layout driver for Akan, you can use Microsoft's new Keyboard Layout Creator:
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/msklc.mspx
3. The 'open o' character is already included in the Unicode Standard. The uppercase letter is U+0186 and the lowercase is U+0254.

A couple of additional comments:

Akan is a tonal language, yes? This likely means that although the Bureau of Ghana languages specifies an alphabet of 22 letters there are circumstances in which it is necessary to indicate tones to differentiate otherwise identical words. For educational and lexicographical texts it may also be desirable to indicate nasalisation. This means that simply providing glyphs for the 44 upper- and lowercase letters might not be sufficient: you may also need dynamic mark positioning.

Microsoft are apparently releasing a number of updates to their core font set with upcoming versions of Office and Windows that will include extensive African language support.

John Hudson

Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com
Vancouver, BC tiro@xxxxxxxx

Edited by author 08-10-2003 05:18 AM
Reposting here Andrew's reply to Kyekyeku's questions (see /m18) from the A12n-collaboration* working group:

The characters you need do exist in Unicode, a number of fonts have the characters oyu need, some of the fonts are listed on http://www.bisharat.net/A12N/

Additionally, I'm trying to get Microsoft to support a range of Sudanese languages in the next versions of their core fonts. If this is done then they'll also have the characters you require.

For input on Windows, you can use Microsft's keyboard generation tool or alternatively you can use programs like keyman. I've created a few keyboard layouts for african languages. http://www.openroad.net.au/languages/files/

I'm also working on a keyman layout for some linguists working on Dagaare and Twi, although the keyboard layout hasn't been finsalised yet.

Andrew

--
Andrew Cunningham
Multilingual Technical Officer
Online Projects Team, Vicnet
State Library of Victoria
328 Swanston Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Australia

andrewc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ph. +61-3-8664-7430
Fax: +61-3-9639-2175

http://www.openroad.net.au/
http://www.libraries.vic.gov.au/
http://www.vicnet.net.au/


* http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/a12n-collaboration

Edited by author 08-10-2003 04:08 PM
Dear Members:

We have keyboard that has all Nigerian alphabets. If you are interested
please let me know. Once you have this keyboard you don't have to change
your keyboard before you type in English...it is all in all keyboard.
It is called KONYIN keyboard and the driver software is Windows ® OS based,
which allows the driver to be application independent. The keyboard works
like any other standard keyboard driver, with enhanced functionalities for
Nigerian users. In short, it is a standard keyboard driver for everyday use
and it allows users to type Nigeria specific unique alphabets without
changing how you type today. Users do not have to remember any complicated
codes or shortcuts. The software is designed for use both at homes and
offices.
The Keyboard driver software uses proprietary source codes to generate all
the identified unique alphabets. The source codes further create a Nigeria
specific code-page in your computer registry, which means that you will be
able to see the Nigerian currency sign any time you use a spreadsheet
application like Microsoft Excel or Lotus.

System requirements: Windows ® (9x, ME, NT, W2k, XP professional). KONYIN
basic package includes keyboard and wrist pad, keyboard driver software only
$99.98 please add shipping and handling cost. If you are buying from
California please add 8.25% tax. Thank you for your inquiry. Contact oladokun@ix.netcom.com

Oládòkun

Nigerian keyboard and driver.

I think it is a great thing that you got the idea to make such a keyboard and a driver for it. This is exactly what I am thinking about for Ghana.

It would be interesting to know how easy or difficult it was for a manufacture to agree to make the keyboard. I suppose the population and the potential market is a catcher.

Would it possible to have some pointers. I can write the driver for a Ghanaian keyboard and have started negotiations for a prototype keyborad but I live in the part of the world where issues concerning Africa do not receive much interest so I do not know how far I will ghet with the keyboard.

As far as the end user is concerned having a keyboard as you and a driver which configures it by a few clicks of the mouse is the ideal situation.

Could someone throw in some advice?

Edited by author 08-23-2003 01:26 PM
Kyekyeku, Sorry for the slow reply. Have you checked out the messages below (/m21 and /m22). It seems that from the point of software you have a couple of ways to go on the keyboard: Microsoft's Keyboard Layout Creator or Tavultesoft's Keyman.

You mention having "started negotiations on a prototype keyboard" - how would that be created? That is, can you give us more info on the approach you're working on.

Let us know how the project is shaping up. This board may be slow but hopefully can help - and also help everyone learn from each other.

All the best!

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Reposting here a message from Adams Bodomo concerning work he is involved with (see also Andrew's message /m21).

