DNA Edit: Local becomes global - Website names in regional languages will promote diversity

Some regional languages in India will feature alongside Mandarin, Arabic, Russian, and Devanagari on the worldwide web. Come June global internet servers will give users the freedom to register the name of their website in a language of their choice. 

The nine Indian scripts that will contribute to the “non-English” bouquet are Bengali, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil and Telugu. These scripts will be fed in root servers of the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).

It’s a celebration of the freedom of choice and a nod to the diverse cultures that constitute India. Once the system is up and running — Label Generation Rules are finalised — it will allow people to choose the complete name of a website in any of the nine regional languages.

As of now one can book a website name in Devanagari script, but only .bharat in this script is available as extension. The Internet has shown a remarkable ability at assimilating and promoting non-English scripts and cultures. Not long ago, Oxford English Dictionary made headlines by including the word “chuddies” in its collection.

Cultural exchanges in a highly integrated world have brought so-called distant communities closer. Since the earliest instances of migration, mankind has witnessed how one civilisation has impacted the other. Language is a powerful tool to showcase that impact.

Having Indian regional languages on the Web will also promote India’s mindboggling diversity. Though English has been a unifying force in India, it serves a limited purpose in conveying/translating the nuances of a regional language. Having a website name in a regional language brings the local to the global stage.

Universal Acceptance Steering Group is working to finalise standard characters of non-English scripts to be accepted by internet system globally.