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Adaptxt – the Indic Text Input Tool for Handhelds and Tablets

In this tech-talk session, I want to talk about an application that has been a great help bridging the language gap and digital divide across the globe.

Chances are that you have already heard of Adaptxt. Adaptxt is an acronym formed out of two words of “Adapt” and “Text”. The idea is that the tool offered under the aegis of Adaptxt is adaptable to the text. And it comes really true to its name.

Adaptxt is a keyboard cum dictionary application made particularly for mobile devices and tablet computers. As you are already aware, almost all of these devices come with only one language input tool i.e. English. That is, if you want to write something on these devices in a language other than English, chances are that you will not find any way to type type because your language is not supported by the device manufacturer. Device manufacturers like Nokia, Samsung, Micromax or several other companies that come with different software platforms, take it granted that the people’s basic need is to be able to type in English and therefore they provide support just for that language. Developing support for other languages requires much more than just localization of the software platform. It requires a lot of feedback from native language experts (linguists) as well as other resources. Therefore features like being able to type in Hindi or Bengali or Tamil is not available by default on mobiles or tablets that come with Android, Symbian or Windows Mobile platforms. If you want to be able to type in Hindi or other numerous languages, you will have to resort to external softwares and install them separately on your own.

{jcomments on}For long since the advent of electronic communication for the common people, Hindi and other non-English languages were encoded in Roman itself. So much so that Hindi encoded in Roman and not Deonagari, the official script of the language, has earned a character of its own and has contributed much to what is now being termed as “Hinglish”.

Defining Hinglish

No definition of Hinglish can be given for sure. No surveys are present to show who uses it, and how much and in what context this is being used. Hindi/Urdu/Hindustani, all being written in Roman can be comfortably termed as Hinglish. Going by this definition, we can safely say that there is a lot text available online and much of it has already passed the electronic communication channel (through SMSes, mails etc.)

LangLex is a brain child of Dr. Neha Dixit, PhD in Computational Linguistics and an alumna of Banaras Hindu University and Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, Wardha. After serving Indian languages for several years in Individual capacity, the LangLex was formally incorporated in 2020 as LangLex Private Ltd. with Dr. Neha Dixit as the founder Director.

The company serves Indian languages by engaging with Industry partners in developing several types linguistic resources, including translation, transcription, annotation, creating goal-oriented datasets to be used in development of various types of activities such as named entity recognition, development of pronunciation lexicon, information extraction, politeness detection and so on.

LangLex is also working on developing an app to teach the basics of Indian languages to toddlers and kids in a fun-filled way. The company currently supports all major Indian languages wherever there is an industrial requirement, including a few foreign languages such as Persian and Bhasha Indonesia. Stay tuned for more details.

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