Dear Don Osborn,
Thanks for your initiative and for hooking us up with others. Just recently (at least two to three months ago), I worked with one IT specialist and African language font enthusiast, Andrew Cunningham (on this list), on two Ghanaian languages. These are Twi (in collaboration with one of my postgraduates (Charles Marfo) and Dagaare. We have drafts of the documents but I got involved in other issues and have not yet polished them up for dissemination. Basically we were concerned with how to represent special segmental (vocalic and consonantal) characters and the issue of tone.
Best wishes,
A. Bodomo

Edited by author 08-24-2003 04:23 PM
One additional thought for Kyekyeku and his original request for help with a font /m18 as I write a long overdue response to Marcel Diki-Kidiri on A12n-entraide.* He points out the lack of variety of fonts with the necessary characters for African languages. This is quite true though we haven't been talking about it. So I would definitely encourage you to continue to work on the font and consider including other extended characters for other languages of Ghana.

Keyboards are important too, but good unicode fonts are few.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

* http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/a12n-entraide (in French)

The recently announced edition of the (online) Journal of Dagaare Studies (Vol. 2, 2002; http://www.hku.hk/linguist/staff_ab.DagaareJournal.html ) contains an article entitled "A Guide to Dagaahre Orthography" by Prof. Constancio K. Nakuma at http://www.hku.hk/linguist/JDS2002_Nakuma.pdf . It obviously represents a lot of work, but I wonder if his set of propositions re moving away from special characters (in favor of combinations of letters) in writing Dagaare, and in particular for marking tones (by insertion of letters) is indicative of a larger trend among Dagaare speakers or within Ghana, or his advocacy of a system that is not widely accepted.

The article does not mention computers and internet, but the changing the orthography would have obvious implications for use of the language in ICT.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Regarding standardization of orthographies across related langages, note in particular the work of the The Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS). Their website is http://www.casas.co.za/. Though it is based in South Africa the director, Prof. Kwesi Kwaa Prah, is Ghanaian.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

A small e-mail list on "Teaching children of Ghanaian parentage worldwide to learn the TWI language" may be of interest: yahoo-cls-Twi-classes · Introduction to Asante Twi. The web home of the group is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yahoo-cls-Twi-classes/.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Reposting here a request for info received on another list...

Does anyone know of font for witing any of the Ghanaian languages using the PCs (IBM-compatibles) on Windows or Linux operating systems? I kow of a font on the Mancintosh that be used write soem few Ghanaian languages. What I am looking for is a font for Windows and Linux. On the other hand is anyone interested in developing a font using a set of 34 characters that was adopted in the 1930s to standadize the writing of all Ghanaian languages. I have the set to share with anyone interested in developing a font for writing Ghanaian languages.

I have been working with the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge Systems (CEFIKS - http://www.cfiks.org) to develop a dictionary for the Akan language. A font to be used on Windows or Linux operating systems will greatly enhance our work on the dictionary.

G. F. Kojo Arthur
Project Director
Akan Cultural Sysmbols Project
http://www.marshall.edu/akanart/

Here (belatedly) is part of the response I sent to Dr. Arthur (see /m30) last month. The Gentium font is also available for Linux.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Greetings from Niger. I'd suggest right off going with a Unicode font such as those resident on most Windows systems (Lucida Sans Unicode, Arial Unicode MS) or one like Gentium, which is free for download at http://www.sil.org/~gaultney/gentium/ (and available for Mac as well as PC/Windows). There are links to other fonts and info at http://www.bisharat.net/A12N .

Font development is somewhat involved, but there is definitely a need for good fonts with extended characters for African languages.

Edited by author 02-12-2004 03:05 PM
A draft of a list of plant names in Dagbani as compiled by Roger Blench (who is or was working with with ODI) is available in PDF format at:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roger_blench/...20plant%20names.pdf

I tried to block and copy names with the extended Latin letters, but those letters were transformed to other ANSI characters. (Adobe's coding? Or my Windows 98 system?)

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Larry Osei-Kwaku reports on the "Twi-classes" list (see /m29) - that Google is now localized for Twi: http://www.google.com/intl/tw/

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Hi Don

interesting. Does Twi use any extended latin characters?

Andrew

QT - BisharatNet wrote:

>
> .
>


--
Andrew Cunningham
e-Diversity and Content Infrastructure Solutions
Public Libraries Unit, Vicnet
State Library of Victoria
328 Swanston Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Australia

andrewc+AEA-vicnet.net.au

Ph. 3-8664-7430
Fax: 3-9639-2175

http://www.openroad.net.au/
http://www.libraries.vic.gov.au/
http://www.vicnet.net.au/
< replied-to message removed by QT >

Andrew, Yes it does. See /m19. Don

am i mistaken, or are the extended Latin characters for Twi missing from the Twi Google interface?

FYI from Unicode list - question on fonts and response...

