Digitising Kannada: A work in progress
From electronic typesetting to ASCII-based proprietary fonts to Unicode to AI-enabled translation, Kannada has come a long way in its digital journey. But Indian languages face unique challenges in today’s fast-evolving tech landscape, writes Shilpa Elizabeth
Two years ago, C.S. Yogananda, founder of Sriranga Digital Software Technologies, recalled stumbling upon a post on X that had originally been written in Kannada. After being translated by machine, the meaning of the post was entirely different from its original intent. Yogananda shared the Kannada phrase 'ಸಹಾಯ ಮಾಡಿದವರನ್ನ ಮರೀಬಾರ್ದು (Sahaya madidavaranna mareebardu)', which means 'One should not forget those who helped'. However, X's default translation in 2024-25 was 'Kill those who helped you'.
According to the terms and conditions of X, comments must be in English, written in full sentences, and cannot be abusive or personal. Users are reminded to abide by the community guidelines when posting comments. The platform has migrated to a new commenting system. Existing registered users of The Hindu, who are logged in, can continue engaging with articles. For those who do not have an account, they may register and log in to post comments. Older comments can be accessed by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.
Written by urgent.news from The Hindu's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
