Month: January 2024

I would like to discuss Linguistics and natural language processing (NLP) in today’s blog. These are two fields that are of particular interest to me. They both study and understand human language. Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure. NLP is used to develop computer systems that can understand, interpret, and generate human language. The intersection of these fields is fascinating and a rapidly growing field. 

Linguistics analyzes language structure, meaning, and use. In study of Linguistics we aim to understand the universal properties of language, describe different languages, and explore how languages evolve over time.

Linguistics is divided into several components:

-Phonetics and Phonology: Study of speech sounds.

-Morphology: Study of word structure and formation.

-Syntax: Study of sentence structure.

-Semantics: Study of meaning.

-Pragmatics: Study of language use in context.

Natural Language Processing (NLP): NLP is a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI). It deals with interactions between computers and human language. It is used to develop algorithms and models to enable computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language.

NLP has various applications, including:

-Machine Translation: Translating text from one language to another.

-Sentiment Analysis: Determining the sentiment expressed in text.

-Named Entity Recognition: Identifying entities (e.g., names of people, places) in text.

-Chatbots and Virtual Assistants: Interacting with users in natural language.

Linguistic knowledge is often used to develop NLP systems to improve language understanding and generation. Linguistic theories and principles, such as syntactic and semantic structures, are applied in the design of NLP algorithms. Recent advancements in machine learning, particularly with deep learning techniques, have significantly improved the capabilities of NLP systems. Large-scale language models, like GPT-3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3), have surpassed human expectations in understanding and generating languages.

Ahirwati, sometimes known as Hirwati, is an Indo-Aryan dialect of India. It is spoken within the Ahirwal region, located southwest of Delhi. It is one of the Rajasthani languages and is likely a dialect of Mewati spoken by the Mev’s of Alwar area, but in many respects, it is intermediate with the neighboring varieties of Bangru and Bagri and is incredibly close to Shekhawati. Ahirwati faces various challenges threatening its continued existence.

Yaduvanshi Ahirs used this dialect, hence the name Ahirwati. Ahir is an ethnic group in India with a rich cultural heritage. The language is a crucial aspect of the community’s identity and communication.

The exact number of speakers of Ahirwati is unknown. In the past, it was written in Devanagari, Gurmukhi, or the Perso-Arabic script.
A peculiar feature of Ahirwati’s grammar is using the same postposition to identify both the agent (in certain tenses) and the object.