A half-day workshop titled "Digitization of Ethnic Languages: UBoard and Fonts" was held today in the hill district of Rangamati under the initiative of the 'Enhancement of the Bangla Language in ICT Through Research and Development (EBLICT)' project.
Organized at the conference room of the Rangamati Hill District Council, the event showcased UBoard—an Android and Windows keyboard designed to make ethnic languages usable on digital platforms—along with Unicode fonts developed for the Chakma, Marma, and Mro languages.
The chief guest at the event was Mr. Sheesh Haider Chowdhury, NDC, Secretary of the ICT Division. The workshop was presided over by Md. Mahbub Karim, Project Director of the EBLICT Project.
"You have been with us in this project from data collection through various stages. As a result, we are able to present UBoard and the fonts for Chakma, Marma and Mro languages to you today. I hope you will continue to stay with us in the coming days by using these tools and providing feedback."
— Md. Mahbub Karim, Project Director, EBLICT
In the first session's technical presentation, the project's consultant Mr. Mamun Or Rashid presented a detailed concept paper on 'Digitization of Ethnic Languages.' He demonstrated how people from various ethnic communities can easily complete their official and personal communications on computers and mobile devices using these new fonts and the keyboard.
Notably, this keyboard includes layouts for several ethnic languages including Chakma, Santali, Marma, Mro, Malto, and Mahale, alongside Bangla and English. Additionally, users can add custom layouts to write in any language.
"The main reason for a language disappearing is the lack of practice. Therefore, alongside digital preservation, we must certainly keep ourselves engaged in practice."
— Sheesh Haider Chowdhury, NDC, Secretary, ICT Division
The Honorable Secretary Mr. Sheesh Haider Chowdhury further added, "Along with the government, people from each ethnic community need to build their own capacity so that they can take initiatives to preserve their own languages themselves."