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FirstVoices Chat App
CATEGORY: Quality of life (Show all
)
TAGLINE: allow First Nations people to return to the everyday use of their heritage languages using their mobile devices
KEYWORDS: mobile devices, App, Indigenous, language texting
WHERE: Canada
FirstVoices Chat is an Indigenous language texting app for Facebook Chat and Google Talk. The free app for the iPad, iTouch and iPhone is now available!
FirstVoices Chat is an Indigenous language texting app for Facebook Chat and Google Talk. The free app for the iPad, iTouch and iPhone is now available!
The regular keypad on mobile devices is not capable of generating many of the special characters of Indigenous languages, making texting in these languages impossible for most First Nations people. FirstVoices Chat provides custom keypads capable of texting in over 100 Indigenous language in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the USA.
FirstVoices Chat was developed by the First Peoples’ Cultural Council with funding from the First Nations Technology Council. The development of the keyboarding technology at the core of FirstVoices Chat was funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage’s Aboriginal Languages Initiative.
FirstVoices Chat was developed in response to requests from British Columbia First Nations youth who were keen to text in their Indigenous languages. FirstVoices Chat provides texting capability in Facebook Chat and Google Talk. Version 1.0 includes 75 keypads covering every Roman based orthography used in Canada and Australia. Some of these keypads will work for some Native American languages. Subsequent versions could include keypads for most other Roman based Indigenous language orthographies in the USA and elsewhere. Interested in having FirstVoices Chat work for your language?
“We’re excited to launch this new piece of technology, which allows First Nations people to return to the everyday use of their heritage languages using their mobile devices,” said Peter Brand, FirstVoices Manager at the First Peoples’ Cultural Council . “The primary audience for the new app is First Nations youth, but we expect the positive effects of these innovative literacy tools to ripple out to speakers and learners of all ages.”
MORE INFORMATION:
Website FirstVoices: http://www.firstvoices.com/
Website dell'App "FirstVoices Chat": http://itunes.apple.com/app/firstvoices-chat
Email: peter@fpcc.ca
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