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Writer's pictureIndigenous Exclusive
Aug 14, 20214 min read

Chakma Language developing in Modern Technology


" ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ช๐‘„ญ ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ง ๐‘„Ž๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„ง๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ด๐‘„›๐‘„ช๐‘„ข๐‘„ฎ๐‘„–๐‘„ด๐‘„ช๐‘„š๐‘„ด ๐‘„™๐‘„ช๐‘„ข๐‘„จ ๐‘„ข๐‘„ฌ๐‘„š๐‘„จ ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ฌ๐‘„ญ ๐‘„†๐‘„Ž๐‘„ง๐‘„‹๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ด ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„Ÿ ๐‘„Œ๐‘„‹๐‘„ด๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ ๐‘„ž๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„š๐‘„ด ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ง๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ง๐‘„‡๐‘„ง๐‘„˜๐‘„ง ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„ง๐‘„ฃ๐‘„ฌ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„ด ๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„ง๐‘„ ๐‘„ฌ๐‘… ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ฌ๐‘„ฌ๐‘„š๐‘„ง๐‘„–๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„  ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ช๐‘„ญ ๐‘„‰๐‘„ญ๐‘„‰๐‘„ญ ๐‘„ฅ๐‘„จ๐‘„™๐‘„ฌ๐‘„ฌ ๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด๐‘„ฅ๐‘„ฎ๐‘„ ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„Ÿ ๐‘„ž๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„š๐‘„ด ๐‘„Ÿ๐‘„ง๐‘„“๐‘„ข๐‘„ด๐‘„š๐‘„ด ๐‘„‘๐‘„ฌ๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„š๐‘„ฎ๐‘„ฃ๐‘„ฎ๐‘„Ž๐‘„จ๐‘„–๐‘„ด ๐‘„ž๐‘„ฎ๐‘„ข๐‘„š๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ ๐‘„…๐‘„Œ๐‘„จ๐‘„–๐‘„ด - ๐‘„‡๐‘„ข๐‘„ง๐‘„š๐‘„ด ๐‘„ƒ๐‘„Ÿ ๐‘„ž๐‘„Œ๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„š๐‘„ด ๐‘„ข๐‘„ง๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„ฌ ๐‘„‰๐‘„ง๐‘„ข๐‘„จ๐‘„๐‘„–๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ ๐‘„ฌ ๐‘„„๐‘„ ๐‘„š๐‘„ด๐‘„†๐‘„‡๐‘„ด๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„š๐‘„ด ๐‘„Ž๐‘„ณ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„ช ๐‘„ฆ๐‘„ฐ ๐‘„›๐‘„ข๐‘„ฌ๐‘… ( Since my childhood, I've observed how our Chakma language has been extremely neglected, that's why I thought myself it should be added to modern technology because it can be a gateway to protect our language.)" says Bivuti Chakma, the developer of Chakma font " RibengUni" & "Easy Chakma Keyboard".

As soon as you see the unknown text in the First place, one thing must be coming on your mind what kind of text it is!

The text is written in the alphabet of Chakma language.

Chakma language is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Chakma and Daingnet people. It is spoken by nearly 320,000 people in southeast Bangladesh in Chittagong Hill Tracts, another 230,000 in India, including 96,972 in Mizoram, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.

The Chakma alphabet also known as Ajhapath, Ojhapath, Ojhopath, Aaojhapath is an Abugida writing system that belongs to the "Brahmic family of scripts" of ancient India.

The alphabet of Chakma language was impossible to type on devices like desktop, laptop, and mobile phone a few years ago. To make it possible a Chakma font named "Ajhapath" was developed by someone in 1995, but it was non-standard, only supported ASCII and local computers.

