iOS 4.1 quietly added Cherokee language support
The Associated Press reports that Apple has quietly incorporated Cherokee language support into iOS. Cherokee tribal officials were worried about the demise of the Cherokee language as the tribe aged and its younger members increasingly adopted the English language -- and iPhones. However, instead of seeing technology as a threat, Cherokee tribal leaders opened talks with Apple three years ago about including native support for the Cherokee language in iOS.
This fall, Apple replied to the Cherokees' request and announced that it was adding the Cherokee language to the roughly 50 languages supported by iOS. Apple's announcement was a surprise to Joseph Erb, who works in the Cherokee Nation's language technology division. He told the AP, "There are countries vying to get on these devices for languages, so we are pretty excited we were included."
The written Cherokee language was created over 200 years ago when a blacksmith named Sequoyah converted the spoken Cherokee language into text. Use of the language has diminished in recent decades. Only 8,000 of the 290,000 members of the Cherokee tribe still speak the language -- a number the tribe hopes to increase with a little help from Apple.
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The Associated Press reports that Apple has quietly incorporated Cherokee language support into iOS. Cherokee tribal officials were worried...
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Why is this blog so obsessed about how "quietly" Apple does everything. Did you think Apple should've put out a press release? Put it on their front page? Had a special event? It's a language pack; what other way besides "quietly" would it be released?
December 24 2010 at 10:12 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyOld news again TUAW
December 24 2010 at 10:09 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyCherokee (8,000 speakers, less than Highland Totonac) supported on the iPhone.
Bengali (~185,000,000 speakers, more than French and German combined) unsupported on the Mac.
Don't you just love the priorities Apple sets...
It's not Apple's priorities at work here. It was the Cherokee. Re-read the article. If you want Bengali on your iDevice, then do the legwork like the Cherokee officials did.
December 27 2010 at 1:58 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWhat would be cool is for the Cherokee nation to publish textbooks for the rest of us that would like to learn their language. Even though I am an American, I may or may not be a native American, but I still would love to learn these original languages.
Same goes for the other native American languages that are still in use today.
When will Apple add English-language support to iOS? Or MacOS, even?
Forcing the world to think in American is oppressive and discriminatory.
Duchamp wrote: “One doesn’t drink here any more and it’s quiet, too quiet.â€
December 24 2010 at 1:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyMaybe you should do your research (or even read the entire article that you cite)….
This is not an upcoming feature. Support has been in since 4.1, which is even mentioned in the article.
It'd be nice if Apple also include Dvorak support in iOS.
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TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple.
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