Facebook is looking for help to translate its interface into Inuktut



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Facebook asks Inuktut speakers to help translate the social networking site into the North language.

Starting Monday, which is also Nunavut Day, Inuk speakers can access the Facebook application. People can also vote on the suggestions, and the results will eventually be used for an Inuktut version of Facebook that will be launched next year. [19659002] Kevin Chan, head of public policy at Facebook Canada, said the idea follows a roundtable with aboriginal leaders who said they wanted a Facebook interface in their own language [19659002] "He will start presenting you with different words. the phrases and words that make up the Facebook interface – so what linguists call strings, "says Chan.

" That would mean simple things like the "share" and "comment" buttons, having I read in Inuktut. But there are also more complicated sentences that are also part of the Facebook interface.

"All these things would be translated into Inuktut.

Inuktut refers to all languages ​​spoken by Inuit, including the spoken Inuktitut dialect on Baffin Island.

Inuktut speakers on Facebook can already type messages in syllabic writing, but one of the things that Facebook heard during the roundtable was a desire for an interface for the site. The interface will not use syllabic, but will use the Roman spelling, the alphabet used for English – a decision that Chan explained was based on the recommendations of the & # 39; One of Facebook's partner organizations to make the social networking site accessible to as many people as possible.

Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, which oversees the Inuit land claim, and the Inuit Uqausinginnik Taiguus badisted with the project. Iliuqtiit, Language Authority of Nunavut

"Facebook's recognition for its role in promoting and using Inuktut is highly appreciated, particularly in Nunavut, where it is the public language majority, "said Aluki Kotierk, President of Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated. In a press release,

"It's refreshing because the Inuit of Nunavut use Facebook to connect."

Chan said that Facebook's use in the North is greater than the national average

. with organizations in the North before. Last year, it hosted the Boost Your Community Summit in Iqaluit, where a five-year plan to reduce the number of suicides in Nunavut was launched

Statistics Canada reports the number of Inuit in Nunavut whose the mother tongue is Inuktut. However, this percentage fell by 88% in 1996, and the use of language in homes fell from 76% to 61% over the same period

"Provide an interface and allow communications in our country.Language is one of the ways to encourage our people to use our language in all areas, including the widely used social media, "said Mary Thompson, President of the Inuit Uqausinginnik Taiguusiliuqtiit, in a press release

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