Computing treats non-Latin languages as second-class citizens. Despite efforts, many languages like Urdu remain disproportionately underrepresented on the Internet, in electronic communication, publishing, and software design. The history of Urdu computing in particular is a story of repeatedly compromising linguistic tradition to fit available technology.
The result of this history is an inescapable belief in Pakistan today that English is the language of computing – implying that Urdu will never be sufficient for computing. Of course the reality is that computing is not sufficient for Urdu.
Matnsaz is an initiative to build consumer and developer tools for the Urdu language. These tools are built with the outlook to scale to other languages in the Arabic script. The goal is not just to build software, but to help our audience believe that high quality computing can be experienced in Urdu and built by Urdu speakers. We attempt to build an awareness of culture and history into our technology.
We are committed to open-sourcing large parts of our work.
Matnsaz is operated and distributed by Shanasai LLC.
Team
Matnsaz is founded by Zeerak Ahmed.
This project began in the Harvard University Design Engineering program, under the University's Graduate School of Design, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. This work stands on the shoulders of many before us, such as the Unicode Consortium, the Face/Interface conference, & the Center of Language Engineering.
Contributions to Matnsaz
Work on Matnsaz began in 2017, through contributions from a dedicated team. Engineering contribtuons below include work on our string-processing library Naqqash.
Android Engineering
Mustansar Saeed
Muhammad Salman
Tintash
Design
Zeerak Ahmed
iOS Engineering
Zeerak Ahmed
Contributions to Makhzan
Our state-of-the art autocorrection system is built on our open-source Urdu dataset, Makhzan. Generous contributions to the development of Makhzan have been provided by the following individuals and organizations.
Engineering
Waqas Ali
Hassan Talat
Shaoor Munir
Muhammad Haroon
Data Editing
Hamza Safdar
Akbar Zaman
Text Contributions
Gurmani Center at LUMS
IBC Urdu
Al-Mawrid Institute
Public Relations
Lotus
Legal
Setter Roche Smith & Shellenberger LLP
SK&S Law Group
Additional Support
We are particularly grateful to the following individuals for their support of the Matnsaz project in various forms, since its inception.
Abeera Kamran
Ateeb Gul
Bilal Tanweer
Bismah Azhar
Daniyal Noorani
Fareed Zaffar
Hasan Kapasi
Jawad Ahmed
Krzysztof Gajos
Maaz Azhar
Maleeha Noorani
Mannan Amin
Martin Bechtold
Munir Ahmed
Muzafar Husain
Najeeba Arif
Natasha Noorani
Neil Brenner
Saadat Mateen
Sadiya Ahmed
Sameer Noorani
Shiraz Ali
Susan Crawford
Tahir Umar
Tajammal Sheikh
Woodward Yang
Zara Ahmed