Later Chakma people started creating Chakma fonts for their needs namely Ajyoban CN (1998) modified on 25 May 2004, Rajgir (1998), BijoyChangmaMJ (2001), Chadigang (3 Dec 2004) modified on 10 Jul 2005, Udoy Giri (9 Oct 2005), Nishan Changma (3 Oct 2006) Chakma(SuJoyan) (31 Oct 2007), Punong Jun ( 3 May 2010), BivutNabaKhamaC (10 May 2011) and BijoygiriDPC (13 Apr 2010) (3 Dec 2004) Duplicate of Chadigang (Chakma Language Developing in Technology, Bivuti Chakma, 2018). Unfortunately their fonts were unavailable on mobile devices and online though they supported Computers. But there were many limitations to type perplexing Chakma words with those fonts.

Thatโ€™s why Mr Bivuti thought Chakma fonts should be created immediately to keep pace with the world and make Chakma language discernible via modern technology because the language may face extinction in the future if necessary steps not be taken to protect as it isnโ€™t practiced academically.

Hence he joined โ€œFont Lab Forumโ€ and learned to create fonts precisely. In 2011, he was able to add OpenType features to the Chakma fonts and made some anticipated fonts namely

1. RibengUni-Regular

2. Alaam

3. BivuNabaKhama

4. KallyanShreeBNK

5. BivutNabaKhamaC

6. KallyanShree

7. Bargee

8. BivutiChakmaDhanno

9. SuzMoriz(Bivuti)

As a result the fonts mentioned above supported Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer easily.

In 2012, he succeeded to make the font (RibengUni) both ASCII and Unicode standard, also made usable on multiple devices including mobile device.

After creating RibengUni font successfully he felt the essentiality of developing โ€œKeyboardโ€ because the fonts have to be entered on computers through input device. And in order to do this, keyboard or any other input device is needed.

Thereโ€™s a one sort of joy in expressing oneโ€™s feelings in oneโ€™s own language that cannot be found in any other languages. It brings such happiness. Therefore he pondered if others languages are available on keyboards, then why shouldnโ€™t be his?

Consequently he embarked on a Chakma keyboard development mission that no one had previously successfully built with correct layout format, key map, source code, built-in map, and guide line. So he tried to reach Marc Durdin, a lead developer for Keyman software designed to help people digitize traditional languages and inquired him how to create layout format, Key map and add fonts on keyboard.

At last in 2016, he was able to develop Chakma keyboard named โ€œEasy Chakma keyboardโ€ in assistance with Dr. Andrew, Marc and Makara. The keyboard is well standard and supported on Windows, Mac, iOS, iPhone, Android, and web online/offline.

Additionally he supervised adding the keyboard in Gboard, a virtual keyboard app developed by Google for Android and iOS devices. For that apropos he attended โ€œGoogle Android Forumโ€ and developed a Prototype keyboard with Senior Software Engineer Craig Cornelius, Sascha Brawer, Marek Z Jezore & Zachary Quinn Scheuren and it was approved by Google. He also appealed to Google to develop a Chakma keyboard on its own. Finally, in the Android 9.0 (pie) version released on August 8, 2018, the Non Stans Chakma Regular Font and Chakma keyboard was added in Gboard. This Keyboard now has no problem typing any complex word in Chakma in all apps like Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, Imo etc run by Android OS and iOS.

Chakma language is officially recognised by the Government of Tripura in India. However, the Bangladesh Govt. did not recognise the language yet. Children of Chakma community donโ€™t get any scholastic education to write Chakma script. Because of which Chakma script is in endanger.

What a great achievement this is for an indigenous community is impossible to comprehend if you're not actually an indigenous. The development of the language in modern technology is a great acquisition for an indigenous community that is struggling to survive.

That's why Chakma script developing in modern technology is like a runaway from extinction as Chakma people are trying to write, practice and revive it now. It has seen more light because Facebook recently added Chakma as the second language after Bangla for the Bangladeshโ€™s indigenous community. Thanks to Jyoti Chakma, a web developer who worked relentlessly over a decade to incorporate Chakma language in social media.


Written by Saptorshi Dewan

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