The PanAfriL10n.org page on Hausa has been updated. See http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/Hausa (corrections, more updates are invited).

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net
PanAfrican Localisation project

Happy New Year 2007! Hope the holiday season was good (whichever holidays you observed)!

I've opened up a new "wikigroup" on the PanAfriL10n.org website/wiki for Nigerian localisation: http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/NG-L10n/HomePage

The object is to provide a more flexible space for Nigerian localisers to list their contact details, websites, and projects. This is in some ways an online "virtual plaza/market," interactive, with the added advantage that it links with the larger PanAfrican Localisation wiki and other country-specific "wikigroups."

Among other things, I am trying to set up an RSS feed from this forum to the new wikigroup.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net
PanAfrican Localisation project

Kwamfyutar Cinya Ɗaya ga Kowani Yaro
http://laptop.org/index.ha.html

Issue: Now I can type words from Nigerian native languages on my PC, but I cannot save these words into my custom dictionary. Every time I tried to save words with Hausa, Ìgbo or Yorùbá characters, I get a message that: “The custom dictionary is full. The word was not added.”

Solution: The custom dictionary is a notepad that is defaulted to ANSI encoding, to save non ANSI characters, like Hausa, Ìgbo or Yorùbá words that includes Ẹẹ, Ịị, Ọọ, Ụụ or tonal marks, you will need to change the custom dictionary encoding from ANSI to Unicode.

How to change Custom Dictionary encoding in Windows XP:

1. Click - .START button on the left bottom of you screen;
2. Click - My Computer from the menu;
3. Open – Local Disk (C:) from the menu;
4. Open – Documents and Settings folder;
5. Open – [Your User Profile] folder;
6. Open – Application Data folder;
7. Open – Microsoft folder;
8. Open – Proof folder;
9. Open - CUSTOM file;
10. Click – File at the top left corner;
11. Click – Save As from the menu;
12. On the line for Encoding – click the dropdown and select Unicode;
13. Click – Save button;
14. Click – Yes button;
15. Click –CLOSE ALL FOLDERS

KỌNYIN Nigeria Multilingual Keyboards
http://www.konyin.com

NITDA to promote Nigerian keyboard

Everest Amaefule, Abuja

The National Information Technology Development Agency has pledged to promote the study of Nigerian languages through the use of information technology.

Director-General, NITDA Prof. Cleopas Angaye, made the commitment on Friday in Abuja when a team from Lancor Management Limited, presented a special computer keyboard and software known as Konyin, that can write most Nigerian languages to the agency.

Angaye said the promotion of Nigerian languages through IT has become imperative at a time when several languages are becoming extinct because of generations that have been alienated by their mother tongue.

He congratulated the Lancor team for integrating both software and hardware to achieve the feat of the special Nigerian keyboard and pledged to promote the keyboard especially in the public sector.

Full Story... http://www.punchng.com/computer/article05

The PUNCH, Monday, January 16, 2006

FYI, from http://www.conferencealerts.com/seeconf.mv?q=ca1h8600 . I have not been able to access the site so don't have any details on topics to be covered. DZO

LANGUAGE,CULTURE AND GLOBALIZATION
21 to 24 November 2005
Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

Website: http://www.apnilac.4t.com
Contact name: ANOPUE CALISTUS CUSSONS
E-mail: callycussons_AT_yahoo.com (to e-mail the conference organizers, please
replace _AT_ with @)

Organized by: ASSOCIATION FOR PROMOTING NIGERIAN LANGUAGES AND CULTURE.
Deadline for abstracts/proposals: 20 October 2005 (Check the event website for latest details.)

If your kids speak only english and you want to teach them Hausa using your PC, there is only one keyboard in the world that gives you all Hausa alphabets and all English alphabets on a single layout for easy direct access typing.

The keyboard is KỌNYIN Nigeria Multilingual Physical Keyboard made by LANCOR Technologies of Boston, MA (http://www.konyin.com)

KỌNYIN Multilingual Keyboard

There are a couple of notable developments in ICT localization in Hausa, even if these are in an early stage:
1) There is a Hausa wordprocessor in an early stage. More on that as soon as I can get installed. (Delays have been on my end.)
2) I received a message from Ramon Mathias Soares Pontes concerning a keyboard layout done with MSKLC (on Windows XP) for Hausa Ajami.

More on both of these soon.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Please have a look at the following wiki page on the Hausa language:
http://www.bisharat.net/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/Hausa

... it is part of a survey of localization in Africa for the PanAfrican Localisation project, and as such is intended to provide a minimum of linguistic background plus useful information on use of the language on computers and the internet. Comments, corrections, and new information is welcome.

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

Greetings and Happy New Year.

Kindly see our modest contributions towards the promotion of Nigerian languages since 2001. Our award winning word processor and translator - Paradigm Lingua® makes it easy to produce documents in several African languages on the PC.
http://www.paradigmint.net/lingua.htm
For details, please see our News Page.

This item may be of interest. I understand that there is also an open source localization effort for Hausa (no details yet).

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

"Microsoft Endorses Due Process in IT" This Day (Lagos)
December 15, 2004, Posted to the web December 16, 2004
http://allafrica.com/stories/200412160060.html

" ... Microsoft Nigeria has also begun a process of software localisation in the three major Nigerian languages as part of its commitment towards reinvesting into the Nigerian society. By this, Microsoft intends to come up with a software programme that would enable functions to be performed in the three local languages of Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa. Ilukwe disclosed this in Lagos last week, saying that such a programme has already been produced in South African for Swahili language."