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Hudson" <tiro@tiro.com>
To: <Kyekyeku.Opoku-Pong@nokia.com>
Cc: <unicode@unicode.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 2:11 AM
Subject: Re: Modifying Standard fonts


Kyekyeku.Opoku-Pong@nokia.com wrote:

> A colleague and I are working on a keyboard standard for our country,
Ghana. We think that the people of Ghana would like to use this keyboard but
would also like to use the Standard fonts as well.
>
> Standard fonts like Arial, Times New Roman don't have the Ghanaian
letters. The Ghanaian letters, as I have learnt from this forum are all in
Unicode.
>
> My questions is, would it be legal for us to modify these Standard fonts
and package them with our keyboard software so that anyone who uses our
keyboard could also use these standard fonts? We would


This question should be addressed to Microsoft Typography, members of which read this list any may respond offline. The short answer is that the Windows core fonts are considered operating system components and covered by the Windows end user license which prohibits all decompiling and modification. So no, it is not legal for you to modify these fonts. I believe, however, that all these fonts are being updated for the next version of Windows, and will support a wide range of African languages. Again, I recommend that you contact MS Typography: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/AboutMST.mspx

John Hudson

--

Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com
Vancouver, BC tiro@tiro.com

From my understanding, Microsoft are updating their core fonts, which will be included in their next operating system. Which isn't due for quite a while. And I doubt that the fonts will be made available to users of older operating systems.

For updating fonts, it might be worth locating fonts that allow you to modify and redistribute them. There are some fonts released under licenses similar to the GPL.

Thanks, Andrew. Your response (/m38) and John's (in /m37) speak to one of two separate though obviously connected issues in Kyekyeku's question. That is, fonts with the necessary extended characters. There is some discussion of that on this forum, for example in /m31, and earlier on font design.

The second issue is the keyboard standard for use of the small but growing number of fonts with the extended characters used to write Ghanaian and other African languages. The keyboard layouts you (Andrew) and others have produced that are collected at http://www.bisharat.net/A12N/Projects would hopefully serve as useful models or sources for ideas on different strategies for layout and keys (sequences) for other projects needed to provide for input of extended characters.

It would be ideal in the longer term to have a broader standard available for languages used in groups of African countries - perhaps not all languages in all countries because that might get too complicated for average users, but all Ghanaian languages should be easy enough. The workshop on African languages & the internet at Bamako 2002 recommended coordination on keyboard standards but I haven't heard of anything being done to that end.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

PS- GPL = General Public License (GNU) ?

Andrew, Re /m36, I don't know Twi, but the chances are that they (the localizer and/or Google) substituted Basic Latin (ASCII) counterparts for extended Latin characters where the latter normally would be used. Kind of like French and Spanish back in the days before you could use accented characters on computers? Don

Thank you for your responses to my question even I sent to wrong address.

Our keyboard has been tested on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The problem is that if the keyboard would be adopted soon in Ghana, most of the users will have Windows 2000 and XP. Does Microsoft own the Standard fonts? If so would be possible for my colleague and I to have their permission to add the Ghanaian characters? I will try to find out from Microsoft home page if there is any one I can talk to about the font modification.

I understand Microsoft is working to include most of the Unicode characters in the future OS. Is there anyway of finding out if the Ghanaian characters will be included? Would there be anyway of making sure that the Ghanaian characters are included?

Recently Microsoft signed an IT Research and developemnt pact with Ghana so that could be one channel for influencing this font issue.

These are the questions we do not have answers to. If anyone can help we will be grateful.

Thank you

re /m41

From memory some of the standard fonts, if not all, are licensed by Microsoft from font development companies. I seriously doubt if you could get permisison to modify the fonts. Microsoft Tpography tem would be the people to ask, but I suspect that the answer will be no.

From my undertsnading, the new core fonts for the next Windows OS will provide support for Unicode 4.0. So if that provides the characters you need, then there shouldn't be much problems. But this may not hold for all African languages. One of the key issues will be glyph variation. An example is the capital form of the latin letter ENG, which has one shape in Africa, and an alternative glyph in its usage in Northern Europe and Australia.

In theory, an OpenType font can contain both glyphs and present the appropriate glyph based on the language or typographic tradition of the text. Unfortunately existing applications and operating systems have no methods built in to them to make use of this feature in the OpenType specification.

A practical example. I've created some web pages for some Sudanese languages. I use the font Doulos SIL which has both OpenType tables and Graphite tables. When I display the web pages in the SILA version of Mozilla (with graphite support) i see the n-form of teh capital ENG. If I use Mozzilla/Firebird using Uniscribe support, or use Internet Explorer I see the N-form of capital ENG. So the default glyph is different in different web browsers based on which rendering engine is being used. At least with this font.

Andrew

re /m40

Don, I suspect thats whats happened. Despite the fact that Google interface is unicode, web designers choice of fonts overriding orthographic considerations?

