هَلْ تَعْلَم أَنَّ هُنَاكَ أَكْثَر مِنْ ٢٠٠ مِلْيُون شَخْصٍ يَدْرِسُونَ اللُّغَةَ العَرَبِيَّةَ وَهِيَ لَيْسَتْ لُغَتهُم الأُمِّ؟ أَحَدُ المُشْكِلَاتِ الَّتِي تُوَاجِهُ هَؤُلَاءِ الدَارِسِينَ عِنْدَ مُحَاوَلَةِ القِرَاءَةِ باللُّغَةِ العَرَبِيَّةِ هِيَ عَدَمُ وُجُودِ عَلَامَاتِ التَشْكِيلِ وَهُوَ مَا يَجْعَلُ فَهْمَ الكَلِمَةِ وَنُطْقَهَا نُطْقاً صَحِيحاً أَكْثَرُ صُعُوبَةً. لِذَا يَسُرُّنَا أَنْ نُعْلِنَ اليَوْمَ عَنْ إِطْلَاقِ خِدْمَة تَشْكِيل (http://tashkeel.googlelabs.com) عَلَى مُخْتَبَرَاتِ Google، وَهِيَ خِدْمَة تَقُومُ بِتَشْكِيلِ النُّصُوصِ العَرَبِيَّةِ وَمَوَاقِعِ الوِيبْ.

وَبالإِضَافَةِ إِلَى مُسَاعَدَةِ دَارِسِي اللُّغَةِ العَرَبِيَّةِ، فَإِنَّ هَذِهِ التِّقْنِيَّةِ تَفْتَحُ المَجَالَ أَمَامَ العَدِيدِ مِنْ تَطْبِيقَات مُعَالَجَةِ النُّصُوصِ العَرَبِيَّةِ وَهُوَ مَا يُؤَدِّي إِلَى تَحْسِيْنِ الخَدَمَاتِ الَّتِي نُقَدِّمُهَا لِلْمُسْتَخْدِمِ العَرَبِي.

نَتَمَنَّى أَنْ تَحُوز هَذِهِ الخِدْمَةِ عَلَى إِعْجَابِكُم، وَنُرَحِّبُ بِمُقْتَرَحَاتِكُم لِتَحْسِينِهَا وَالَّتِي يُمْكِنُكُم أَنْ تُقَدِّمُوهَا مِنْ خِلَالِ اقْتِرَاحِ تَشْكِيل أَفْضَل عَلَى صَفْحَةِ تَشْكِيل. (http://tashkeel.googlelabs.com)

Posted by Mohamed Eldawy and AbdelKarim Mardini - Google Arabic Engineering Team

Tashkeel launched on Google Labs

Do you know that there are more than 200 Million people studying Arabic as a foreign language? One of the problems facing them is the lack of diacritic symbols on most Arabic text which is crucial to a) identify how words are pronounced and b) disambiguate their meanings. Arabic (along with some other languages) uses diacritic symbols to specify short vowels. In wiriting, those symbols are usually omitted, since the native speakers can usually guess from the context the meaning and pronunciation. The name "Tashkeel - تشكيل" means to "give shape or form" and the process of diacritizing is also called "Tashkeel".

We are happy to announce the launch of Google تشكيل (http://tashkeel.googlelabs.com) which is a tool to diacritize Arabic text. In addition to helping students of Arabic, this technology is a necessary pre-requisite in developing many Arabic text-processing applications which will enhance the services we provide to our Arabic-speaking users.

Give it a shot and we welcome your comments and suggestions.

Posted by Mohamed Eldawy and AbdelKarim Mardini - Google Arabic Engineering Team