Syllabic users may soon talk via computer

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If Dirk Vermeulen has his way, syllabic language users may soon be able to communicate via computer, no mater what language they're using.

He's chairman of the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Encoding Committee. He began working to standardize syllabic languages in 1985 when he realized there was a need for different aboriginal cultures to communicate electronically.

"It is an attempt to standardize the use of syllabic script within computer technology, so each technology handles the syllabic characters in a similar way. Not necessarily on the software side, but how the final data files are encoded," Vermeulen explained.

"If you take a text file from one person's equipment and shipped it to another computer 1,000 miles away and tried to run the program, there is no way the text characters would make sense as both computers are configured to their own specific syllabic characters, " said Vermeulen. What might be perceived as an A in one culture could be interpreted as a G in another.

It is this very lack of uniformity which has caused difficulties in electronic communications between difference syllabic users.

But all that is going to change dramatically over the next few years, according

to Louise Campbell, project leader for the federal government's Department of Communications.

She envisions a time when two distinct cultures can send disks to each other,

pop them into the computer and immediately utilize the information.

"Computer-assisted learning, transliteration, desktop publishing, you can exchange educational material. The computer, in the long term, could even do translations," Campbell said.

Vermeulen said after the 11 user groups of syllabics were identified and approximately 400 characters were put further, the task of combining this into a large set started.

The next step will be to take the standardized codes to the Canadian Standards Association for approval.

"If they feel that it's been handled properly, they will take it to the International Standards Organization for acceptance," Vermueulen said.

When the syllabics become universally accepted, it will become part of the next generation of computers. Makers of IBM and Macintosh will have to recognize the codes and incorporate the new standard into their systems.

At that point, any computer purchased off the shelf will have the codes. Any syllabic group which took part in the development process can purchase a computer and

it will have syllabics as part of its internal workings.

But there are pitfalls in the way.

"One is developing different sort standards for each language group and getting people within that group to accept the sort standard," said Vermeulen.

In Inuktitut, for example, in Quebec, A, O, E is said and in Baffin it is E. O, A. Setting up sort standards is one thing, but it will require a little more work to get the different groups to accept that standard.

The other major obstacle is keyboard assignments and getting an agreement as

to where a character should be located on the keyboard.

Vermeulen hopes to share the super set with the Canadian Standards Association and International Standards Organizations this fall or the following year.

"We could, within two and a half years, see equipment on the shelf that is capable of handling the syllabic codes," he said.

The federal government's Department of Communications got involved in the project in 1989 by researching and developing an initiative to identify all the Native languages that were using syllabics. The next step was to bring them into a forum where they could take advantage of this opportunity and have syllabics build on new technology.

Campbell said the research also indicated syllabic computer users were a high-growth industry.

"There was a lot of money spent through various language agencies, schools in aboriginal communities and business."

Since the growth has been recognized, standardizing syllabics will speed that growth and bring aboriginal cultures right up to the leaing edge of technology. Any new applications brought into the mainstream will be immediately accessible by syllabic users.

To standardize the characters, one character equals one code. Campbell points

out the attempt is to standardize the characters, not the writing system.

For example, in the Roman alphabet from A-Z putting in a formular1,2,3 for each letter. Every computer in Canada would acknowledge the number 1 as being the letter A.

"We're trying to do the same thing with syllabics and we have identified some 400 characters across the country that are being used by 11 Native languages," said Campbell.

Each character has to have an assigned number that every computer in Canada and then the world will have to accept in bits and bytes for this character.

"Right now there are a lot of languages in the world that have computer codes so they can transmit, over telecommunications, their characters. Right now syllabics can't do that easily -- that's why this is going on," added Campbell.

The national syllabics coding committee is composed of language experts from Inuktitut, Cree, Ojibway, Oji-Cree, Naskapi, Gwichin, North Slavey, South Slavey, Chipewyan, Dogrib and Carrier Dene.

Once the process is complete it wouldn't matter if the language was Cree or Inuktitut. It would be a simple process to load the right keyboard driver to get the appropriate key response and the right syllabics on the computer screen.