Andrew

re /m39

with some of our internal keyboard development projects here, we've shifted our logic somewhat.

We see a need for "regional" keyboards and for language specific keyboards.

At the moment we are expanding the language support on a couple of our regional keyboard layouts. For instance the southern sudanese keyboard. Regional keyboards are useful in environments where a range of languages are spoken/written.

Although, if extensive typing is being done in only one language, then sometimes it is better to develop language specific keyboard layouts, esp if additional behaviours suited to a particular language are involved.

As an example, one language we work with has long breathy vowels, so a long breathy a is represented by two a-diaeresis characters (ää). I could type

'a' + 'diaeresis' + 'a' + 'diaeresis' -> ää

But in this language you never have a letter combination 'aä' or 'äa' only 'aa' or 'ää' so it was possible to construct a keyboard sequence

'a' + 'a' + 'diaeresis' -> ää

which is quicker and easier to type.

Likewise the behavour of the backspace key could be changed to delete a breathy character (ie ä) or a long breathy character (ää) in one keystroke, similarly shift delete could delete the diaeresis, ie convert a breathy vowel (with diaeresis) to its none breathy equivalent (without diaeresis).

These are some of the benefits that could be brought to a language specific keyboard that would probably not be possible or desirable on a regional keyboard.

Andrew

Kyekyeku, Thanks for the follow up. You didn't send your inquiry to the wrong address (Unicode list), but it also is on-topic for these fora that have a Ghana or Africa-wide focus. Each have somewhat different readership (although some overlap).

I think John and Andrew answered the proprietary issues re development of the fonts in question, but you raise an interesting question of whether the agreements between MS and various governments like the one you mention for Ghana include font and keyboard capacity for all languages in the countries concerned.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net


Quoting QuickTopic daily digest <qtopic+16-9xffAXi7whnv@quicktopic.com>: > --QT-------------------------------------------------------------
> Messages for the topic "Ghanaian languages & ICT" for 03-11-2004.
> Reply by email or visit
> http://www.quicktopic.com/16/H/9xffAXi7whnv
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> From: Kyekyeku Opoku-Pong Time: 06:54 AM
> Thank you for your responses to my question even I sent to wrong
> address.
>
> Our keyboard has been tested on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The
> problem is that if the keyboard would be adopted soon in Ghana,
> most of the users will have Windows 2000 and XP. Does Microsoft
> own the Standard fonts? If so would be possible for my colleague
> and I to have their permission to add the Ghanaian characters? I
> will try to find out from Microsoft home page if there is any
> one I can talk to about the font modification.
>
> I understand Microsoft is working to include most of the Unicode
> characters in the future OS. Is there anyway of finding out if
> the Ghanaian characters will be included? Would there be anyway
> of making sure that the Ghanaian characters are included?
>
> Recently Microsoft signed an IT Research and developemnt pact
> with Ghana so that could be one channel for influencing this
> font issue.
>
> These are the questions we do not have answers to. If anyone can
> help we will be grateful.
>
> Thank you
> ------------------------------------------------------------
...

The following concerning Kyekyeku's work appeared today on the GINKS list (associated with http://www.ginks.org/) and was forwarded to me by Kelly Morris. DZO

A Keyboard for Ghanaian languages

Two Software Engineers at Nokia Corporation, Finland, Kyekyeku Opoku-Pong and Isaac Quarshie have come up with a keyboard design for Ghanaian languages. The keyboard in its prototype state can be used for most of the Ghanaian languages including Akan, Ga, and some of the northern languages. The keyboard modifies the standard 101 QWERTY keyboard to include the "open letter o" pronounced "ooh" in Akan and the "open letter e" pronounced "eeh" in Akan and the "eng" character used in Ga, Adangbe and some of the northern languages. This means that the user Ghana type English as usual and also type in the Ghanaian languages at will. The keyboard also the cedi sign.

According to the designers, their aim was to contribute to the ICT revolution in Ghana. Kyekyeku Opoku-Pong and Isaac Quarshie remarked that in the beginning of this endeavour, they had no idea how to implement the keyboard but with perseverance, they have now achieved what one day will give every Ghanaian the chance to type freely any Ghanaian language on the computer.

The keyboard has been tested on Windows 2000 but should work with Windows XP. The designers hope that Ghana government all the right authorities will support their efforts. The sort of help they will include the recommendation of the right layout by an authority in Ghana, the set characters that will make the final design good for most or all of the major languages in Ghana and the funding and promotion of the keyboard.

Source: GHP

The following announcement was posted on H-West-Africa. The search window permits use of two extended Latin characters when the Akan keyboard checkbox is ticked in the online search window: q=>Ɛ and x=>Ɔ

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

kasahorow
ONLINE dictionary of standard written Akan

The kasahorow dictionary is a popular dictionary of the Akan language group. It is meant to help improve the accessibility of written material meant for oral communication to all who can comprehend any of the Twi/Fante varieties of Akan.

