The National Language Promotion Department ( ), formerly known as the National Language Authority (or Urdu Language Authority), is an

autonomous In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be defi ...

regulatory Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. Fo ...

institution An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and ...

established in 1979 to support the advancement and promotion of

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

, which is the

national language '' '' A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection— de facto or de jure—with a nation. The term is applied quite differently in various contexts. One or more languages spoken as first languag ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. Its status now has been changed to attached department. Initially it was aimed at creating a synergy between national and provincial governments and institutions for using Urdu. However, with time, it expanded its horizons to include

standardisation Standardization (American English) or standardisation (British English) is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organiza ...

and

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

aspects such as

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

and

lexicography Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretical le ...

. It also provides recommendations for maximizing use of the language in all walks of life. In this respect, large amounts of

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a Socia ...

and

scientific Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

documents are translated from English and other

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

s for publication into Urdu. These efforts have resulted in greater awareness of the language's potential as well as its localisation. Recently, the status and name of organization has been changed from National Language Authority to National Language Promotion Department. The National Language Promotion Department is now an attached department of Ministry of National Heritage & Integration. Renowned short-story writer and educationist Dr. Anwaar Ahmad was the last Chairman of the NLA, as the post has been converted to Director General (D.G.).

Objectives

The institution aims to facilitate the use and adoption of Urdu language through

publication To publish is to make content available to the general public.Berne Convention, articl ...

s and other reading materials for

individual An individual is one that exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of living as an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) as a person unique from other people and possessing one's own needs or g ...

s and organisations. It also provides linkages for

cooperation Cooperation (written as co-operation in British English and, with a varied usage along time, coöperation) takes place when a group of organisms works or acts together for a collective benefit to the group as opposed to working in competition ...

and

collaboration Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. The ...

among various

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

and

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

al institutions for use of Urdu language and native languages of the country. Over the years efforts have also been made to promote and facilitate Urdu as an

official An official is someone who holds an office (function or Mandate (politics), mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual Office, working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (eithe ...

and

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

language, as a

medium of instruction A medium of instruction (plural: media of instruction, or mediums of instruction) is a language used in teaching. It may or may not be the official language of the country or territory. If the first language of students is different from the offic ...

, and as a medium of expression in the country. Moreover, the development of Urdu software is also encouraged at various levels to become more distant from Hindustani.

Organisation

The organisational structure consists of six divisions that include:

Dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

section (''Darul Lughaat''),

Translation Translation is the communication of the semantics, meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The English la ...

s section (''Darul Tarjuma''),

Literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

section (''Darul Tasneef''), and

Publication To publish is to make content available to the general public.Berne Convention, articl ...

s section (''Darul Isha’at'') respectively. There is also a department of

Urdu Informatics Urdu Informatics (Urdu: اردو اطلاعیات) relates to the research and contributions in bringing the utilities and usage of Urdu to the modern information and communication technologies in education and business. National Language Authority ...

(اردو اطلاعیات) to carry out research in developing the suitable hardware and software for the use of language in electronic media. A dedicated

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

contains extensive resources on Urdu, and issues regular Urdu Bulletins.

Key activities

The institution has published a wide range of general, scientific and technical dictionaries and an Urdu

Thesaurus A thesaurus (: thesauri or thesauruses), sometimes called a synonym dictionary or dictionary of synonyms, is a reference work which arranges words by their meanings (or in simpler terms, a book where one can find different words with similar me ...

. Especially, the ''Qaumi English-Urdu Dictionary'' has been based on

Webster's Dictionary ''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the US English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by Noah Webster (1758–1843), a US lexicographer, as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's n ...

. A vast amount of literature has also been produced to encourage reading habits among children. In 1980, the Authority standardised the Urdu keyboard layout for

typewriter A typewriter is a Machine, mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of Button (control), keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an i ...

s based on Naskh script. Later on, with the arrival of the

digital age The Information Age is a History by period, historical period that began in the mid-20th century. It is characterized by a rapid shift from traditional industries, as established during the Industrial Revolution, to an economy centered on info ...

, the layout was improved for

teleprinter A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point (telecommunications), point-to-point and point- ...

s and

Information processing In cognitive psychology, information processing is an approach to the goal of understanding human thinking that treats cognition as essentially Computing, computational in nature, with the mind being the ''software'' and the brain being the ''hard ...

. Subsequently, in 1998 efforts were initiated to standardize Urdu encoding, which resulted in the formation of ''Urdu Zabta Takhti'' (اردو ضابطہ تختی) (UZT). This development was inline with the efforts to cope with the emerging demands of Urdu applications from word processing to mega-scale projects such as Computerised National Identity Cards by

NADRA The National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA) () is an independent and autonomous agency under the control of the Interior Secretary of Pakistan that regulates Government Databases and statistically manages the sensitive registration ...

and a number of

E-Governance Electronic governance or e-governance is the use of information technology to provide government services, information exchange, communication transactions, and integration of different stand-alone systems between government to citizen (G2C), ...

initiatives by the national government. In July 2000, UZT 1.01 was standardised for all kinds of electronic computing, communications, and storage.Afzal and Hussain (2002) Based on this version, Urdu language support was incorporated into the Versions 3.1 and 4.0 of

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

. Localization of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

applications like Windows and Office in Urdu is also done by then NLA, now NLPD.

Notes

References

* Afzal, M. (1997). Urdu Software Industry: Prospects, Problems and Need for Standards. ''4th National Computer Conference''.

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

. * Afzal, M. and Hussain, S. (2002). Urdu computing standards: development of Urdu Zabta Takhti. (UZT) 1.01. Proceedings of the Multi Topic IEEE Conference (INMIC 2001) - Technology for the 21st Century. . pp. 216–22 * Ahmed, S. (1990). Library ''Muqtadra Qaumi Zaban'': An Introduction. ''Pakistan Library Bulletin''. Vol. 21 (3-4). Sept-Dec. * Aziz, T. (1987). ''Urdu type Machine kay kaleedi Takhtay'', ''Muqtadra Qaumi Zaban'', Islamabad. (''in Urdu'') * Muqtadra (2002). ''Akhbar-e-Urdu'': Urdu Software Number. January–February. ''Muqtadra Qaumi Zaban'', Islamabad. * Rahman, T. (2004)
Language Policy and Localization in Pakistan: Proposal for a Paradigmatic Shift
Retrieved on 3 June 2008. SCALLA 2004 Conference.

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. 5–7 January. * Sajjad, A. (1999). Efforts in the Standardization of Urdu code table, ''Akhbar-e-Urdu'' (Urdu News). ''Muqtadra Qaumi Zaban''. Islamabad. June. (''In Urdu''). * Zia, K. (1999).
Standard Code Table for Urdu
''. 4th Symposium on Multilingual Information Processing, (MLIT-4),

Yangon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. CICC,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Retrieved on 28 May 2008.

External links

* * Urdu Wikipedia
Urdu COMPUTING Magazine

Download editable and offline dictionaries: Urdu, English, roman Urdu, Persian, roman Hindi
{{Authority control Urdu Pakistan federal departments and agencies Languages of Pakistan Language regulators 1979 establishments in Pakistan Organizations established in 1979