विकिपिडिया:Need of Nepal alphabet Unicode (Prachalit, Ranjana etc)

Nepal Bhasa and its Scripts

Nepal Bhasa has historically been written in a set of evolving scripts called Nepal lipi (or Nepal alphabets). These scripts have been used to write not just Nepal Bhasa but also a huge bulk of Nepalese ancient manuscripts, Buddhist and Hindu literature, both in Sanskrit as well as in Nepal Bhasa. Almost all of the ancient and medieval literature of Nepalmandala have been written in Nepal alphabets. The most famous of these alphabets are Prachalit Nepal Lipi (literal meaning "famous") and its calligraphy Ranjana. It is worthy to note that Ranjana (also called Lantsa) script is used as one of the primary scripts of Mahayana Buddhism. Sanskrit texts written in this "calligraphy" script have been found as far as East Asia.

But in this wikipedia , Devanagari is used since

1. there is no technology available till date to use the original script
2. people using the original script is very less

Nepal Bhasha

Nepalbhasa is one of the languages of Nepal. However, its use has been declining from being the court language of Medieval Nepal to a language without proper curriculum at the moment. State policy to discourage education in mother-tongue from 1960s-1990s (Panchayat era) has resulted in a generation of native speakers who can speak in Nepalbhasa but are almost illiterate in it (reading and writing). There has been a strong effort to undo the damage in recent times. However, with the advent of web era, lack of availability of technology to support Nepal Bhasha like

1. Fonts
2. Typesetting
3. Unicode Support

has made the things worse .

Being able to use the Ranjana, Prachalit and Devanagari scripts reliably on the Internet, in email, and on mobile devices -- because the scripts are in Unicode and ISO 10646 -- could be a great opportunity. It would create an environment, where the young people learning their mother-tongue at the moment, can do so in their native script. Also, it would provide a platform for intellects and people interested in the same to learn and teach each other. It would also provide with an example that a lot of other languages in Nepal could work on (such as Limbu, Maithili etc).

Please vote if you agree/disagree the Usage of Ranjana/Prachalit script in Nepal Bhasha Wikipedia :
(If you agree, can you write a sentence why you endorse a project to encode these scripts and if you would contribute articles in Prachalit in wiki or submit texts in Ranjana to wiki Source ?)

Agree(+)

1. --Eukesh (talk) १७:५४, ३० जुन २०१४ (UTC) (Strongly agree that a system of inter-convertible script between Ranjana, Prachalit and Devanagari should be incorporated into the system)
2. I do strong support the initiative that we should be able to write in our own scripts of Ranjana and Prachalit - Allen Bailochan Tuladhar — Preceding unsigned comment added by Allentuladhar (talk • contribs) ०३:२१, १ जुलाई २०१४
3. Ranjana is Such a beautiful script to see and read and I very much support the initiative of writing in our own Script - Rachhek Shrestha— Preceding unsigned comment added by 110.34.11.32 (talk • contribs) ०५:४८, १ जुलाई २०१४

1. I strongly support the encoding of these scripts, particularly the ones in modern usage, and feel that this needs to proceed as soon as possible and the encoding process allows. More than 25 years ago my freind Jaya Prakash Shakya first asked me to make a Ranjana font. Although most of my work has been with Tibetan, over the past 14 years whenever time allows I have also been working on a very extensive Lantsa style Ranjana font supporting thousands of conjucts including variant forms, with the aim of making digital versions of Buddhist and other texts written in that script freely available in an accurate form. One of the main obstacles that prevents completing this work is the lack of a formal encoding standard for the script. Once it is feasible I would be happy make texts I have available through Wikisource. It would also be great to see the Newar Wikipedia, dictionaries, and other sites available in the Prachalit script. I was previously instrumental in getting the Tibetan script encoded in the Unicode / ISO 10646 Standards and in getting rendering support and fonts for that script added to MS Windows and Linux and would be happy to contibute whatever I can to seeing these scripts encoded and supported.

Chris Fynn (talk) ०६:०८, १ जुलाई २०१४ (UTC) (updated: ०६:५८, ५ जुलाई २०१४ (UTC))

Thanks a lot Chris for your opinion. It is great to have you join the discussion here. Well regarding the glyph vs character set, there has already been a lot of discussion about the same. For every sound encoded in any alphabet, there is (or can be) a corresponding IPA equivalent. By that regard, we should have only IPA symbols and glyphs for everything else. However, the development of character sets have not followed that direction. I, personally, think there should be a character set for all the Nepal alphabets, somewhere in future. One can always start with the common ones like Ranjana and Prachalit, though. During the development phase, however, glyphs can be used. Thank you--Eukesh (talk) ०७:४९, १ जुलाई २०१४ (UTC)+