The public may contribute entries via the internet to the dictionary. All contributions are verified by the Kasahorow Editor.

1. http://www.yale.edu/akan
This version contains all verified entries of the dictionary. It is updated every five minutes with the latest verified entries.

2. http://kasa.ghanathink.org/akan
This version contains all entries, verified and unverified. Entries are accepted from all visitors to the page. Contributors willing to be listed on the project page may sign up and contribute as members of the online GhanaConscious community.

Dictionary Features :
• Multi-lingual entries
   o Standard Akan
   o Twi
   o Fante
   o English Synonyms
• Uniform Spelling Rules
• Single Orthography
• Multi-lingual search
   o Simple Search
   o Advanced Search

The dictionary has been designed to be as flexible for the user as possible. There is no need for any special software apart from a modern browser. The dictionary works best in Mozilla Firefox 1.0 or Internet Explorer 6.

Simple Search: To look up a word, type into the search box whatever information about the word that comes to mind, in Akan, Twi, Fante, or English.

How to use the dictionary

To look up a word, you search for it by typing in the search box on the web page. There are two ways of searching the dictionary:

1. Simple Search: This is a multilingual search of the dictionary. Your search term could be the Standard Akan spelling; the Twi spelling; the Fante spelling; the English synonym; a phrase in the entry's meaning, example or notes; or the general subject area of the term.

2. Advanced Search: To narrow down the search results results significantly by selecting specific values for the various fields of an entry. The searchable fields are as follows:
a. Standard Akan (AK)
b. Twi
c. Fante
d. English Synonym (EN)
e. Part of Speech - A K, EN
f. Definition - AK
g. Example - AK
h. Terminology - AK, EN
i. Notes - AK, EN

This is an example of an entry search by an English user.

kilomita, n- [General]

[Twi: kilomita] [Fante: kilomita]

SI nsusuho a ?kyer? b?y? kwansin ?ha-mu-eduesia-ebien

[English Synonyms: kilometer, kilometer]

Kofi nantew kilomita anan anapa biara de k? skuul.

Notes: SI: Système Internationale d'Unités

Users can toggle between the Akan keyboard layout ( '?' replaces 'Q' and '?' replaces 'J') and their own language layout by toggling the Keyboard Layout checkbox.
 
Default (checked): Akan keyboard layout

Nea onnim no sua a, ohu
 
kasahorow
Yale University Council on African Studies
34 Hillhouse Avenue
P O Box 208206
New Haven, CT 06520-8206
USA

The Dictionaries Project
The GhanaThink Foundation Tsooboi Projects
P O Box 397197
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA
c/o P O Box MC1904
Takoradi
Ghana

http://kasa.ghanathink.org/akan
kasa@ghanathink.org


The kasahorow Akan dictionary is supported by the Yale University African Studies Council. It is supervised by Dr. Ann Biersteker <ann.biersteker(at)yale.edu> Director of the African Languages Program at Yale.

It is a part of the Dictionaries Project of GhanaThink Tsooboi http://tsooboi.ghanathink.org/ . The current editor of the dictionary is Paa Kwesi Imbeah imbeah(at)ghanathink.org

Edited by author 04-30-2005 08:27 AM
The Ghana Localization Project seeks to translate Open Office into Akan. See http://kasa.ghanathink.org/localization/index.php?idx=0 (With thanks to Guido Sohne for his help in finding this information.)

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Hi Don,
Thanks for introducing me to this list. I'm one of the collaborators on the GhanaThink projects mentioned below. Anyone is invited to collaborate--private person or for-profit entity. The more ideas thrown in the better the resulting work we believe.

The kasashorow online dictionary is based on work done by CASAS (that's where the "Standard Akan" entry comes from). The long-range idea is to provide standardized dictionaries (based on work that CASAS has already done) for as many dialects as possible, or at least provide a model for doing so.

The localization project is pretty much engaged with providing tools to make this work easier. So it is also trying to arrive at what might be considered a standard keyboard layout. Current thinking is to define these layouts around language groups based on alphabet similarity. An interesting observation that comes up when working with the existing language orthorgraphies is that they are a very literal. Thus all the hue and cry about diacritics support may sometimes not be necessary. For example, CASAS concluded that indicating vowel nasalization in Akan wasn't necessary because the word could always be inferred from context. I agree with their reasons.

It is important to distinguish between linguistic needs for the representation of a language (such as is required for linguistic PhD work for example) and what the native speaker really needs. Such work as by Prof Nakuma (/m27) instinctively strikes me as a step in the right direction.

