Impact Stories
Read stories from the indigenous communities Translation Commons has worked with and learn more about how our programs and products have helped to preserve languages and create lasting, tangible change.
Spotlight Story
Revitalizing Sunuwar Script
The Sunuwar, or Koĩts-Lo, language is spoken by 37,900 users (2011 census) in Nepal, and Sikkim, India. The Sunuwar language is classified by the EGIDS scale as a “threatened” language, indicating the language is losing speakers.
In 2020, Translation Commons, a partner with UNESCO’s International Year of Indigenous Languages and International Decade of Indigenous Languages, selected Sunuwar for a pilot project to demonstrate the scalability of encoding scripts for Indigenous languages and has facilitated the Sunuwar encoding project.
Getting Started
A key first step towards digitization was to get the Sunuwar script included in the Unicode Standard, a universal encoding system that allows text to be transmitted across digital devices. Fortunately, a Unicode proposal had earlier been written in 2011 by language advocate Anshuman Pandey. The proposal was reviewed in 2020 by a core team of linguists, educators, activists, journalists, and language practitioners who are members of the Sunuwar Welfare Society.
Regular meetings took place between Dev Kumar Sunuwar (Indigenous Media Foundation), Anshuman Pandey and Deborah Anderson (Script Encoding Initiative / Universal Scripts Project), Craig Cornelius (Google), and Jeannette Stewart (Translation Commons) which ironed out questions for the final Unicode proposal, a font, and keyboard. On Jan. 25, 2022, the proposal was approved by the Unicode Technical Committee for a future version of the Unicode Standard and implemented in September 2024.
1 Created and Conducted Sunwar Classes
In Kathmandu, and Sunuwar’s ancestral land. In addition, there is a demand for classes in Sikkim in India and the eastern part of Nepal.
2 Developed and Published Sunwar Content
The first edition of the Sunuwar Alphabet wall poster was published in 2000 copies, with plans for a second printing. A monthly magazine called ‘Hamso’ has also been established.
3 Collaborated with Nepali Government
Nepal Academy has requested the production of a Sunwar script magazine. Over a hundred pages of content is ready for publication.
4 Begun Development of Sunwar Digital Products
The demand for Sunwar script downloadable fonts, keyboards and integration into social media platforms is rising, and the community has begun development of these digital resources!
Thanks to the support of Translation Commons, the once impossible task of digitizing the Sunuwar oral language has become a reality. They guided us when we had no idea whom to approach or what to do, and now we can dream of preserving our stories and knowledge for future generations through Unicode.
See the Sunwar community and Translation Commons
collaboration in action
