“He could dismiss the obvious reasons a kid might want an iPhone, except for this — he’s a proud Cherokee and buying his daughter the phone just might help keep the tribe’s language alive,” AP reports. “Nearly two centuries after a blacksmith named Sequoyah converted Cherokee into its own unique written form, the tribe has worked with Apple to develop Cherokee language software for the iPhone, iPod and — soon — the iPad. Computers used by students — including Lauren — at the tribe’s language immersion school already allow them to type using Cherokee characters.”
“The goal, Cherokee Chief Chad Smith said, is to spread the use of the language among tech-savvy children in the digital age,” AP reports. “Smith has been known to text students at the school using Cherokee, and teachers do the same, allowing students to continue using the language after school hours.”
AP reports, “Tribal officials first contacted Apple about getting Cherokee on the iPhone three years ago. It seemed like a long shot, as the devices support only 50 of the thousands of languages worldwide, and none were American Indian tongues. But Apple’s reputation for innovation gave the tribe hope.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Robert S.” for the heads up.]
Hey, X, you’re a perfect example of the type of conservative who gives the others a bad name: intellectually lazy, cold, and incapable of making any comments that don’t involve your inaccurate ideology. How about you start getting your Mac news elsewhere?
BTW, if you can prove there were humans here before the Native Americans, I’d genuinely like to see that. I’ll check back later for your enlightening response.
(No offense meant to the conservative readers here. I consider myself independent, and evaluate all ideas as they come instead of viewing everything through an ideological lens. Please, don’t start yet another tedious war here.)
Ummm, DVORAK layout…. Please? Please?! Especially for the iPad, where the stupid QWERTY layout is a real pain.
Come on, Apple, make this happen!
Best pw0nage EVER on MDN:
FurryOne:
“Great!… Another group of Americans who want to be “different” from “other” Americans”
BlueFin Pro:
“Hey FurryOne, turns out, they were Americans, long before your sorry ass!”
LOL.
John:
Is there an app for that?
@john
there are apps for dvorak keyboards.
Never liked dvorak myself… never see one in the “wild” either, just nerds in basements with pictures lol.
And good to hear Apple not letting the language die.
Good story, great result. This is one of the many examples of the positive impacts of Apple technologies.
Towertone,
And what about Diné Bizaat (Navajo language), also very rich and poetic?
It would be nice, for the “actual americans”, to know more about the original People…