And oh, I forgot to mention that for example, in Akan, the keyboard solution I use for working on the dictionary addresses the regular needs/linguistic needs problem by using a key combo (ALT-GR + Key) to generate letters with diacritics to please the linguists. The regular user never ends up worrying about remembering special key combinations as everything that is needed is directly represented on the layout.

I'll be interested to find out what Mr Kyekyeku's solution ends up being like.

On the topic of locales:

Paa Kwesi and GhanaThink have an OpenOffice locale filed and also listed at http://kasa.ghanathink.org/locales/akan

I understand from Dwayne Bailey, co-facilitator (with Simos Xenitelis) of the localization track at Africa Source 2 http://wiki.africasource2.tacticaltech.org...in/02byGhqKUCvtkqTo that one of the Ghanaian participants there was also working on a locale for Twi.

Interfacing these two wold seem logical, but the issue of wider or more narrow locales (that is wider for an interintelligible language group such as Akan, or more specific such as separate ones for Twi, Fante, etc.) is one that will be faced by a number of languages in Africa.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Would there be any interest in organizing a Ghanaian localization meeting/workshop in 2006 (which is the Year of African Languages, by the way)? The focus would be FOSS and ongoing or potential translations into Ghanaian languages. Naturally such an event would be at the initiative of one or more groups within Ghana, but if there is need for technical support, facilitators, or (dare I mention it) funding, then I'd be willing to help source those.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net
PanAfrican Localisation Project

QXllISAoYXMgaW4gSSBzdXBwb3J0IHRoaXMgaWRlYS4KCk9uIDE3IEphbiAyMDA2 DA0OjQxOjA1 IC0wMDAwLCBRVCAtIEJpc2hhcmF0TmV0CjxxdG9waWMrMTYtOXhmZkFYaTd3aG52 HF1aWNrdG9w aWMuY29tPiB3cm90ZToKPiAtLVFULS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0t S0tLS0tLS0t LS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLQo+ICAgICAgIFJlcGx5IGJ5IGVtYWlsIG9yIHZpc2l0 Cj4gICAgICAgaHR0cDovL3d3dy5xdWlja3RvcGljLmNvbS8xNi9ILzl4ZmZBWGk3 2hudi9tNTYK PiAtLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0t S0tLS0tLS0t LS0tLS0tLS0tLQo+Cj4gV291bGQgdGhlcmUgYmUgYW55IGludGVyZXN0IGluIG9yZ2FuaXppbmcg YSBHaGFuYWlhbgo+IGxvY2FsaXphdGlvbiBtZWV0aW5nL3dvcmtzaG9wIGluIDIwMDYgKHdoaWNo IGlzIHRoZSBZZWFyIG9mCj4gQWZyaWNhbiBMYW5ndWFnZXMsIGJ5IHRoZSB3YXkp yBUaGUgZm9j dXMgd291bGQgYmUgRk9TUyBhbmQKPiBvbmdvaW5nIG9yIHBvdGVudGlhbCB0cmFu 2xhdGlvbnMg aW50byBHaGFuYWlhbiBsYW5ndWFnZXMuCj4gTmF0dXJhbGx5IHN1Y2ggYW4gZXZl nQgd291bGQg YmUgYXQgdGhlIGluaXRpYXRpdmUgb2Ygb25lIG9yCj4gbW9yZSBncm91cHMgd2l0 GluIEdoYW5h LCBidXQgaWYgdGhlcmUgaXMgbmVlZCBmb3IgdGVjaG5pY2FsCj4gc3VwcG9ydCwg mFjaWxpdGF0 b3JzLCBvciAoZGFyZSBJIG1lbnRpb24gaXQpIGZ1bmRpbmcsIHRoZW4gSSdkCj4g mUgd2lsbGlu ZyB0byBoZWxwIHNvdXJjZSB0aG9zZS4KPgo+IERvbiBPc2Jvcm4KPiBCaXNoYXJhdC5uZXQKPiBQ YW5BZnJpY2FuIExvY2FsaXNhdGlvbiBQcm9qZWN0Cj4gX19fX19fX19fX19fX19f 19fX19fX19f X19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX18KPiBUbyB1 nN1YnNjcmli ZTogaHR0cDovL3d3dy5xdWlja3RvcGljLmNvbS8xNi9YLzl4ZmZBWGk3d2hudgo+IFN0YXJ0IHlv dXIgb3duIHRvcGljIGluIDIwIHNlY29uZHM6IGh0dHA6Ly93d3cucXVpY2t0b3Bp y5jb20gfFFU Cj4KCgotLQpOZWEgb25uaW0gbm8gc3VhIGEsIG9odS4KQXNoZXNpOiBwa2ltYmVh EBhc2hlc2ku ZWR1LmdoCkdoYW5hVGhpbms6IGltYmVhaEBnaGFuYXRoaW5rLm9yZwpZYWxlOiBw 2lAYXlhLnlh bGUuZWR1ClN1dWNoLCBEaXhjb3ZlOiBpbWJlYWhAc3V1Y2guY29tCg==

Me kyia mo nyina!