5. Suwarn Vajracharya: I strongly support the use of Nepal Prachalit (Nepalese Prachalit) the original/native alphabet of Nepal in Wikipedia for: It will greatly contribute to the mother tongue literacy of the Nepal Bhasa speakers, educate the interested party to read thousands of yet to be accessed manuscripts written not only in Nepal Bhasa and Sanskrit but also in Nepali (Khas),Pali, Maithil, and Bhojpuri languages for the past 1700 years history of written tradition of Nepal. The use of Nepal Prachalit together with Ranjana (Lansa) will add facilitate to read similar manuscripts written in Ranjana letters. The use of Nepal Prachalit in Wikipedia will without doubt support to expedite the encoding process of Nepal Prachalit in the Unicode, which have taken longer time than we expected. Among others, I have been involved in proposing and supporting the need of encoding letters of Nepal commencing with Nepal Prachalit officially since our first consultative meeting in Kathmandu since March 20, 2010. Before and after this meeting I have contributed to developing of two open type fonts. While supporting others and taking initiative my own to promote the letters of Nepal, and thanks to the support of Nepal Study Center Japan, I have been able to create a website named http://nepal-lipi-online.com/ with an online magazine in Nepal Prachalit. This, I hope, would convince the need of using Nepal Prachalit letters in Wikipedia, which I believe will enhance the use of Nepal Prachalit wider in the global network of internet. Wikipedia will be remembered better among the contributers to the scripts of Nepal.It is a great pleasure for me to participate in this voting. I am also happy to contribute to Wikipedia as a support to Wikipedia's contribution to Nepal Bhasa and the Nepal Prachalit written information in the future.July 2, 2014 (NS 1134 Dillatho 5).

6. (Bal Gopal Shrestha) I strongly support this initiative. It has been late but never too late than never.

7. I strongly support for the need of RANJANA and PRACHALIT unicode in Wikipedia. There are a lot of thing in these scripts to know about the history and our ancestors lifestyle and more. If you can read and write RANJANA and PRACHALIT script then you can feel proud on it.

8. I, Kamal Ratna Tuladhar, fully endorse the proposal to include Prachalit and Ranjana on Wikipedia. These scripts represent the high cultural achievement of Nepal. From centuries past, Nepalese artisans and traders have popularized their use in Central and East Asia as they carried Nepalese architecture and Buddhist thought beyond their homeland. Including Prachalit and Ranjana on Wikipedia will aid and encourage the study of ancient religious literature as well as promote the endangered modern language and secure Nepal's heritage.

9. Strongly agree on the theme of development. I would like to suggest the script must be in UNICODE system rather than traditional keyboard system. Inter convertibility between Ranjana, Prachalit Lipi and Devnagari are highly appreciable. Suresh Pradhan YALA

10. । Subhash Ram Strongly agree to incorporate Nepal Lipi.

11. (Dhruba Pikha Shrestha) I am very happy to see this initiative. I strongly support this.

Neutral(=)

Since I am not a Nepal Bhasa Wikipedia contributor, I have no right to vote but I love to have Prachalit Lipi in Wikimedia Projects. It would be great if we would have Nepal Bhasa Wikisource and it uses this script and have a huge collection of open license books. I support the Nepal Bhasa (Newari) language Wikipedia Contributors community's decision for their choice of script.--Ganesh Paudel (talk) ०४:३४, १ जुलाई २०१४ (UTC)

Aspects of the script development

From the voting above, I believe that there is a good number of people who would like to see the development of Nepal Unicode scripts. I would like to request the interested users to please sign up below for specific tasks that they would like to volunteer. Also, please sign up, if you are interested in using (entering text in these scripts) these scripts in the wikis mentioned below.

Prachalit Nepal Script use in Nepalbhasa wikipedia

1. Eukesh (talk) ०९:२५, ५ जुलाई २०१४ (UTC) (I initiated the phonetic input system in South Asian wikipedias in the past. I would be delighted to start a similar system for Prachalit). Also, I would be interested in developing an interconversion system between different alphabets (like the ones used in Chinese and Kazakh wikipedia)

2.Suwarn Vajracharya: I will be happy to contribute writing Nepal Bhasa contents in its original letters, the Prachalit Nepal script for Wikipedia. My experience in using Prachalit Nepal goes back to the time since I started a Nepal Bhasa radio program along with Nepali program through Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (1983-1988) during which Radio newsletter 'Sandesh' was published in Nepali, Nepal Bhasa and English. I handwrote the Nepal Bhasa contents in Prachalit Nepal letters.

Prachalit Nepal Script use in Wikisource

1. Eukesh (talk) ०९:२५, ५ जुलाई २०१४ (UTC)

Ranjana Nepal Script use in Nepalbhasa wikipedia

1. Eukesh (talk) ०९:२५, ५ जुलाई २०१४ (UTC) (I initiated the phonetic input system in South Asian wikipedias in the past. I would be delighted to start a similar system for Ranjana). Also, I would be interested in developing an interconversion system between different alphabets (like the ones used in Chinese and Kazakh wikipedia)

Ranjana Nepal Script use in Wikisource

1. Eukesh (talk) ०९:२५, ५ जुलाई २०१४ (UTC)