Mangaluru: The Central government has still not included Tulu language in the 8th schedule of the Constitution but the California-based Google has given Tulu language recognition by including the language in Gboard-the Google Keyboard app.
Tulu is a language spoken by people of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts in Karnataka and parts of Kasargod district in Kerala.
The inclusion of Tulu in the 8th schedule of the Constitution has been a long standing demand by the Tulu speaking community. Recently the demand was placed before Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari Dr D Veerendra Heggade during his visit to Ujire. But the Central government has not done much on this. However there is good news for Tuluvas as Google has recognised Tulu and included the language in its Gboard app.
Gboard is a virtual keyboard app developed by Google. Various languages of India and the world can be typed using this app. Languages are regularly added to the app and the recent update has added several foreign and Indian languages.
Indian languages like Tulu, Haryanvi, Abkhaz, Marwari, Garhwali and Bhojpuri are the new additions to the Gboard in the recent update. Inclusion of their language in the Gboard has made the Tulu speaking people happy and proud as they feel that their language has been recognised by Google. Typing Tulu has become more easy with this option.
Earlier Tulu could be typed using Kannada script (using Gboard or other apps). Though Gboard uses Kannada script for typing Tulu, the benefit is the Tulu word suggestion. While typing a sentence in Tulu, the app provides Tulu word suggestions which are not available in Kannada font. The app provides the next possible word in the sentence. Hence for those typing in Tulu, it would be an easy task to type Tulu as they can click on the suggested word.
Activist fighting for inclusion of Tulu under 8th schedule of the Constitution, now want the Tulu font to be included in the Gboard.