I am an African American and an AVID student of the Twi language and Akan culture. Thank you for leading me to the online Twi dictionary at Kasahorow. I'm interested in learning anything I can about Twi and the Akan people.

Meda mo ase.

Dear Esi Akoto, Sorry for the lack of reply until now. Aside from what you might find on the web, there is a Yahoogroup dedicated to Twi instruction, and although it is not very active you might ask there for information to see what they provide: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yahoo-cls-Twi-classes/

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Wikipedia has pages for

• Akan http://ak.wikipedia.org/
• Ewe http://ee.wikipedia.org/
• Twi http://tw.wikipedia.org/
  

Of the three only the Twi one has much content. At some point I imagine someone will want to discuss consolidating content, or at least the structure for content (for sharing or harmonizing certain parts), for the Akan languages (including the Twis and Fante).

It will be interesting to see the evolution of content for crossborder languages like Ewe.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Noting just now on the page http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias this item:

Deprecated, moved and other
...
   5. Akan – ak – statistics – all articles – deprecated: Akan is now considered a family of languages. There is a Twi Wikipedia; if you'd like to write articles in another Akan language you can request a new Wikipedia.

I pass this on in case those knowledgeable on the language situation would disagree. (This is the sort of situation one will encounter with a number of African languages - how to treat languages with variant forms, or different languages that are interintelligible.)

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Re /m62, a more direct link to the discussion on the fate of ak.wikipedia.org is at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_f...e_of_Akan_Wikipedia . Apparently the discussion has been underway for almost 2 months. No clear indication there of when/how a decision will be made.

A similar proposal to close the Ewe Wikipedia has also been made and it is/was a "candidate for speedy deletion." See http://ee.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Main_Page ; but the Ewe page is not listed on http://ee.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cand...for_speedy_deletion

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Saw that too, and hopefully will get enough community support to get it back up and maintained.

On 2 Aug 2006 15:24:22 -0000, QT - BisharatNet <
qtopic+16-9xffAXi7whnv@quicktopic.com> wrote:
>
>



--
www.kasahorow.com > communicate
< replied-to message removed by QT >

Here is the relevant discussion:
http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/node/273

On 8/2/06, paa kwesi imbeah <pki@aya.yale.edu> wrote:
>
> Saw that too, and hopefully will get enough community support to get it
> back up and maintained.
>
>
> On 2 Aug 2006 15:24:22 -0000, QT - BisharatNet <qtopic+16-9xffAXi7whnv@quicktopic.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> www.kasahorow.com > communicate
>



--
www.kasahorow.com > communicate
< replied-to message removed by QT >

A webiste in Burkina Faso has a page with some Tavultesoft Keyman keyboard layouts for several languages there, of which the Dagaare one might be of interest to any working on Dagaare in Ghana (though I'm not sure the orthography is the same -?). Another area where cross-border communication / harmomization might be of use. See http://www.abcburkina.net/sedelan/contenu/services/edition.html

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Cc'ed the person I know who works on Dagaare (A B Bodomo, Hong Kong)
On 18 Aug 2006 16:27:58 -0000, QT - BisharatNet
<qtopic+16-9xffAXi7whnv@quicktopic.com> wrote:
>


--
www.kasahorow.com > communicate
< replied-to message removed by QT >

Edited by author 10-15-2006 10:26 PM
Thanks Paa Kwesi (re /m67). I'll follow up with him too (he and I have corresponded on some issues, and he has also been in contact with Andrew Cunningham re some aspects of Dagaare and ICT).

By the way I've added a page on Dagaare to the PanAfriL10n wiki at http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/Dagaare . Info is still limited at this time. Reason for adding it is that I kept running across mention of it in looking at other lists of major languages in Africa (see http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki....rLoc/MajorLanguages under the summary for 2006).

All the best.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Just came across mention of the Ghana Keyboards site: http://www.ghanakeyboards.com/

Apparently the keyboard effort began under the name "Project Nyalasi." Looks like I missed mention of this on GhanaThink last year.

They also have an Ewe dictionary project.

It would be great to have mention of all of this go to a place where wider audiences will see it. The PanAfriL10n wiki is intended to help in that way with - in the case of Ghana - a page like http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/Ghana and the language pages linked to it. Current plans are to link pages like that to a more free form (and semi-independent) set of wiki pages for localization communities, with the advantage that all these can all be searched within the common PanAfrican Localisation wiki. But each page will also serve as a sort of wiki-form gateway page with external links to projects like Kasahowow, Ghanakeyboards, etc. (as well as whatever other useful common interest content is generated. (More info on this soon.)

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Hey, glad to find this place where you all talk about ghanian langauges.
Ive starded a recent reaserch for finding servel of phrases in 250 languages, among them - Ga, Ewe, Twi, Kasen, Dangme, nzema and gonja.

The phrases are :
-How are you ?
-Thank you.
-I love you.
-What is your name?
-My name is...
-I dont understand.
-Do you speak English?.

Some of those i found already but some not, id love id some of you will the the time and help me find the following :

-How are you ? Dangme, Nzema, Gonja
-Thank you. Nzema, Gonja
-I love you. All of the following languages.
-What is your name? Nzema, Gonja
-My name is... Nzema, Gonja, Twi, Ga
-I dont understand. All of the following languages.
-Do you speak English?. All of the following languages.

Thanks alot in advence any kind of help will be highly aprriciated.

Ah, nice! In fact Project Nyalasi got kasahorow started by providing the first keyboard input methods that we used.

16 Oct 2006 02:15:52 -0000, QT - BisharatNet
<qtopic+16-9xffAXi7whnv@quicktopic.com>:
>


--
www.kasahorow.com > communicate
< replied-to message removed by QT >

Edited by author 01-27-2007 08:51 AM
A "wikigroup" on the PanAfriL10n.org wiki that has a more flexible structure than that set up on the main wiki (see /m69) is at http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/GH-L10n/ . Note that there is space for listings and links in the directory page.

This is intended as a kind of portal and a free space for efforts related to localization in Ghana and use of Ghanaian languages in ICT. It is hoped that, among other things, RSS from this forum and sites such as Kasahorow can be added. It is not intended to take the place of any other resource, but on the contrary raise the profile of Ghanaian efforts.

The PanAfriL10n.org wiki has received about 6000 unique hits over the last 3 months. The hope is that it can facilitate finding information on diverse African localisation efforts (by other African localizers, content developers, policymakers, etc.).

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net
PanAfrican Localisation project

Just added some RSS feeds to http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/GH-L10n/L10nForums . It's simple to do now that the necessary add-in to the software has been uploaded.

BTW, the PanAfriL10n site now has over 10K unique hits over about 4 months. Part of that added traffic is related to a workshop on localisation just held in Marrakech.*

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

* See http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/Marrakech/

Edited by author 03-02-2007 03:30 PM
I made a small change to the group name due to a problem the RSS software had with the "&" in the old name. So Ghanaian languages & ICT is now Ghanaian languages and ICT. Don

Edited by author 04-19-2007 10:51 AM
There is a nice article in the Accra weekly, Public Agenda, on women and ICT that discusses advantages of localizing in Ghanaian languages. See:

"ICT Can Transform the Lives of African Women," by Isabella Gyau Orhin, Public Agenda, April 4, 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200704090934.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/message/809

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net
PanAfriL10n.org

There is an Akan word processor / "light-weight text editor" called Nkraata V1.1, which is available for free download at http://www.nkraata.com/

Edited by author 11-23-2007 01:05 PM
Don't always believe what you read in the newspapers. The News Post of Frederick, Maryland, USA had an article* last August about the number of languages represented in among students in local schools. It included this statement:

"One student speaks Twi, an African language with no formal written alphabet."

Such misinformation can undermine efforts to promote localization and various uses of the language in ICT. Also, how did this kind of misinformation get out there - did the source simply not know that Twi has been written for some time? Are there people in Ghana and Ghanaian expatriates who have never been exposed to writing in major Ghanaian languages?

I do realize that there is an issue about a unified Akan orthography, but that's not the same as saying Twi has "no formal written alphabet."

Don


* "Learning the language" (Originally published August 27, 2007), By Nancy Hernandez http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/...l.htm?StoryID=72173

Edited by author 11-23-2007 02:01 PM
During the last four weeks there has been a discussion about keyboard layouts on the a12n-collaboration list. The main topic is plans by the One Laptop Per Child project for a multilingual keyboard for its "XO" laptop. The keyboard layout would be intended to support languages of Nigeria or the whole of West Africa. In fact it seems to be OLPC's hope to have a single QWERTY (English) layout for the region (which could later be adapted to the French AZERTY keyboard).

If you are interested, see http://lists.kabissa.org/lists/archives/pu...a12n-collaboration/ (Note- this list is not an official OLPC forum)

The OLPC layouts are shown at:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:WAfrica-Alt-1.png
&
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Nigeria_Keyboard

The main website of OLPC is http://laptop.org/

Don

I received a request for Unicode text of African languages written in Latin script with extended characters. The purpose is testing some new fonts. Does anyone have access to such digital texts of Ghanaian languages?

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net